capital blight

Author’s Note: This is a follow-up to another recent article entitled “What Does It Look Like to Be An Environmentalists in Prison” both of which are aimed at generating interest in the upcoming Convergence Against Toxic Prisons June 11- 13, 2016 in D.C.

Prisons inspire little in terms of natural wonder. It might be a weed rises through a crack and blooms for a moment. It might be a prisoner notices. But prisoners, one could assume, must have little concern for the flowers or for otherwise pressing environmental issues. With all the social quandaries present in their lives—walls of solitude, the loss of basic human rights—pollution, climate change and healthy ecosystems must seem so distantly important: an issue for the free. In actuality, prisoners are on the frontlines of the environmental movement, one which intersects with social justice.

Prisoner Jonathan Jones-Thomas found himself unexpectedly in the middle of a scandal exposing massive sewage spills into Washington State’s Skykomish River by the Monroe Correctional Complex. Prisoner Bryant Arroyo ended up rallying hundreds of prisoners to join environmental groups on the outside in fighting plans for a coal gasification plant next to where he was confined. Prisoner Robert Gamez chose to speak out in the midst of an unfolding environmental justice disaster in the Arizona desert, where military waste, Superfund sites and proposed toxic copper mine waste injections ringed the solitary confinement cell he was forced to call home.

And they weren’t alone. When the Human Rights Defense Center (HRDC), a prisoner-led advocacy group with 25 years under its belt, announced that they were starting a “prison ecology project,” letters began rolling in from incarcerated people around the country. These prisoners were witnessing the sort of conditions that many Americans who’d fall into the category of environmentalists don’t expect to hear about in their own country: factory labor far below minimum wage and no safety gear; black mold infestations, contaminated water, hazardous waste, and sewage overflows; deadly risks of floods, extreme heat; and a whole host of illnesses related to living in overcrowded toxic facilities.

Regulatory Black Holes

According to HRDC’s director Paul Wright, a former Washington State prisoner himself, many prisons actually do operate more like maquiladora sweatshops south of the U.S. border, where both labor standards and environmental regulations take a back seat to other interests.

Wright is not a stranger to the border. Though he grew up in Lake Worth, Florida, his mother’s side of the family is from the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. Wright was arrested at age 21 and sentences to 17 years, stemming from a gun fight which resulted from a murder charge, while stationed in the Seattle area during a stint in the military. Prior to that he had spent summers visiting relatives in Mexico, and lived there for a period in his youth.

He is also quite familiar with prison factory conditions. As a prisoner, he co-founded the magazine Prison Legal News (PLN) in 1990 which made what he calls “prison slave labor” one of its central themes, seeking to expose corporate contractors who took advantage of the nominal wages and blind eye to labor conditions. Wright still pays attention to injustice stemming from prison industries, but he has also turned his eye to what he sees as another problematic, and underexplored, aspect of prison.

“There are serious environmental impacts happening there, out of sight from the general public, similar to the case with sweatshops the behind border wall,” Wright says. In the case of prisons, operations occur literally behind tightly closed and well-armored doors. “They’re like black holes of government regulation.”

But there are some key distinctions between prisons and sweatshops. Namely, in sweatshops the workers tend to go to some form of their own home at the end of the day. But prisons operate as full time warehouses for people, often piled in by the thousands. That in itself, he says, has serious environmental implications.

The U.S. maintains a massive prison system—world’s largest, in fact. The political value of tough-on-crime rhetoric and legislation that drove the U.S. prison population to the beat out every other country on the planet was often central to political campaign platforms in the ‘80s and ‘90s. A bloated prison system became accepted as the norm, and on top of that, its growth was accompanied by an increasingly disproportionate representation of Black, Latino and Indigenous people, predominately from low-income communities. The most recent demographic statistics available show this to be the case, not only on a national level, but in each and every state as well.

Today, the nation is four decades into the era of mass incarceration, where the prison population jumped 700 percent since the 1960s. Perhaps it’s high time we start asking: What are the environmental impacts of this racialized practice of justice that has been so extreme as to earn the moniker of “The New Jim Crow”?

In Wright’s opinion, the answers could prove as critical to the future of the environmental movement as carbon emissions and rising sea levels.

