toxics

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, July 27, 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:

• Reports of capitalism’s death have been greatly exaggerated - By Kate Aronoff, Waging NonViolence, July 22, 2015
• Capitalism, Green or Otherwise, Is "Ecological Suicide" - By David Klein, TruthOut, July 21, 2015
• Ecological Crisis and the Tragedy of the Commodity - By Stefano B. Longo and Brett Clark, CounterPunch, July 21, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Slave in the Fields: A Reporter Goes Undercover in the San Quintin Valley - By Kau Sirenio Pioquinto, Truthout, July 25, 2015
• For Illinois Farmers, Damage From Coal Mines Can Span Decades - By Lizz Giordano, TruthOut, July 22, 2015
• New report reveals retiring toxic farmland would save water, money - By Dan Bacher, IndyBay, July 20, 2015
• Imagine farming that actually heals the earth - By Sami Grover, Tree Hugger, July 21, 2015; and Could better soil management reverse global warming? - By Sami Grover, Tree Hugger, February 12, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Mining, militarization and criminalization of social protests in Latin America - By Cesar Padilla, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, July 23, 2015
• Talvivaara Mine Environmental Disaster - By Mike O'Brien, Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities, and Trade, July 23, 2015
• An Open Letter to Warren Buffett: Put Public Safety Before Profit and Prioritize Oil Train Regulation - By Mike O'Brien, Huffington Post, July 22, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Anglo American to axe 53,000 jobs, put 15 assets up for sale - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, July 24, 2015
• Weatherford takes “brutally realistic” approach to U.S. job cuts - By Jordan Blum, FuelFix, July 23, 2015
• Weatherford to boost job cuts to 11,000 - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, July 22, 2015

Just Transition:

• Don’t leave clean energy tax credits blowing in the wind - By Staff, BlueGreen Alliance, July 24, 2015
• The EPA’s Clean Power Plan, Jobs, and Labor - Labor Network for Sustainability, July 24, 2015
• Yancoal job cuts follow expansion approval: systemic adjustment needed - By Georgina Woods, Lock the Gate Alliance, July 24, 2015
• What Happens After the Coal Plant Closes? - By Christopher Flavelle, Bloomberg View, July 22, 2015
• The Problem With the Fight for 15 - By Boots Riley, Creative Time Reports, July 20, 2015
• Cooperative/Solidarity Economics and Advancing the Development of Worker Co-ops - By Michael Johnson, Grassroots Economic Organizing, July 2015

Other News:

• Inspectors find dozens of rail bridges need repair - By Dan Gunderson, MPR News, July 23, 2015
• Kropotkin on the Hudson - By Polly Howells, In These Times, July 22, 2015
• We may have already committed ourselves to 6-meter sea-level rise - By Systemic Disorder, Systemic Disorder, July 22, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, July 7, 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 Story:

• The impenetrable world of Mark Flores: Yvette Flores unknowingly worked around lead and other harmful substances while she was pregnant; a severely disabled son was the result - By Jim Morris, Center for Public Integrity, July 1, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Farmworkers at Sakuma Berry Farms Demand Negotiations with Management - Press Release, Boycott Sakuma Berries, July 6, 2015
• ‘Anarchism could help to save the world’ - By David Priestland, The Guardian, July 3, 2015
• The Drought's Scapegoat - By Alastair Bland, East Bay Express, July 1, 2015
• Sakuma Bros. farmworkers walk off the job - By Shelby Rowe, Skagit Valley Herald, July 1, 2015
• Coca-Cola: Damaging the World - Press Release, KillerCoke.Org, June 30, 2015
• Costco Members, Fishermen, Environmental and Labor Groups Demand Costco Say No to GMO Salmon - Press Release, Park Forest ENews, June 26, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion Leaves 4 Hurt in Texas Town  - By "Admin", Natural Gas Watch, July 3, 2015
• Systems Change, Rainforests, and Racism - By Brad Schenck, Rainforest Action Network, July 3, 2015
• A robot killed a factory worker in Germany; So who should go on trial? - By Rick Noack, The Washington Post, July 2, 2015
• Thousands Of Children Risked Their Lives In Tanzania’s Gold Mines For $2 A Day - By Beenish Ahmed, Think Progress, July 2, 2015
• Derailed train near Knoxville burning; 5,000 evacuated in area - By News Sentinel staff, The Commercial Appeal, July 2, 2015
• Bureaucracy Threatens More Than Just Your Sanity - By Taylor Smith-Hams, Greenpeace Blogs, June 30, 2015
• Rail yard pollution in Kansas City, Kansas, requires a closer look by the EPA and BNSF - Editorial, Kansas City Star, June 30, 2015
• Recology noose update: Daryle Washington rejects settlement without policy change - By Al Osorio, San Francisco Bay View, June 27, 2015; [related] The Hanging Noose And Fighting Racist Terrorism On The Job At SF Recology - By Steve Zeltser, Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, July 2, 2015
• Unions protest in Darwin against closure of Aboriginal communities - By Nadia Daly, A(ustralian)BC News, June 26, 2015

