Poland

By Orla Dwyer - The Conversation, February 5, 2024

From Berlin and Paris, to Brussels and Bucharest, European farmers have driven their tractors to the streets in protest over recent weeks. 

According to reports, these agricultural protesters from across the European Union have a series of concerns, including competition from cheaper imports, rising costs of energy and fertiliser, and environmental rules. 

Farmers’ groups in countries including Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Poland and Romania have all been protesting over the past couple of months. 

The UK’s Sunday Telegraph has tried to frame the protests as a “net-zero revolt” with several other media outlets saying the farmers have been rallying against climate or “green” rules. 

Carbon Brief has analysed the key demands from farmer groups in seven countries to determine how they are related to greenhouse gas emissions, climate change, biodiversity or conservation. 

The findings show that many of the issues farmers are raising are directly and indirectly related to these issues. But some are not related at all. Several are based on policy measures that have not yet taken effect, such as the EU’s nature restoration law and a South American trade agreement. 

By Our Changing Climate - Our Changing Climate, February 10, 2023

By John Foran - Sierra Club, December 1, 2021

As COP 26 began, Greta Thunberg summed up the whole thing quite succinctly using just one word, three times:  Blah blah blah.

And as it ended two weeks later, she tweeted:

The #COP26 is over. Here’s a brief summary: Blah, blah, blah. But the real work continues outside these halls. And we will never give up, ever [emphasis added].

And indeed, COP 26 was an epic fail, even by the dismal standards of the 25 COPs that preceded it, but at the same time, the global climate justice movement made some much needed forward progress.

By staff - Anarchist Communist Group, January 29, 2022

The Western media is pounding the drum for a conflict between Putin’s Russia and the Western powers over Ukraine.

Let us be clear. Vladimir Putin leads a gangster regime in Russia, sometimes referred to as a kleptocracy (rule by thieves). He runs an oppressive regime and as an ex-high up in the Russian secret police, the KGB, he has extremely close relations with its latest incarnation, the FSB (Federal Service Bureau of the Russian Federation). He has come down heavily on any form of opposition, and the anarchist movement in Russia has suffered, with anarchist militants, arrested tortured and given heavy prison sentences. The Putin regime is massing large numbers of troops on Ukraine’s borders for a number of reasons. The domestic situation is far from healthy and the Covid pandemic has aggravated this. Putin is wary of growing discontent and hopes that his belligerent attitude will unite the Russian masses behind him and make them forget their economic woes. This is a gamble, as the Russian masses are in general not keen to engage in warfare with their fellow Slavs in Ukraine, and remember the disastrous consequences of the war in Afghanistan, when Russian troops sent in to save the pro-Russian regime there were bogged down for years with massive casualties.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a number of republics emerged that had separated from the Russian Federation. Among these was Ukraine, the largest in terms of landmass and the most important in terms of industrial development, an industrial development that had reached its climax under Stalin and his successors.

The fall of the Soviet Union seriously weakened Russia but thanks to rising oil prices coupled with the rise to power of Putin, it began to re-assert itself. It was determined to control and influence the surrounding countries on its borders, both for defence reasons and to re-affirm its control over those regions which it had established after World War Two.

The political-military alliance it had established with its satellites, the Warsaw Pact, was dissolved. However, the corresponding political-military alliance developed by the United States and the Western European powers, NATO, was not wound up and remains an instrument of both the USA and various component Western countries. In fact, NATO sought to increase its influence and has intervened in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Libya. Despite promising the Russian regime that it would not expand its influence east of what was East Germany, it has invested its forces in the countries surrounding Russia, including the Baltic States.

NATO is an aggressive military machine, not a body there to passively defend the West. It has intervened in Libya, in Afghanistan and Iraq. It actively seeks to recruit not just former Soviet republics like Ukraine and Georgia into its alliance, but also so called neutral countries like Finland and Sweden, both very close to Russia. It demands that each component country of NATO spends at least 2% of its Gross Domestic Product on military expenditure.

By Richard Halsey, Neil Overy, Tina Schubert, Ebenaezer Appies, Liziwe McDaid and Kim Kruyshaar - Project 90 by 2030, September 19, 2019

A just transition (JT) is a highly complex topic, where the overall goal is to shift to systems that are better for people and the planet, and to do so in a fair and managed way that “leaves no one behind”. A JT is about justice in the context of fundamental changes within the economy and the society.

Both of these areas are extremely contested, consensus is hard to achieve, and people are generally resistant to change. A JT confronts “business as usual” and threatens powerful vested interests in certain economic sectors. In recent years, a vast amount of literature on the subject has been published, and in South Africa the conversation has picked up pace. The urgency of acting now is indisputable.