Tags:

Prison Ecology Project

capital blight

privatization

class war prisoners

Read more about Incarceration, Justice and the Planet

EcoUnionist News #103

Submitted by x344543 on Sun, 05/08/2016 - 17:15

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, May 9, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists*:

Lead Stories:

Major oil sands producers scale back output, shut down as wildfire rages - By Jeff Lewis and Shawn McCarthy, Toronto Globe and Mail, May 4, 2016; [related] Mass Evacuation as 'Apocalyptic' Inferno Engulfs Canadian Tar Sands City - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, May 4, 2016
Break Free: Largest Civil Disobedience In Environmental Movement History - By Break Free Coalition, Popular Resistance, May 3, 2016
'Today Marks the End of TTIP': Greenpeace Leak Exposes Corporate Takeover - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, May 2, 2016
How to Create an "Ecology of Change" by Combining Movement Uprisings With Long-Term Organizing - By Mark Karlin, Truthout, May 1, 2016
The welfare of workers should be our primary concern… - By Gary Herman, Union Solidarity International, April 27, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

Break Free 2016 - May 2016
Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

Legalizing Direct Action in Pennsylvania [video] - By Richard Mellor, Facts For Working People, May 7, 2016
A Growing and WINNING Climate Movement - By Lena Moffitt, Sierra Club, May 2, 2016
NUHW joins the No Coal In Oakland movement - By Staff, National Union of Healthcare Workers, April 18, 2016

Just Transition:

AGL: Energy transition can happen “almost overnight” - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, May 5, 2016
David Suzuki: Divest from Damage and Invest in a Healthier Future - By David Suzuki, DeSmog Blog, May 4, 2016
Coalfield political theater masks path to progress - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, May 3, 2016
May Day in Oslo - By Jonathan Neale, Global Climate Jobs, May 2, 2016
Taking a bigger Leap when it comes to building green - By Matthew Adams and Melinda Zytaruk, Rabble.Ca, May 2, 2016
Waste Done Right - By Ruth Tyson, Energy Justice Network, May 1, 2016
We Are Mother Earth’s Red Line: Frontline Communities Lead The Climate Justice Fight Beyond The Paris Agreement - By It Takes Roots To Weather The Storm, The Leap, April 29, 2016
World Tree to Reverse Climate Change through Earth-Repair - By Jordan Fink and Daniel Lerch, KBOO, March 23, 2016

Bread and Roses:

Boycott Supporters Speak Out for Food & Farmworkers Justice this May Day - By staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, May 6, 2016
Wendy’s Boycott actions heat up as Month of Outrage winds down! - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, May 6, 2016
Environmental Disaster in Chile: Chiloe En Crisis - By Erin Gallagher, Revolution News, May 5, 2016; [relateed] Chile: Fisherman Barricade Chiloe Island; Protest Government Response to Red Tide Crisis - By Erin Gallagher, Revolution News, May 4, 2016
Familias Unidas at May Day Events Throughout the State of Washington - By Staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, May 5, 2016
Intervention by La Via Campesina at the ‘30th FAO Regional Conference for Europe and Central Asia’, in Turkey - By Adnan Çobanoğlu, La Via Campesina, May 5, 2016
Interview with Wendy Cruz on the challenges for the advance of Agrarian Reform - By Wendy Cruz, La Via Campesina, May 4, 2016
160+ Farm and Food Groups Ask Congress to Reject TPP, Stand Up for Independent Farmers and Ranchers - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, May 2, 2016
The Little-Known Farmworkers Who Sparked the Biggest Labor Movement In U.S. History - By Alexa Strabuk, Yes!, May 1, 2016
Trabajadores agrícolas en Bellingham (WA) llaman a boicotear Driscoll’s - By Por Niñx Salvaje, SubVersiones, April 29, 2016
What’s a Carbon Farmer? How California Ranchers Use Dirt to Tackle Climate Change - By Sally Neas, Yes!, April 29, 2016
Familias Unidas and Allies Keep Up the Pressure for Contract Negotiation with Sakuma Brothers Farms, Washington State - By Debi Covert-Bowlds, Farm Worker Ministry-Northwest, April 27, 2016
Farm Workers Are Taking On Poor Pay And Conditions — And Winning - By Joseph Erbentraut, Huffington Post, April 27, 2016

Tags:

agricultural workers and peasants

labor and environment

Read more about EcoUnionist News #103

International Oil Companies: The Death of the Old Business Model

Submitted by x332349 on Thu, 05/05/2016 - 18:28

By Paul Stevens - Energy, Environment and Resources, May 5, 2016

The future of the major international oil companies (IOCs) – BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and Total – is in doubt. The business model that sustained them during the 20th century is no longer fit for purpose. As a result, they are faced with the choice of managing a gentle decline by downsizing or risking a rapid collapse by trying to carry on business as usual.