Just Transition:

• Labour speaks out about jobs, justice and the climate - By Ella Bedard, Rabble.Ca, July 6, 2015; [related]: Calgary wants jobs, justice, and climate action now - By Aiyana Lauridsen, Rabble.Ca, July 6, 2015
• Canada Mobilizes Coast to Coast for Jobs, Justice, and Climate - By Staff, teleSUR, July 4, 2015
• Greece’s anti-solar, coal-based energy policies underlie its economic collapse - By Takis Grigoriou, The Ecologist, July 3, 2015
• March for jobs, justice and the climate--as part of the Pan Am Games - By Krystalline Kraus, Rabble.Ca, June 30, 2015

Other News:

• South Africa’s main union rejects gold firms wage offer - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, July 6, 2015
• Transit Strikers Defend Full-Time Jobs and Bathroom Breaks - By Samantha Winslow, Labor Notes, July 2, 2015; [related]
• Milwaukee transit workers shut down bus lines, demanding a fair contract - By Tracey Pollock, Fight Back News, July 1, 2015
• Railroad whistle-blower awarded $1.25M - By Mike Carter, Seattle Times, July 1, 2015
• My friend Brandon Bostian, the Amtrak 188 engineer - By Ryan Smith, Chicago Reader, June 20, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 9, 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 Story:

• Global warming: the ‘slowdown’ that never happened; New scientific analysis shows that the rate of global warming has continued without pause. The ‘hiatus’ simply didn’t happen - Press Release, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, June 4, 2015

Fracking the EPA:

• Don’t Be Fooled by Yesterday’s Headlines, EPA Finds Fracking Contaminates Drinking Water - By Wenonah Hauter, EcoWatch, June 5, 2015
• Fracking Does Cause ‘Widespread, Systemic’ Contamination of American’s Drinking Water - By Josh Fox and Lee Ziesche, EcoWatch, June 5, 2015
• EPA Study: Fracking Puts Drinking Water Supplies at Risk of Contamination - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, June 4, 2015
• Long-Awaited EPA Study Says Fracking Pollutes Drinking Water - By Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch, June 4, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Food sovereignty and agroecology-People’s Expo recipe to mend broken food systems - La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Hands on the Land for Food Sovereignty - By Frederica Toscano and Elisa Caricato, La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Peasants are under the thumb of free market - La Via Campesina, June 6, 2015
• Peasants from around the world: views on Expo 2015 - By Frederica Toscano and Elisa Caricato, La Via Campesina, June 5, 2015
• Africa's farmers fight the corporate takeover of seeds, land and food - By Chris Walker, The Ecologist, June 4, 2015
• Big Ag Claims Cancer-Causing Glyphosate No More Dangerous Than ‘Coffee or Working the Night Shift’ - By Mary Ellen Kustin, Environmental Working Group, EcoWatch, June 4, 2015
• G7, be warned: your 'New Alliance' threatens to destroy small-scale farmers; the Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles - By The Global Convergence of Land and Water Struggles, The Ecologist, June 4, 2015
• People Should Control the Food System, Not Corporations; Why you should ditch the official EXPO and go to the People's EXPO instead - By Kirtana Chandrasekaran and Stanka Becheva, Common Dreams, June 1, 2015
• Marching on Monsanto and its Government Protectors - By Pete Dolack, CounterPunch, May 29, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Fire at Kentex footware factory kills more than 70 workers - By Jiselle Hanna Sam, rabble.ca, June 8, 2015
• Coal ash spill workers given second chance in court - By Staff, WBIR.COM, June 5, 2015
• Watch: Nancy Hutchison speaks at Justice for Injured Workers rally - By Rebel Sage, rabble.ca, June 4, 2015
• Communities Deserve A Say in Chemical Security - By Taylor Smith-Hams, GreenPeace Blog, June 3, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Norway confirms $900bn sovereign wealth fund's major coal divestment - By Damian Carrington, The Guardian, June 5, 2015
• Oil field services hit hard in jobs report - By Jennifer A. Dlouhy, FuelFix, June 5, 2015

Just Transition:

• Jobs, justice, climate: A new climate movement is rising from below - By Naomi Klein, rabble.ca, June 8, 2015
• 1.2 Million US Green Jobs Reported In Q1. Here’s Why That’s A Problem - By Silvio Marcacci, Clean Technica, June 5, 2015
• Systemic Problems Require Systemic Solutions: Time to Talk About the Next System - By Gus Speth, The Leap, June 5, 2015
• If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It!Potential Impacts of Privatizing the Tennessee Valley Authority - By Joel Yudken, Economic Policy Institute, June 4, 2015

Other News:

• RMT responds to collapse in East Coast performance - By RMT Press Office, rmt.org, June 4, 2015
• Vast Federal Biological Collections at Risk; U.S. Geological Survey Shirks Responsibility for Managing Troves of Specimens - By Kirsten Stade, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, June 4, 2015
• Striking workers occupy Telefónica HQ in Barcelona - By Timothy Ginty, RoarMag, June 2, 2015
• Take over of the National Gallery: privatisation, oil sponsorship and Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ - Press Release, Reclaim the Power, June 1, 2015

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

By Caleb Goods and Carla Lipsig-Mumme - The Conversation, June 2, 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 recent unveiling by Tesla founder Elon Musk of the low-cost Powerwall storage battery is the latest in a series of exciting advances in battery technologies for electric cars and domestic electricity generation.

We have also seen the development of an aluminium-ion battery that may be safer, lighter and cheaper than the lithium-ion batteries used by Tesla and most other auto and technology companies.

These advances are exciting for two main reasons. First, the cost of energy storage, in the form of batteries, is decreasing significantly. This makes electric vehicle ownership and home energy storage much more attainable.

The second, related reason is that these cheaper green technologies may make the transition to a greener economy easier and faster than we have so far imagined (although, as has been recently pointed out on The Conversation, these technologies are only one piece of the overall energy puzzle).

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, June 4, 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:

• Food, Water, Health, Life: UN Experts Warn of Threats Posed by Secret 'Trade' Deals - By Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams, June 2, 2015
• Louisiana Environmental Group Warns Santa Barbara Oil Spill Cleanup Workers to Protect Their Health - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, May 31, 2015
• Peru: Shougang Mining Worker Killed in Marcona Protests - By Erin Gallagher, Revolution News, May 28, 2015

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Why Your Beauty Salon Likely Doesn’t Have Any Employees - By Bryce Covert, Think Progress, June 3, 2015
• More Than 40 Charged With Murder For Bangladesh Garment Factory Collapse - By Beenish Ahmed, Think Progress, June 2, 2015
• Injured Workers' Day: Support shouldn't come in half-measures - By Ella Bedard, Rabble.Ca, June 1, 2015
• If You’re In A Nail Salon In New York, You’ll Now See A Workers’ Bill Of Rights On The Wall - By Tara Culp-Ressler, Think Progress, May 30, 2015
• Construction Worker Killed Near Wind Farm Construction Site - By Mark DelFranco, North American Wind Power, May 29, 2015
• Senior EU officials and industry lobbies joined forces to undermine the European strategy against endocrine disruptors - European Trade Union Institute, May 29, 2015
• Latest Mining Death Underscores Need to Enforce Westray Law - By United Steelworkers, Yahoo Finance, May 26, 2015
• Female worker dies in Canadian gold mine - By Andrew Topf, Mining.Com, May 24, 2015
• OSHA Chief: Fine for Deadly Leak "Petty Cash" for DuPont - By Neena Satija and Jim Malewitz, The Texas Tribune, May 23, 2015
• Fire on Gulf oil platform forces evacuation of 28 workers - Associated Press, May 22, 2015
• Marikana massacre: the untold story of the strike leader who died for workers’ rights - By Nick Davies, The Guardian, May 19, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Texas oil field vendors cut 200 jobs, close plants - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, June 2, 2015
• US coal miner Murray Energy to lay off around 1,800 - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, May 22, 2015
• Popping Canada's 'Carbon Bubble' good for economy - By Jeff Rubin, CBC Radio, May 19, 2015