While a JT can apply to many sectors and industries, this publication focuses on energy. In addition to being a major contributor to climate change, environmental damage and impacts on human health, the energy sector (particularly Eskom), is facing significant challenges in South Africa. We fully acknowledge that energy is linked to other sectors such as transport, agriculture, water and land use, and that a just energy transition (JET) is a part of a wider JT. While the focus of this report is on one sector, we do so recognising that it is linked to other parts of a larger system in many ways.

Our approach was to look at what we can learn from international experience, to combine that with what has already been done in South Africa, and to make recommendations about how to move forward. This publication focuses on the shift from coal to renewable energy (RE), mainly for electricity generation. We are well aware that a movement away from fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) is far more than just moving from coal to RE, but as discussed in Chapter 3, this particular transition is the obvious starting point in South Africa. The lessons and recommendations presented here can also be adapted to other fossil fuel sectors. While the focus of this study is on coal, a big picture perspective of the energy system is crucial. South Africa must adopt an integrated planning approach, for energy and other sectors.

Read the text (PDF).

By Béla Galgóczi - European Trade Union Institute, 2019

The role of trade unions and social dialogue is key in demonstrating the major differences between coal-based energy generation and the automobile industry. This book presents two faces of a just transition towards a net-zero carbon economy by drawing lessons from these two carbon-intensive sectors. The authors regard just transition not as an abstract concept, but as a real practice in real workplaces. While decarbonisation itself is a common objective, particular transitions take place in work environments that are themselves determined by the state of the capital-labour relationship, with inherent conflicts of interest, during the transition process.

The case studies presented in this book highlight the major differences between these two sectors in the nature and magnitude of the challenge, how transition practices are applied and what role the actors play.

Read the report (Link).

By Florent Marcellesi and Joanna Flisowska - Green European Journal, November 29, 2018

The COP24 climate talks in Katowice, Poland are set to start on December 2. This year, the negotiations follow a clear warning from the global climate science community, which highlighted in the recent IPCC report that urgent steps are needed to slow global warming. Without action, the world faces the grim prospect of extreme weather events and a massive loss of species. Florent Marcellesi, Green MEP, and Joanna Flisowska, coal policy coordinator at Climate Action Network Europe, discuss COP, the energy global transition, and the gender dimension of climate change.

Green European Journal: In a matter of days, almost 200 countries will meet in Katowice, a city at the heart of a Polish coal mining region, to try and finalise the details of how the Paris Agreement will be put into force. Increasingly, the main timeline for taking steps to keep the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees, preferably to 1.5, now seems impossible. Where are we going into the talks?

Joanna Flisowska: The objective of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees was in the Paris agreement from the very beginning. But with the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, we found out just how urgent it has become to act on climate change. The report brings the impact of climate change beyond the 1.5-degree mark to light and shows how disastrous and far-reaching it will be.

Florent Marcellesi: The IPCC report is a tipping point. We can now clearly say that we have to go faster and act with greater ambition for two main reasons. First, the drastic consequences if we do not. In Spain, from now to the end of the century the soil could become a desert and Spanish people could end up as climate refugees. Second, the opportunities. Achieving the 1.5-degrees limit means people living healthier lives and the creation of new and better jobs. Climate change will have negative consequences for the economy and for identity, traditions, and culture too as it disrupts ways of life. But we must turn it into an opportunity and act with commitment to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement.

The IPCC report sets out some potential pathways for the world to stabilise global warming at 1.5 degrees. These depend on an unprecedented effort to cut fossil-fuel use, among which coal is a particularly high source of carbon emissions. How can we transition from coal to clean energy sources?

Joanna Flisowska: The way forward is somewhat different depending on whether we look at the global perspective or the EU one. The EU has to consider its historical contribution to today’s climate change and must therefore reduce emissions even faster than the rest of world. According to many scientific studies, the fastest and most effective way to stay on the path to 1.5 degrees is to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest. This assessment is certainly true and is why environmentalists are emphasising that coal has to be phased out in order for the EU to reduce its emissions in a timely and cost-effective manner. Today’s reliance on coal can be overcome through renewables, investments in energy efficiency, storage, and with better management of electricity networks.

Florent Marcellesi: We are phasing out of coal for two reasons. The first is economic: coal is not profitable right now. Many plants are closing simply because it cannot compete with renewables. But second, we need to phase out coal well before 2040 for ecological reasons. The IPCC was very clear on that point and, for Europe, a coal phase-out has to mean 2030 at the latest. In some countries like Spain, coal plants must be closed even earlier by 2025.