Most commentary on the IOCs’ problems has focused on the recent fall in oil prices and the growing global commitment to tackle climate change. Important though these are, the source of their predicament is not confined to such recent developments over which they have no control. Their problems are more numerous, run deeper and go back further. The prognosis for the IOCs was already grim before governments became serious about climate change and the oil price collapsed.

Read the report (Link).

Tags:

carbon bubble

boom and bust

fossil fuel capitalism

decarbonization

energy transition

British Petroleum (BP)

Read more about International Oil Companies: The Death of the Old Business Model

Private industry's waste cleaned up by the taxpayer

Submitted by x344543 on Wed, 05/04/2016 - 18:24

By Richard Mellor - Facts for Working People, April 29, 2016

One aspect that’s left out when it comes to the so-called vibrancy and efficiency of capitalist mode of production is the cost of cleaning up the mess created by private industry. Apart from the human health conditions directly associated with the workplace, the cost of cleaning up the environment after one capitalist venture or another lives and then dies as capital accumulation wanes, is staggering. This cost is born by the workers and the middle class as a public expense. The entire capitalist system is propped up by public assistance in one way or another.

According to the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) * between 1986 and 2008, the Department of Defense (DOD), in other words, the taxpayer, spent $30 billion ”…. across all environmental cleanup and restoration activities at its installations.”. We all know that private defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman do very well from their government contracts. Who owns them, who actually pockets the billions in profits accumulated over the years is another matter not so easy to determine.

The DOD In its fiscal year 2014 Agency Financial Report DOD reported “$58.6 billion in total environmental liabilities”, It appears the costly job of spreading peace around the world has some serious environmental costs as well.

Tags:

capital blight

capitalism

disaster capitalism

Read more about Private industry's waste cleaned up by the taxpayer

Stranded Assets and Thermal Coal in Japan: An analysis of environment-related risk exposure

Submitted by x332349 on Tue, 05/03/2016 - 16:24

By Ben Caldecott, Gerard Dericks, Daniel J. Tulloch, Lucas Kruitwagen, and Irem Kok - Oxford, May 2016

Deploying a ‘bottom up’ asset-level methodology, we analysed the exposure of all of Japan’s current and planned coal-fired power stations to environment-related risk. Planned coal capacity greatly exceeds that required for replacement - by 191%. This may result in overcapacity and combined with competition from other forms of generation capacity with lower marginal costs (e.g. nuclear and renewables), lead to significant asset stranding of coal generation assets. Stranded coal assets in Japan would affect utility returns for investors; impair the ability of utilities to service outstanding debt obligations; and create stranded assets that have to be absorbed by taxpayers and ratepayers.

Read the report (PDF).

Tags:

coal

mining

fossil fuel capitalism

jobs versus environment

jobs

labor and environment

Read more about Stranded Assets and Thermal Coal in Japan: An analysis of environment-related risk exposure

EcoUnionist News #102

Submitted by x344543 on Mon, 05/02/2016 - 19:02

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, May 3, 2016

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists*:

Lead Stories:

Heatwaves will hit workers’ health in warming world, warns UN - By Arthur Neslen, Climate Change News, April 28, 2016
Rail workers dispute lobby group’s take on Lac Mégantic disaster - By Grant Robertson, Toronto Globe and Mail, April 28, 2016; [related] As Lac-Mégantic proved, braking procedures matter - By Ron Kaminkow, Toronto Globe and Mail, April 28, 2016
Fossil Capital: the rise of steam power and the roots of global warming - By Irma Allen, The Ecologist, April 27, 2016
Loservilles and Ghost Dance - By George Wuerthner, Counterpunch, April 26, 2016
Misunderstanding the Leap, critics fall flat - By Christopher Majka, Rabble.Ca, April 26, 2016

Ongoing Mobilizations:

Break Free 2016 - May 2016
Convergence In Support of Eco-Prisoners & Against Toxic Prisons - June 11-13, 2016
Flush the TPP - Ongoing through 2016 | #FlushtheTPP
March for a Clean Energy Revolution - July 24, 2016, Philadelphia | #CleanEnergyMarch
TWAC Cascadia 2016 - August 8th-15th 2016

The Thin Green Line:

Northern Arizona U. Students Launch Sit-In as Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement Sweeps Country - Michaela Mujica-Steiner and Karina Gonzalez by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, April 29, 2016
Reclaim the power! Progress towards a fossil-free UK - By Guy Shrubsole, The Ecologist, April 29, 2016

Just Transition:

Solidarity Sunday celebrates community resistance to opencast coal mining - By Staff, Reclaim the Power, May 1, 2016
Devil capitalism sending us to hell - By Gary Engler, The New Commune-ist Manifesto, April 29, 2016
USW response to 350.org’s ‘Break Free from Fossil Fuel’ actions targeting oil refineries - By Staff, United Steelworkers, April 26, 2016; [counterpoint] Can the Climate Movement Break Free From the 'Jobs vs. Environment' Debate? - By Kate Aronoff, Common Dreams, April 30, 2016; [related] Using the “Public Trust” to Frame “Break Free From Fossil Fuels” Actions - By Jeremy Brecher and David Solnit, Labor Network for Sustainability, April 29, 2016
Benefits of Community Energy in Canada - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, April 24, 2016
Demanding a Just Transition for Peabody Coal Workers - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, April 24, 2016
Employment in Canadian Clean Tech and U.S. Clean Energy - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, April 24, 2016
The Leap Manifesto is a path to jobs and justice - By Crystal Lameman, Toronto Globe and Mail, April 22, 2016
Comment: Switched On London launch bid for new municipal energy company - By Archie Davies, Greenpeace Energy Desk, April 21, 2016
As Oil Jobs Dry Up, Workers Turn to Solar Sector - By Lynn Cook, Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2016

Bread and Roses:

March For Dignity International Workers Day - By staff, Boycott Sakuma Berries, April 28, 2016
National boycott of Wendy’s spreads westward during Month of Outrage… - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, April 28, 2016
Peasants in Asia give inputs to ‘UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants & Other People Working in Rural Areas’ - By staff, La Via Campesina, April 28, 2016
Migrant agricultural workers dreaming a better future - By Scott Neigh, Rabble.Ca, April 27, 2016
Farm Defenders Occupy the Gill Tract Again to Halt Construction Indefinitely - By staff, Earth First! Newswire, April 26, 2016
Back to the future: Wendy’s shows 20th century disdain for consumers’ intelligence with 21st century marketing push… - By staff, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, April 25, 2016
Food Products Industry and their Supply Chains - By Elizabeth Perry, Work and Climate Change Report, April 25, 2016
Student Activists Confront PepsiCo Executive on Conflict Palm Oil - By Jessica Serrante, The Understory, April 25, 2016

Tags:

agricultural workers and peasants

labor and environment

Read more about EcoUnionist News #102

Alpha, Arch, Peabody Energy: Bad Business Decisions are the True War on Coal

Submitted by x332349 on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 13:55

By staff - Public Citizen, May 2016

Over the past year, three of the United States’ major coal companies filed for bankruptcy: Alpha Natural Resources in August 2015; Arch Coal in January 2016; and Peabody Energy in April 2016.3 Although these companies and their trade association allies have often blamed environmental regulations for their precarious financial state, the truth is that debt-fueled acquisitions hobbled their finances at a time when market conditions were rapidly souring. Namely, Alpha Natural Resources, Peabody Energy, and Arch Coal bet big on future Chinese coal demand growth in 2011, going into debt to finance major expansions into metallurgical coal production during the year it was at peak price, only to see markets decline soon after the transactions were complete. At the same time, top executives were awarded record financial compensation, while slashing employee benefits and laying off workers.

Read the report (PDF).

Tags:

coal

fossil fuel capitalism

mine workers

Arch Coal

Alpha Natural Resources

labor and environment

Read more about Alpha, Arch, Peabody Energy: Bad Business Decisions are the True War on Coal

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Capital Blight News #106

Lead Stories:

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Green is the New Red:

Capital Blight News #105

Lead Stories:

The Man Behind the Curtain:

Greenwashers:

Capital Blight News #104

Lead Stories:

The Man Behind the Curtain:

Incarceration, Justice and the Planet

Regulatory Black Holes

EcoUnionist News #103

Lead Stories:

Ongoing Mobilizations:

The Thin Green Line:

Just Transition:

Bread and Roses:

International Oil Companies: The Death of the Old Business Model

Private industry's waste cleaned up by the taxpayer

Stranded Assets and Thermal Coal in Japan: An analysis of environment-related risk exposure

EcoUnionist News #102

Lead Stories:

Ongoing Mobilizations:

The Thin Green Line:

Just Transition:

Bread and Roses:

Alpha, Arch, Peabody Energy: Bad Business Decisions are the True War on Coal

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The Fine Print I:

The Fine Print II:

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