Just Transition:

• Climate justice and the good life--for everyone - By Marc Lee, Rabble.Ca, June 3, 2015
• Fossil fuels still hugely subsidized while number of jobs in renewables keeps growing - By Christiane Kliemann, European Trade Union Institute, May 28, 2015
• Why Students Are Joining the March for Jobs, Justice & the Climate - By Jody Chan, Fossil Free, May 28, 2015
• Activists Work to Stop East Bay Coal Exports - By Jean Tepperman, East Bay Express, May 27, 2015
• The darker side of solar power - By Konrad Yakabuski, Toronto Globe and Mail, May 27, 2015
• No Climate Protection without Climate Justice; No Climate Justice without Degrowth - By Christiane Kliemann, DeGrowth in Action, May 27, 2015
• Critics of Capitalism Must Include Its Definition - By Richard D. Wolff, Truth Out, May 26, 2015
• We need a new economic system - By Gar Alperovitz, Gar Alperovitz blog, May 22, 2015
• Why Democratic Energy Offers Faster Approach to Clean Energy - By John Farrell, Institute for Local Self Reliance, May 22, 2015
• Support the Workers - By Bruce K. Gagnon, Space 4 Peace, May 21, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Rail safety problems trigger protests - By Mark Gruenberg, People's World, May 29, 2015
• BLET/SMART–TD statement on Positive Train Control, crew size following fatal Amtrak derailment in Philadelphia - Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, May 19, 2015
• I-Team: Union Warned About Engineer Fatigue in Months Before Deadly Amtrak Crash - By Chris Glorioso, NBC TV 4 New York, May 14, 2015

Other News:

• Reclaim the Power! Climate protestors rout security with UK-wide fossil fuel strikes - By Oliver Tickell, The Ecologist, June 1, 2015
• The Limited "Victory" Won by Mexican Farm Workers - By Bertha Rodríguez Santos, Truth Out, May 31, 2015
• Harmony Gold to cut over 3,000 jobs, union asks Gov’t to intervene - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, May 29, 2015
• More Than 30 Student Groups Tell Aramark: Sustainable Tuna Now! - By David McElhatton, Greenpeace, May 28, 2015
• MUA Protests Plans to Deregulate Shipping - By Ashleigh Telford, Maritime Union of Australia, May 20, 2015
• Yes, We Protest Shell Oil with Products Made from Oil. Duh. Now Join Us - By Ansel Herz, The Stranger, May 18, 2015
• The biodiversity crisis and the environmentalist left - By Alan Thornett, International Viewpoint, May 13, 2015
• Recent elections in several countries suggest a worker-environment message is disrupting the norm - By Sean Sweeney, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, May 10, 2015

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

By Kirsten Stade - Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, May 28, 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.

Washington, DC — Workplace chemical exposures are the nation’s eighth leading cause of death but the U.S. lacks any strategy for preventing the more than 40,000 premature deaths each year, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Today the group unveiled a Worker Right-to-Know website displaying 30 years of Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) chemical exposure readings from inspections back to 1984 so workers can see what substances they encountered and to help guide OSHA in improving safeguards for worker health.

Occupational exposures kill malignantly, from cancer, neurological breakdown, cardiopulmonary disease, and other chronic maladies. While this toll claims the lives of more than 10 times the workers killed in all on-the-job accidents combined, OSHA spends in excess of 90% of its budget on safety issues.

“More Americans die each year from workplace chemical exposure than from all highway accidents, yet we have no national effort to stem this silent occupational epidemic,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, pointing out that allowed chemical exposure on-the-job is roughly 1000 times higher than in the general ambient environment. “In the U.S., environmental protection stops at the factory door.”

The new PEER database allows comprehensive workplace exposure data to be searched by year, by state, by establishment type and by substances detected. Individual inspection data may also be viewed. It also provides a geospatial display of all OSHA workplace monitoring sampling results. PEER hopes the readings will give workers and their doctors clues about the origins of otherwise mysterious illnesses.

These occupational risks may be on the rise as thousands of new chemicals are introduced in U.S. workplaces each year. Yet OSHA figures show a slow decline in health sampling. At its current rate of health inspections, it would take OSHA nearly 600 years to sample chemical exposure at half the nation’s industrial facilities that handle hazardous substances.

On a policy level, PEER is asking responsible agencies to come to grips with the problem by calling for –

• OSHA to start using its own air sampling data to pinpoint where health inspections are most needed and to increase the number of such inspections; and
• The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to conduct an updated national survey of occupational exposures, a survey it last did thirty-five years ago.

“Reversing this long lethal trend requires a national commitment to ‘green’ the American workplace,” added Ruch. “Above all, OSHA needs to rediscover its ‘H’ by taking affirmative steps to sharply reduce the slow poisoning of American workers.”

By Elizabeth Grossman - In These Times, April 17, 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.

On April 17, 2013, a massive fire and explosion tore through the West Fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killing 15 people—including 10 volunteer firefighters—and injuring more than 200. Fueled by the 30 or so tons of explosive ammonium nitrate on site, the blast ripped through the wooden building and its flammable contents, destroying three nearby schools, a nursing home and devastating 37 city blocks. A federal government investigation into the disaster found enormous gaps in information made available to first responders and the community about the plant’s highly hazardous materials – information that could have prevented or reduced the loss of life, injuries and damage.

Two years after this catastrophe, the Center for Effective Government has taken a look at the disclosure practices around such hazardous chemicals—and found what’s required of these facilities to still be “inadequate and insufficient.”

In a report released this week, the Center for Effective Government, a non-partisan government watchdog, examined emergency response planning and reporting on chemicals required of plants like West Fertilizer under the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA)—enacted in response to the 1984 release of deadly methylisocyanate gas from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India that killed thousands and injured many more—and the Clean Air Act. Instead of comprehensive and coordinated reporting and planning that could help prevent the loss of life and injuries, CEG found “a patchwork of laws and regulations that cover chemicals and are supposed to be safeguarding the public,” says CEG Open Government Policy program director Sean Moulton.

“There are gaps between these programs, and West Texas, really highlighted this,” says Moulton. “It’s very hard to know what information is where and how planning is rolled out. It’s very clear that responders in West, Texas didn’t know how to respond,” he says.

Absent information about hazards at the plant, volunteer firefighters arriving on the scene were unaware of that ammonium nitrate might be in the process of exploding. There was—and still is—nothing that would have compelled anyone to alert community residents or local government that schools, healthcare facilities, homes or businesses were located near a plant housing massive quantities of explosive materials. And under current laws and regulations, nothing required the West Fertilizer company to report its use and storage of ammonium nitrate to the EPA or authorities with whom it might develop an emergency response plan...

Read the entire article here.

By Staff - Want China Times, April 9, 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.

Following the armed suppression of a protest against the building of an incinerator, tens of thousands of villagers in Luoding in southern China's Guangdong province took to the streets again on April 6 in an escalated clash in which the local police station was vandalized, reports Hong Kong's Oriental Daily News.

Last week, more than a hundred villagers demonstrated against a plan to build an incinerator proposed by a private concrete plant and believed to have been illegally approved by the local government. The protesters set up blockades on a major road near the plant, holding up signs and demanding that the project be abandoned immediately.

Police officers swarmed to the scene and attempted to dispel the crowd with tear gas and pepper spray. Physical violence erupted, resulting in casualties and dozens of arrests.

On April 6, more villagers — now numbering in the tens of thousands — returned to the streets with iron bars and sticks in hand, descending on the police station. They vandalized the property and smashed squad cars while police officers stood in formation and watched.

Villagers told the press that the concrete plant has been burning waste every day for the last two years, severely polluting the surrounding environment. The villagers believe that the situation will be even worse now that the plant has made an under-the-table agreement with the local government to build an incinerator.

According to a local villager surnamed Chen, the mayor of the county-level city of Luoding has announced that the project will be suspended.

Local residents will continue to protest until the project is officially terminated, said Chen.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, April 14, 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:

• 4/18 March and Rally: Workers Memorial Day 2015 Remember The Dead and Fight for The Injured & Fight TPP - Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, April 13, 2015
• Fields of Toxic Pesticides Surround the Schools of Ventura County—Are They Poisoning the Students?; In some of California’s most heavily Latino communities, going to school can be a health hazard - By Christina Sarich, The Nation, April 6, 2015
• Monsanto Employee Admits an Entire Department Exists to “Discredit” Scientists; But no one knows about it - By Christina Sarich, Natural Society, April 6, 2015

May Day:

• Boston Mayday 2015! - Boston IWW, April 13, 2015
• Chicago May Day 2015 Schedule of Events & Official Posters - Chicago IWW, April 13, 2015
• May Day #Shut It Down Assembly (Bay Area) - Leaflet (not affiliated with any organization)

An Injury to One is an Injury to All:

• Harmony halts operations at Unisel mine after fatal incident - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, April 7, 2015
• New Evidence BP’s Spill Dispersant Caused Harm to Humans and Wildlife - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, April 7, 2015
• Union warnings ignored as rotten rail signal collapses - By RMT Press Office, RMT, April 8, 2015
• Workers now out after being trapped by fire in Manitoba mine - CBC News, April 6, 2015
• Workers strike at Anglo’s coal mine in South Africa - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, April 8, 2015

USW Refinery Strike:

• United Steelworkers reviewing contract proposal from Marathon Petroleum - By L.M. Sixel, FuelFix, April 7, 2015
• Union workers vote to end strike - By Mark Maynard, The Independent, April 6, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• Noble Energy cuts 220 jobs - By Rhiannon Meyers, FuelFix, April 7, 2015
• Two coal plants in Ohio part of AEP closings - By Nick Mullins, The Thoughtful Coal Miner, April 8, 2015
• Wages for oil and gas workers are growing the slowest of any industry - By Ryan Holeywell, FuelFix, April 9, 2015

Just Transition:

• Australian Renewable Energy Industry Loses 2,300 Jobs, Labor Calls Abbott To Swallow His Pride - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, April 13, 2015
• Coal Jobs Decline As Renewable Jobs Increase - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, April 8, 2015
• European federation of Public Services Unions joins TUED - Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, April 8, 2015

1267-Watch:

• Sued by engineer of train that exploded, BNSF says it may be shielded by federal law - By Adrian Glass-Moore, WDAZ 8 ABC, April 12, 2015

Bread and Roses:

• Detroit Needs Water to Work - By Justin Wedes, Detroit Water Brigade, April 13, 2015
• Saving Seeds: Farmers Rise Up Against Industry-Backed Laws; New publication by Grain and La Via Campesina documents nefarious ways new laws criminalize seed sharing and the growing peasant movement resisting them - By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, April 8, 2015

Other News:

• Chevron Whistleblower Videos Show Deliberate Falsification Of Evidence In Ecuador Oil Pollution Trial - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, April 9, 2015
• Mass Extinction: Is the Enemy Us? - By Umair Muhammad, Great Transition Initiative, February 2015
• Oiling The Machinery Of Climate Change Denial And Transit Opposition - By David Suzuki, DeSmog Blog, April 7, 2015
• What If Uber Were a Unionized, Worker-Owned Co-Op? These Denver Cabbies Are Making It Happen - By Erin McCarley, Yes!, April 10, 2015

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

By Jennifer Baker - Revolution News, April 8, 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. 

A western Guangdong city has cancelled a plan to build an incinerator that prompted two days of protests that escalated up to around 10,000 people, during which several police cars were either smashed or flipped and a Police office destroyed. Luoding city government posted two letters on its website on Wednesday announcing the decision. One informed the Langtang township government that it had decided to cancel the project, which Langtang had brokered with China Resources Cement Holdings. The second urged residents to stop blocking roads, vandalising property or disturbing public order.

“People are angry with the site selection of the incinerator as it is within a 1km radius of people’s homes,” said one young resident. “The cement factory is producing enough pollution, we don’t need another polluter.”

Residents of Long Town in Luoding City, held a sit-in protest combined with local schools on full strike and a march on Monday April 6th in protest against the local government and China Resources Cement’s private construction of a  waste incineration plant. Residents complain that the ground water and air are already heavily polluted, they fear for the health of their families considering the new waste incinerator would bring 100’s of ton’s of garbage daily from neighbouring cities to be burned.

Residents said about 1,000 locals turned up to Monday’s sit-in, which took place outside a cement factory owned by China Resources. Dozens were beaten by around 100 a mix of policemen and security guards dressed in black and armed with batons, helmets and shields. At least 20 people were arrested.

“My nephew is only 14 and is suffering from concussion after he was beaten by the men with batons,” said one resident.

“It was very brutal and totally unnecessary to use such force against unarmed civilians during a peaceful and rational demonstration, especially as they attacked children too.”