By Natalie Bennett - The Ecologist, January 4, 2018

The world has to stop burning coal to produce electricity. We cannot afford the dirtiest fuel, killing with its air pollution, heating the planet with its carbon. That’s a reality that’s dawned in increasing numbers of countries, with the UK among them, who have signed up to the Powering Past Coal alliance, launched at the Bonn climate talks.

In Britain, the reality is this signature is more symbolic than practical. The government had already promised a phase out by 2025 (which could be a lot earlier). In August only 2 percent of electricity was produced through coal and its financial cost is increasingly ruling it out.

But the politics of coal are very different in Poland, where 80 percent of electricity is still produced with highly-polluting fuel, and the government is one of the last in the developed world still building new coal-fired stations.

By staff - Climate Change News, December 5, 2017

Marek Wystyrk, 44, began mining at 18 and worked underground for nine years. He got a degree and worked his way up Kompania Węglowa, Poland’s largest coal mining company, to become a transport coordinator.

Coming from the Upper Silesian town of Rydułtowy, he believes Poland should keep exploiting its coal reserves, which could last for decades. Wystyrk has seen the deprivation left by mines closing nearby.

At the same time, he is preparing his three children for life after coal. “I asked my son to study environmental protection,” says Wystyrk about the eldest, who is at a vocational school. “But I don’t know what will come out of that, because he loves theatre. My own father told me not to become a miner, but I did it anyway.”

Wystyrk’s ambivalence is common in Upper Silesia, Poland’s hard coal heartland. The people are proud of their industrial heritage but increasingly aware of its polluting legacy; torn between defending the jobs they know and creating a greener future.

It is a tension that will come under the spotlight in December 2018, when regional centre Katowice hosts the annual UN climate change summit.

The Polish government has committed to keeping the coal industry alive.

“The Polish mining and power industry have good prospects,’ said prime minister Beata Szydło – herself the daughter of a Silesian miner – in August at a mining event in Katowice. “We want to build the Polish power industry and economy based on a safe energy mix where hard coal and lignite will have a prominent place.”

Her Law and Justice Party (PiS) positions itself as a champion of the country’s coal miners, which numbered nearly 100,000 in 2015, according to industry group Euracoal. The domestically produced fuel is seen as key to Poland’s energy security.

But state support comes at a cost: financial, environmental and political.

Polish hard coal is expensive. It costs $76 a tonne to dig out, according to the World Bank, compared to an international price of around $50. Mining companies are making unsustainable losses.

Last year, in a reform meant to alleviate the debt accrued, PiS transferred Kompania Węglowa’s 11 mines in Upper Silesia to a newly created company, Polska Grupa Górnicza (PGG), and had state utilities cover some of the financial losses. The least profitable mines were transferred to a restructuring company, with a view to closure.

A toxic smog settles on the region every winter. While locals tend to blame traffic, much of the air pollution comes from burning low-quality coal in household stoves for heating. Coal power stations add to the problem, causing 5,800 premature deaths a year across Poland, according to research by ClientEarth.

And coal burning drives climate change. That may seem an abstract problem to Poles, but it is a major source of tension with Brussels. Warsaw frequently lobbies for carve-outs from EU climate policy to benefit its coal industry – and other member states push back.

Back in Upper Silesia, miners watching the government’s restructuring plan are hoping for the best but waiting for the other shoe to drop.

“We were told we will keep our jobs even if some mines close, but we are anyway worried that we could be fired in the future,” says Eugeniusz Gruchel, head of the ZZG trade union at Chwałowice mine.

“People keep saying that miners make good money, but the reality is different: young miners coming to work here leave after one or two paychecks because they can make more elsewhere or abroad,” Gruchel adds. “We should keep the young here, to work for us and for Poland.”

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 1, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

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

Lead Stories:

• Deepwater Horizon still creating an environment of fear and intimidation five years on - By Charles Digges, Bellona.Org, March 27, 2015
• How Much Is Your Arm Worth? Depends On Where You Work; Each state determines its own workers’ compensation benefits, which means workers in neighboring states can end up with dramatically different compensation for identical injuries - Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, March 5, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Baja Labor Leaders Learned Tactics from Their Efforts in US - By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 2015
• Banana Workers’ Strike Highlights Abuses by Corporations in Costa Rica - Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes, TierraAmerica, March 18, 2015
• Cesar Chavez, the UFW, and Why Unions are Needed     - By Duane E. Campbell, Talking Union, March 23, 2015
• El Salvador Farmers Successfully Defy Monsanto - By Dahr Jamail, TruthOut, March 23, 2015
• Father of Mexican worker killed in farm accident attends vigil in Albion; Daniel Larios Hernandez seeks better working and living conditions for migrant workers - By Tom Rivers, Orleans Hub, March 20, 2015; related [video]
• Mexican farmworkers strike over low wages, blocking harvest -  By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2015
• Mexico: Labor Rebellion in San Quintín; Farmworkers on Strike - By Erin Gallagher, Revolution News, March 30, 2015
• Occupy agriculture! Polish farmers sit in for land and freedom - By Justin Rose, The Ecologist, March 19, 2015
• Storytelling Spotlight: Farm Worker Oscar Otzoy - By Megan Campbell, Why Hunger, March 25, 2015
• Thousands of Mexican farmworkers march 15 miles as strike talks continue - Staff, Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2015
• Why Mexico’s Farmworkers Who Harvest Our Food Are on Strike - By Sonali Kolhatkar, TruthDig, March 26, 2015
• Your Seafood may be Caught by Slaves - By Myriam Fallon, Greenpeace Blogs, March 26, 2015 [related] Major US Tuna Brands Connected to Slavery at Sea and Human Rights Abuses - By John Hocevar, Greenpeace Blogs, March 26, 2015

USW Refinery Strike:

• Conservationists Help Workers Strike for Refinery Safety - By Steve Curwood, Living On Earth, March 20, 2015
• East Bay Residents Push for Tougher Refinery Regulations - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, March 23, 2015
• Refinery Strikers Protest at Chicago BP HQ [video] - By LaborBeat, YouTube, March 24, 2015
• Letter to Marathon Management Regarding Texas City Memorial - By Walter E. ‘Sonny’ Sanders, United Steelworkers, March 24, 2015
• Tesoro Carson Strike 2015 [video] - By USW Local 675, YouTube, March 24, 2015
• Tesoro union employees returning to work - By Staff, Argus Media, March 25, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Fracking Town’s Desperate Laid-off Workers: ‘They Don’t Tell You It’s All a Lie’; The boom and bust in North Dakota has trapped people there, with little hope of work or escape - By Evelyn Nieves, Alternet, March 28, 2015
• GE expands job cuts at Lufkin oil unit to 575 from 330 - By Ankit Ajmera, Reuters, March 25, 2015
• Low oil prices force 2 Oklahoma companies to cut jobs - Associated Press, March 27, 2015
• North American Railroads Caught by Speed of Crude-Oil Collapse - By Thomas Black, Bloomberg, March 26, 2015
• North Dakota oil rig count drops below 100 - Associated Press, March 25, 2015
• Rigzone: Layoffs more likely than hiring - By Jennifer Hiller, FuelFix, March 25, 2015
• Shell cuts staff numbers in North Sea operations - Associated Press, March 26, 2015

Just Transition:

• Climate action and resource workers: Discussing 'just transition' with Karen Cooling - By Lindsey Bertrand, Rabble.Ca, March 31, 2015
• The fight for $15 is the fight for a livable planet - By Phil Aroneanu, 350.org, March 30, 2015
• San Diego Labor Goes Green: New Environmental Caucus Formed - By Jim Miller, San Diego Free Press, February 2, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Martinez Environmental Group Adopts Resolution In Opposition to Single Employee Train Crews and on Train Crew Fatigue - By Martinez Environmental Group, March 30, 2015
• ONTC and union reach five-year deal - By Jennifer Hamilton-McCharles, The Nugget, March 23, 2015
• Washington Fire Chiefs Demand Transparency on Crude Oil Trains - By Sydney Brownstone, The Stranger, March 25, 2015

Health and Safety:

• Adjournment of Coroner’s Inquest into Lakeland Mills Explosion to consider “new evidence” only furthers need for a public inquiry - By Stephen Hunt and Brad West, United Steelworkers, March 25, 2015
• Latest numbers suggest unionized coal mines safer, more productive than nonunion operations - By Taylor Kuykendall and Hira Fawad, SNL, March 30, 2015
• Monsanto’s Roundup: Most Popular Weed Killer in U.S.; ‘Probably’ Causes Cancer, WHO Report Says - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, March 23, 2015

Other News:

• Activists Shape Oakland Coliseum Area Plan; a large coalition of activist groups pushed successfully for affordable housing goals, local hiring, and environmental mitigations - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, March 18, 2015
• Copper up, FCX down as workers halt production at Grasberg - By editor, Mining.Com, March 20, 2015
• Oil workers in West Texas and New Mexico were underpaid millions, Labor Department says - Associated Press, March 30, 2015
• Shell Oilsands Workers To Carry Electronic Trackers On The Job - By Cameron Langford, CBC.ca, March 19, 2015
• Union Organizer Wants to ID Snoops - By Cameron Langford, Courthouse News Service, March 26, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC