Greenman's Occasional Organ

MMX

2010-01-04T21:00:00.003Z

Happy New Year to all my occasional readers. Having a bit of a blogging break at the moment. Back soon, all being well.

Copenhagen - The Aftermath

2009-12-20T16:27:00.005Z

So, a pathetically weak "deal" that is not binding and basically, if not improved on, condemns large number of humans and other species to perishing as temperature change exceeds 2 degrees in the direction of 3 degrees and beyond. Were we really so surprised? We knew how weak most governments are in the global age - the power is increasingly not with them, it is in corporate boardrooms, banks and the offices of media moguls. The task remains the same as before Copenhagen - to build a movement that can apply pressure on a global scale in the short and medium term and in the long term that can help develop the kind of alternative society and economy that is needed for sustainability and social justice.

In the English speaking world this means taking on both the corporate powers that be and their shills and apologists in media, politics and culture. It is ever more evident from reading Internet discussion boards that the agenda of some of those leading the assault on ecological awareness, social justice campaigns and any mention of ethical concerns is one of nihilism. It is a capitalist-individualist nihilism that rejects politics, religion, collective organisation and ethical concerns not due to corruption and exploitation in these fields (that is the basis of entirely justified left wing critiques of mainstream thought) but philosophically because they all demand restraint and the nihilist will not wear any restraint, regardless of the effect of this stance on others.

The nihilist tries to pretend that every demand for restraint, not matter how politely and gently requested is a totalitarian imposition that is the road to some primitivist hell. Reason and science are abandoned in favour of conspiracy theory and productivist fantasy. The average Internet nihilist lives in a mental universe of abundance where there are no real environmental or economic problems that cannot be solved by the achievement of the nirvana of the totally "free" market.

Despite the prevalence of this attitude online perhaps we should not worry too much about it - it is a basically unsustainable stance that reveals emotional and spiritual immaturity. In the end truth, reason, fellowship and the deep human longing for justice and equality are far stronger than the tantrums of unrestrained egos.

To end on a festive note, perhaps the rightist climate change deniers, the bankers, the political puppets and the nihilist-comment-page-ranters should sit down and watch A Christmas Carol or It's A Wonderful Life this Christmas, they might find food for thought.

War On Want Christmas Appeal

2009-12-08T22:33:00.002Z

War On Want have launched a Christmas Appeal For Palestine.

This is a message from John Hilary:

We need your help today to support people in Palestine in their fight for a better life. I visited Palestine this summer, my first visit in many years. I was truly shocked to see how much everyday life for Palestinians has deteriorated. Olive farmers in the West Bank told us how they can no longer get enough water for their trees as water supply has been diverted to illegal Israeli settlements built on their land. In Bethlehem, we met refugee children who are now forced to live under the shadow of Israel's illegal Separation Wall. The people of Bethlehem are threatened on a daily basis by the violence of the Occupation.

The people of Palestine urgently need your support today. Please help us by donating to our Christmas appeal.

http://www.waronwant.org/palestine-appeal

Palestinians are facing economic meltdown as a result of Israel's illegal Occupation of their land. The system of checkpoints and closures in the West Bank has brought the local economy to its knees and communities are harassed on a daily basis. The situation in Gaza is even more urgent. The Israeli blockade has entered its third year, and 80% of people are dependent on food aid.

To meet this new level of threat to the livelihoods of people in Palestine we need your help. Your support will enable us to work with local communities and women's groups in the West Bank and Gaza, giving them the tools and skills to create a better future.

Please donate today.

http://www.waronwant.org/palestine-appeal

Thank you for your support,

With best wishes
John Hilary

Jim on Copenhagen

2009-12-02T22:13:00.004Z

The Copenhagen Climate Summit and associated demos like this Saturday's The Wave in London loom.

My fellow left wing Green blogger Jim Jepps had a good article that made the centre page spread of the Morning Star this week.

Jim on the media coverage so far :

We are asked to speculate on whether President Barack Obama has a spring in his step and a twinkle in his eye when speaking about the international climate summit.

Does the destiny of the world hang on whether he has a headache on the crucial day?

This focus on political celebrities rather than concrete proposals has more to do with Hello magazine than news. Conjecture about whether there will be a binding agreement rarely goes beyond the personalities of the great and the good.

More here.

Meanwhile on his blog Jim takes on one of the latest attacks on Greens from Tory Climate Sceptics.

Meeting in London on Inequality

2009-11-26T22:31:00.003Z

The event detailed below, scheduled for Wednesday 2nd December, is hosted by Hackney Green Party and should be quite interesting for anyone within travelling distance sympathetic to left green ideas.

INEQUALITY IN THE UK - Effects and solutions

Wednesday December 2nd, 7.30 - 9.30 pm

Abney Public Hall, Stoke Newington Church Street

Join Bill Kerry, Secretary of The Equality Trust, as he presents the findings of the bestselling book, 'The Spirit Level'. Inequality is having a massive negative influence on our society - hear the details of new research into how it impacts on everybody, and what we can do about it.

All welcome, with plenty of time for questions, answers, and discussion from the floor!

Hosted by Hackney Green Party, free entry.

The British Zeitgeist: Conservative Anarchism

2009-11-21T19:40:00.014Z

There has been a lot of talk recently of the ideology of the Tory Party leadership in Britain around David Cameron and how they are influenced by the "Red Toryism" of Philip Blond. With Cameron increasingly presented by the MSM as Prime Minister in waiting we might be forgiven for supposing that this "Red Toryism" was something of a popular current, a spirit of the age. In fact, Blond's ideology, (which despite the title and the eagerness of some politically illiterate journalists to describe it as some kind of reborn social democracy has some unnerving parallels with the far right reactionary currents of Traditionalism and Synarchism) is only embraced in a watered down and qualified form by Cameron and is hardly embraced at all by some of his camp who are still thinly disguised Thatcherite Monetarists. Any putative Cameronian government will most probably swing between a pragmatic centrism demanded by the economic mess it inherits and vicious Thatcherite attacks in selected areas of society to feed red meat to the backbenchers and finance capitalists to whom both major parties still feel they have no option but to bow to.

So if red Toryism (social traditionalism and crypto-corporatism)does not seem to have a real social base amongst those likely to put the Tories into power, what kind of ideological position can be said to characterise wide swathes of the now rightwardly inclined electorate? My guess is what I would call Conservative Anarchism akin, though not identical to the movement in America known as Paleolibertarianism. The poster boy of this tendency in Britain is Jeremy Clarkson. Its most extreme examples are found among the support bases of UKIP and the English Democrats, but I would suggest that the attitudes and views are common across wide sections of the population, including many, if not most of those about to vote Tory. We are talking about not so much an organised movement as a viral set of attitudes. The massive sales of Clarkson's books attest to the appeal of his stance. And what is this stance? - It is contrarian, individualist, aggressively self assertive and, well, not just anti-socialist, but anti-social. It is a stance that says I will do what I like, eat what I like, drive where I like, say what I like, buy what I like and treat others however I like and woe betide anyone who tries to stop me (and "trying to stop me" is the interpretation put on even the mildest criticism of anti-social and selfish behaviour.) In short it is the attitude of generations of teenagers writ large to people of all ages and classes. Teenagers used to grow out of this phase into responsibility and reasonableness in most cases. Now a whole media, advertising and cultural industry encourages people to behave like spoilt brats for the whole of their lives. Bureaucratic hamfisted attempts to impose civility from above become weapons of a culture war in the hands of conservative anarchists - where everywhere "free spirits" are fighting "PC gone mad".

The Conservative Anarchist is disdainful of everything that teenagers have always hated in large numbers - authority, often religion (of which more later), intellectuallism, high culture and complicated ideas. Hence no professional is safe - the bureaucratisation of professional careers in Britain has proceeded apace (every action of a professional must now be recorded, assessed, analysed, prescribed to death) at the same time as public contempt and lack of respect for professionals has grown. Every Conservative Anarchist feels that he or she knows better than those namby-pamby liberal teachers, doctors, clergy, climate scientists and criminologists. Every slip up of a professional or learned body is now elevated by a deeply anti-intellectual media as a condemnation of a whole body of workers and a whole library of thought.

Anti-intellectualism has easily grown to ridiculous proportions as it has long been a feature of British life compared to other parts of Europe. The "left" wing of conservative anarchism, (the ex-Living Marxists and the failed labourites, the ex-feminists and ex-punks, the O'Neills and Burchills of this world) dress their anti-intellectualism in class terms for added hate value, and of course the fetid British class system makes this easy for them. Thus sometimes Mockney and Estuary English accents attack anything demanding or requiring self control or reflection as "Booorjwah".

Religion is the ultimate hate target of many of the more consistent conservative anarchists found on comment pages as it stands in many cases on a claim of ultimate truth, reality and authority - things which the conservative anarchist sees as his or her sacred right to define personally. The "your politics/views/worldview is religious" or a "new religion" is the coup de grace of the conservative anarchist's armoury of argument. The existence of liberal religions and religious liberals is avoided as an inconvenience, or derided as weak liberal intellectualism - to the macho conservative anarchist all philosophical systems that are not purely centred on the individual and his or her desires are wicked and must be destroyed. To them, Humanism and Socialism, Christianity or Islam, Unitarianism or Agnosticism, Feminism and Animal Rights are all evil creeds not just because of their inevitable human failings but because they are social or universal - they appeal to and try to build a reality beyond the atomised individual and his or her prejudices and bigotries.

The rise of conservative anarchism in Britain has social roots in the vast destruction of community and social organisation that was commenced with a vengeance by the Thatcher government and has continued since. Remember "There is no such thing as society,just families and individuals"?

Additionally, the rise of conservative anarchism has material roots in the technological development of the last 20 years. The e-mail, the text, the social network, the blog comment section all both give a platform for the macho new breed to propagandise and smite his or her wet opponents, and facilitate a form of communication that is harsher, less nuanced and more aggressive than face to face discussion or the more regulated environment of the old newspaper letters pages. Ad Hominem, misrepresentation and casting aspersions about someone's underlying aims, objectives or trajectory are the preferred tools of online warfare. It is not surprising that many conservative anarchists seem to fall into a lazy conspiracist worldview. Non verbal communication, courtesy and even safety consciousness are lost in this world - things are written that might result in a physical fight if said face to face. But bit by bit this mode of communication has leaked into the offline world, into newspaper commentary and into real face to face transactions. I feel it likely that an incoming Tory government will find it gets as much flak from those trapped into this mindset as the beleaguered current Labour Government does. As an ecological, political and social campaigner I find the street and doorstep and street campaigning reaction you now get is in line with this coarsened and violently charged mindset on an alarmingly increasing number of occasions.

The time has come when this trend has to be faced by all those who seek a better world, or even to preserve and defend the social, political and environmental advances that have been made in this country. Because, make no mistake (and the evidence is there in the decline of the very voluntary, community and social clubs and initiatives that the so-called Red Tories would like to substitute for democratically run services - and in the impoverished and spirit-sapping content of what passes for debate on online newspaper comment pages invaded by the conservative anarchist hordes) from where I am sitting, conservative anarchism is corrosive of society, civility and even rational and non-violent debate.

One Million Climate Jobs Pamphlet Now Available

2009-11-17T20:23:00.002Z

The pamphlet on One Million Climate Jobs Now can now be downloaded from the PCS website at:
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/resources/green_workplaces/green_campaigns/one-million-climate-jobs-now.cfm

Earlier this year, the Campaign against Climate Change (CaCC) trade union group set up a commission to produce a detailed plan for a million 'climate' jobs.

The commission includes academics and environmental groups as well as several unions including PCS.

In November 2009 the CaCC trade union group published a pamphlet, One million climate jobs Now!, which sets out how this can be achieved. The pamphlet is the first stage in a national campaign to get the government to employ a million unemployed workers to save the climate. It contains the arguments workers need for building the campaign.

Physical copies for selling are also available from

The Campaign against Climate Change
PCS
UCU
TSSA
CWU

for two pounds each or £10 for 15.

Avaaz Petition On World Hunger Crisis

2009-11-12T21:35:00.002Z

Below is the latest mailing from the international web-based campaign group Avaaz:

With the recent financial crisis, poverty is skyrocketing in poorer countries, with 1 in 6 people on the planet now facing life-threatening hunger.

Next week, leaders will meet at the World Food Summit in Rome to address this growing crisis. The best solution is funding to boost sustainable agriculture in poorer countries, but the UK and other countries are backing out on a $20 billion promise made earlier this year.

Millions of lives are on the line. Sign the petition below for rich countries to keep their promises, and it will be delivered directly to world leaders through a spectacular stunt at the Roman Colosseum on the eve of the Summit:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_hunger_pledges

The world produces enough food to feed everyone. Yet the number of people suffering from chronic hunger across the planet has reached the record-high figure of 1 billion this year.

Hundreds of billions are spent by wealthy governments to bail out banks and financial institutions, but the G8 countries are trying to cut a promised $20 billion commitment to agricultural investment to only $3 billion in new money. With literally millions of lives on the line, this is a scandal.

The Rome summit is also our best opportunity to push governments to promote small holder agricultural production -- growing evidence shows that intensive farming models are not effectively countering hunger and have a highly damaging impact on our environment.

We are teaming up with anti-poverty organisation ActionAid and global farmers networks to show our governments that we refuse to accept a world where people die every minute from hunger. Sign the petition to the Rome Summit -- every signature will be represented at a stunning delivery event at Rome's Colloseum:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_hunger_pledges

With hope,

Luis, Alice, Benjamin, Graziela, Ricken, Pascal, Iain, Paula, Paul, Veronique and the entire Avaaz Team

Poll : 59 Percent Of Australians Want a Republic

2009-11-06T19:55:00.004Z

Great news for British, Canadian and Australian Republicans from this press release from Republic:

BRITISH REPUBLICANS BUOYED AS POLL FINDS 59% OF AUSTRALIANS WOULD DITCH MONARCHY

Republic has welcomed a new poll by the Australian Republican Movement (ARM) which found that 59% of Australians want to see their country become a republic. The poll was conducted to mark the tenth anniversary of the republican referendum in Australia.

The Australian poll comes just days after a survey conducted by the Canadian Friends of the Royal Family found that 52% of Canadians no longer believe there should be a king or queen as head of state.

Republic spokesperson James Gray said:

"We are delighted at the result of this poll which demonstrates that republicanism is once again a live issue in Australia."

"The people of Australia are sending a very clear message to the monarchy:

'We want to choose our own head of state.'

They will not let royal visits distract them from the fundamental issues."

"The renewed republican movement in Australia is a great boost to the campaign against the monarchy here."

"As the republic debate grows across the Commonwealth, the future of the monarchy in Britain will also be called into question. The British people will begin asking: if they can ditch the monarchy, why can't we?"

"We'll be working closely with our republican colleagues in Australia, Canada and New Zealand over the coming months and look forward to sharing resources and ideas to bring about our common goal."

NOTES

1. The ARM press release on the poll is available to view online at
http://www.republic.org.au/story/10-years-59-want-australian-republic

2. Republic is a member of Common Cause, an alliance of Commonwealth
republican movements, alongside the ARM, Citizens for a Canadian Republic
and the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand. For more about Common
Cause see http://bit.ly/4z6Ovp.

WHAT IS REPUBLIC?

Republic is a membership-based pressure group calling for the democratic replacement of the monarchy by an elected head of state.
Republic lobbies politicians and opinion-formers, undertakes original research on the monarchy, comments on Royal stories in the media and provides information on republicanism.
Republic is a non-party-political organisation with members from all the main parliamentary parties. Its distinguished supporters include 20 MPs, as well as leading figures from politics, law and the arts. A full list of Republic’s supporters can be found at
http://www.republic.org.uk/supporters.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION :

Visit our website : www.republic.org.uk

Mail: Republic, PO Box 69, Brighton BN50 9GS

Don't Scab On The Post

2009-11-03T21:32:00.003Z

The following is the text of a leaflet being distributed by Notts IWW members at local Job Centres.

Don’t apply for Royal Mail jobs

Support the Posties instead!

Royal Mail workers are striking against pay and job cuts, and bigger and bigger workloads. This struggle will have an effect on pay and conditions for all us in the future.

Royal Mail management have been fiddling the figures to justify cuts and their aim is to hire 30,000 temps to cover the strike – twice as many as for the normal Christmas rush.

If others take these jobs it makes it easier for ALL bosses to attack ALL of us. Low-paid, casual contracts will continue to replace proper jobs, and wages will get lower and lower.

Asking you not to take these jobs is a big thing to ask, we know. In the current climate there are few jobs with long-term security. Some of us will need to take anything we can. Some of us are even being forced to apply by Job Centres. But we have to stick together and fight together: we are all ripped-off, exploited people. So, what can you do?

If you are unemployed

* Go and talk to the Posties on the picket line. Show them you support their fight for decent jobs.

* Talk to other unemployed people about the issue.

* If you get post on a strike day, go to the door and talk to the worker doing your regular postie’s job. Explain why you think they shouldn’t do it.

* Help us leaflet the Job Centre and employment agencies!

If you are being forced to take a job

* Refuse to cover the work of striking posties. It is legally suspect for companies to hire temps to break a strike, so they can’t force you do it!

If you are Job Centre or agency staff, this affects you too

* You have bosses breathing down your neck and probably bad pay & little job security too. But don’t place people in jobs that are aimed at breaking this strike!

Show solidarity with posties and claimants.

The Posties are striking for all of us

Show them you support them!

More here.

Climate Change Public Forum

2009-10-30T09:06:00.003Z

CLIMATE EMERGENCY COPENHAGEN

London Public Forum
Saturday 7th November 12-6pm

South Camden Community School,
Charrington Street
NW1 1RG
(nearest tube Kings Cross)

Open to everyone and free to attend, hosted by the Campaign against Climate Change the Public Forum will bring together leading figures to discuss and debate the Climate Emergency and what we can be doing to tackle it. See below for the programme for the day.

This event sees a great variety of speakers including
Aubrey Meyer (Global Commons Institute),
Oliver Tickell (author Kyoto 2),
Andrew Simms (new economics foundation),
John Stewart (HACAN),
Johann Hari (journalist),
Jean Lambert MEP (Green Party),
Damian Carrington (Head of Environment, the Guardian),
Alexis Rowell(Camden Council),
Chris Baugh (Public and Commercial Services Union)
Dr Stuart Parkinson (Scientists for Global Responsibility)

There will also be workshops with Biofuelwatch and the Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group.

This is one of our last chances to get together before we hit the streets demonstrating in December.

Programme

________________________________

11:45
Doors Open

12:15-13:15 Session
1 "10% Cuts by end 2010: the case for emergency action"

13:15-13:45 Break and Workshops including:
Introduction to campaigning against Agrofuels, hosted
by Biofuelwatch and Food Not Fuel

13:45-14:45 Session
2 "Green Jobs Now - a million climate jobs by end 2010"

14:45-15:15 Break and Workshops including:
Discussion of the role of Trade Unionists in building the Climate movement before and after Copenhagen , hosted by Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group

15:15-16:15 Session
3 "Decarbonising our transport fast - the way ahead"

16:15-16:30 Break
with musical entertainment

16:30-17:30 Session
4 " Copenhagen - the deal we need and the deal we're likely to get"

17:30-17:45 Climate
Emergency CALL TO ACTION

________________________________

Birmingham Greens Demonstrate Left Unity In Action

2009-10-27T19:49:00.003Z

The Green Party in Birmingham has voted to stand aside for Salma Yaqoob in the coming Parliamentary elections, the Steering Group of Green Left has agreed the release of the following statement:

Green Left welcomes the decision of Birmingham Green Party to stand aside in the parliamentary constituency of Hall Green to let Salma Yaqoob of Respect contest the general election there. The decision, which was endorsed by 86% of Green Party members in the area, is another step in forming an alliance between those forces on the Left of British politics campaigning against war, privatisation, the ongoing march to environmental disaster and Fascism. We regard this as an historic step in the campaign for the next general election and for progressive politics in this country.

Joseph Healy

Sue Tibbles

Co-Convenors

Green Left

More from Joseph, Derek on Socialist Unity site and Jim at Daily (Maybe).

CPBF Events This Week

2009-10-26T09:51:00.001Z

Media for all? The challenge of convergence

Saturday 31 October

School of Pharmacy, 29 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, from 10.00am – 5.00pm.

(nearest tube Russell Square)

A major international conference on the future of media organised by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom.

Keynote speakers:

John Nichols, journalist with The Nation and one of the founders of the US Free Press Media Reform movement.

Alexander Stille, author of The Sack of Rome, an analysis of Silvio Berlusconi’s role in Italian media and politics.

Other speakers include Andrew Currah, Ray Fitzwater, Bob Franklin, Alison Harcourt, Kathrine Sarikakis,

Booking information

Attendance costs: Not for profit organisations and trades unions £25; individuals £20; students, unwaged or retired people £10.

Book online at: http://www.cpbf.org.uk/index_conf.html or email: freepress@cpbf.org.uk by phone 0208 521 5932 or by post:

CPBF, 23 Orford Road, Walthamstow, London E17 9NL. Cheques payable to the CPBF.

Plus our pre-Conference meeting

The miners’ strike and politics today

Friday 30 October, 7.00pm

School of Pharmacy, 29 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX

Speakers:

Tony Benn, John Nichols, Marc Valle and Paul Lewis.

Showing Ken Loach Which Side Are You On?

Plus premier performance of Embedded with the bankers; the media and the financial crisis by Banner Theatre Group

Admission £5. Booking as detailed above or pay at the door.

The Entirely Predictable Rise -and Fall? - of The British Far Right

2009-10-22T21:00:00.012+01:00

Never have so many column inches and so much bandwidth been expended on a soundbite level chat show. I'm talking about, of course, this week's media coverage of the appearance of the leader of Britain's largest Far Right Party on BBC's Question Time. But the key questions seem to have escaped most of the commentators (with the possible exception of the Guardian's Gary Younge who seems to have a glimmer of the dynamic that is behind all this). These are the usual questions - what forces are intentionally or otherwise chiefly responsible for the recent rise of the odious right, and (hopefully assuming the prevention of a New British Reich)"Cui Bono?".

I think there is a case to be made that BNP in their current incarnation are actually the creation of the establishment - in particular the right-wing propaganda arm of the mass media. Griffin and pals were happily marginalised for much of the 80s and 90s. Their spectacular growth has come in the wake of two things - the so called war on terror and the cranking up of a concerted mass media hate campaign targetted at two or three main targets - Islam and Muslims in general, migrants from the New European entrants and the "undeserving poor". These campaigns all serve and are motivated by the interests of the ruling class in Britain. Griffin has been able to gear his "New Right" master plan (cribbed from Le Pen) to the narrative written and mass-propagandised by the British ruling class for their own ends. It is no surprise that he has moved from a friend of Gadaffi and anti-semitic elements of the Islamic world to a "hammerer of Islam", from European new right rhetoric to Little Englanderism and from Chestertonian ruralist elitism to embracing "the honest white working class" of places like Barnsley. These moves parasitize the zeitgeist created by ruling class mass propaganda.

1. The demonisation of Muslims is necessary to create support for the resource wars on behalf of Western Capital, led by the US Military industrial complex. This also works to aid recruitment of cannon fodder for the imperial wars and eases through the raft of security state measures that would have been desired by the ruling class (even if 9-11 had never occurred) in the face of the coming desperate, brutal, even semi-apocalyptic resource conflicts and environmental destruction that is the culmination and possible finale of capitalist accumulation. Even most radical Greens have not grasped the sheer scale and nature of what is likely to be coming.

2. The constant attacks on New European migrants are classic divide and rule designed to make union organisation more difficult, to attack those elements of the EU which the British ruling class find useful to scapegoat to distract attention from the aims they hold in common with other parts of the European ruling class and to obliquely label the British working class as lazy and greedy - see 3 below.

3. As ever, in an economic crisis the ruling class have very basic objectives, reduce the cost of labour, divide opposition to reducing the cost of labour and take back as much as possible of state property into private hands to recoup lost profits and expand the zone of operation of private capital which recession has shrunk (something which requires the attacks on TU organisation that the attacks on scapegoats one and two are being utilised for). To reduce the cost of labour the "reserve army of the unemployed" must be both increased and battered into a servile state through attacks on welfare. If these are to come about the unemployed and sick must be isolated and alienated from the rest of their class - hence constant "scrounger" stories in the tabloids to break up the diet of "millions of migrants" and "all muslims are potential terrorists" type front pages. Claimants are presented as largely criminal and fraudulent (see hype of recent transparently self interested figures released by the firms contracted to "test" those previously on Incapacity). This association with criminality is indispensible for any really serious scapegoating (and an element of it as old as the hills) and so is deployed against all three groups we are talking about.

It is no surprise that the concentrations of BNP membership shown by the recently leaked lists are not predominantly in ethnically mixed areas - they are largely in white dominated, even what some might uncharitably term "white ghetto" areas. It is not coincidental that these are the areas most isolated from the reality of life in much of modern Britain and Europe, and where the main source of information for the alienated elements recruited by the fascists is not the TV news, broadsheets or contact with a varied group of people, but tabloid hate stories constantly reinforced by social circulation in a limited parochial group. This is the depressing case for example in Ashfield, or Amber Valley.

What we see at the moment is the capitalist class (in the shape of Tories, the right wing media and other elements of the establishment like military figures and New Labour Ministers) attempting to do a bit of "house cleaning" by belatedly attacking - constantly this week - the BNP, by-product of their own strategies. This could tell us various things - 1. that the limits of growth of the far right are set by the ruling class - to a certain level they are useful, beyond that they become threatening as loose cannons that could provoke resistance to the whole shooting match. 2. That the establishment right would now like to claim back the territory ceded to the far right - in coded language they talk about the mainstream needing to address "the issues" that motivate BNP support - whilst claiming to be centrist they move the whole political spectrum further rightwards as "defence" against the "threat" of fascism that they created. Job done.
If this is the picture, then those of us on the green left, those of us who seek workers' unity and those of us who defend the social gains of the last Century have a hard fight ahead. If the ruling class has miscalculated, as it did in pandering to far right demagogues in several countries in the 1920s and 30s, the situation may be even more serious.....

Teachers' Union Backs December Climate Demos

2009-10-19T08:32:00.004+01:00

In an encouraging development the NEC of the NUT have declared their support for the demonstrations in London and Copenhagen in December designed to put pressure on world leaders to come up with a meaningful deal at the Copenhagen conference:

This motion was agreed unanimously by the National Union of Teachers National Executive Committee on 8 October 2009

Mobilise for UN Climate talks in Copenhagen, December 09

“This meeting believes that we need a just, global and collectivised transition from a greed economy to a green economy. Sustainability rather than profit should be the hallmark of success as we recover from economic crisis.

This requires government investment in green industries such as renewable energy, insulation of all homes and workplaces, re-skilling of workers and research into further technological development. This will create or save tens of thousands of jobs at a time when many workers and students are concerned for their own future employment.

We congratulate workers at the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight, who highlighted this issue so well by occupying their factory during August 2009, and who continue to campaign for the nationalisation of wind turbine and other green production since its closure.

We believe that the United Nations Climate Talks in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December 2009 could be our last chance to secure such a global, democratic commitment to measures that might avert climate catastrophe, before our planet’s ecology destabilises irreversibly.

Therefore we call on the national bodies of all TUC affiliates, and the TUC itself, to support a demonstration in London on Saturday 5 December 2009, and mobilise for an international workers’ and students’ presence throughout the Copenhagen talks, especially on 12 December.

We ask all such bodies to work with Stop Climate Chaos (www.stopclimatechaos.org) and the Campaign Against Climate Change (www.campaigncc.org) in planning and preparing for these events.”

Keep Our NHS Public Benefit Night

2009-10-13T20:36:00.003+01:00

The following is information on the Keep Our NHS Public benefit evening planned for this weekend - sounds like a good night out for a good cause if you are in the London area.

YOUR GOOD HEALTH!
Raising a toast to KEEP OUR NHS PUBLIC
A special benefit performance

Sunday 18 October 4 pm

The New Players' Theatre

The Arches, Villiers Street, London WC2N 6NG

Your entertainment and enlightenment will be hosted by:

Martin Soan, master of prop comedy
and his glamorous assistant
Pierrettes Cobaz (from Peckham)

For your entertainment

The Anna
Mudeka Band
The exhilerating,
body-swaying, vibrant sounds of Africa

Stewart
Harvey-Wilson
From Radio 4's
"The Spoken Word"

Ian Saville
Celebrated Socialist Magician: "Captitalism is in big trouble. He'll make it disappear".

Cevanne
Armenian sounds, renaissance songs, celtic strings

Elizabeth Mansfield
sings Piaf
Acompanied by Stephen Rose
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Interesting Background On The Kingsnorth Decision

2009-10-11T17:17:00.005+01:00

A letter from the North West Lib Dem MEP Chris Davies in Saturday's Guardian shed an interesting light on the recent decision to shelve the development of the Kingsnorth power station -

Professor Catherine Mitchell asks "why did E.ON postpone its Kingsnorth plan?" (Kingsnorth's coal bluff, 9 October). The answer lies in Brussels. On 1 October the European commission presented a technical committee of the council of ministers with its recommendations for seven carbon capture and storage projects across Europe that should each receive a €180m initial EU subsidy, the sum to be matched by national governments. Applications from the UK included schemes at Kingsnorth, Hatfield, Longannet and Tilbury, with just one to qualify. The decision will be announced publicly in a week or so, but it's an open secret in this city that the commission did not recommend funding for Kingsnorth. My money's on Hatfield.

Chris Davies MEP

Liberal Democrat, North West

We should see within the week if Davies is right in his suspicions.

Notts Incinerator Inquiry Postponed!

2009-10-10T17:11:00.003+01:00

In a dramatic move the Nottinghamshire Incinerator Public Inquiry has been adjourned until April 13th 2010 and will now run for 4 weeks instead of 3 weeks.
Here's hoping that Veolia might think it is too much hassle or NCC might walk away.

On Wednesday 14th. October, the Public Open Forum will not now be needed. However, PAIN has decided to keep this date in place in order to update members.

The PAIN meeting is at
Rainworth Methodist Church Hall,
Southwell Road East,
Rainworth,
Notts
NG21 0BN
on Wednesday 14th October. 6.30 for 7pm. Cake will be available!

High School Osborne......

2009-10-09T08:53:00.002+01:00

This is a bit obvious....but worth posting anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnz5McrMbsI&feature=player_embedded

Notts Incinerator Inquiry Starts

2009-10-07T07:10:00.006+01:00

The Nottinghamshire Incinerator Public Inquiry started yesterday, but after what was supposed to be a boring (but turned out to be exciting) start the Inquiry was adjourned until Thursday. Seems Veolia are now truly rattled and Notts County Council not a little uneasy themselves!
More from the local Chad newspaper here.
Apparently a possible special protection area for Nightjars might be a "showstopper".
According to the Chad Veolia originally called for a three month adjournment!
PAIN and UKWIN remain committed to fighting the incinerator whereever it is proposed - the proposed incinerator is an outdated model of an inappropriate technology to tackle a reducing waste stream that would be better tackled with other methods - anaerobic digestion, increased recycling facilities, etc
Tha anti-incinerator campaign has the full backing of local Greens.

Victory over Veolia!

2009-10-01T21:56:00.004+01:00

Good news!
The giant multinational waste, transport, water and services conglomerate Veolia has been defeated in its' attempts to withhold important information from local anti-incinerator activists and Council Tax Payers in Nottinghamshire. The decision of the High Court on 1st October is a landmark decision and a victory for dynamic PAIN* and UKWIN* activist Shlomo Dowen and Friends of the Earth in the UK who supported the case against Veolia.

The court case came about when activists sought to see details of the fantastically expensive waste contract signed between Veolia and Notts County Council under regulations governing local government auditing. Under these rules members of the public are allowed to see Council accounts and financial details during the audit process. Veolia sought an injunction against anyone seeing details relating to the County Waste Contract which includes the controversial incinerator plans for Rainworth in Sherwood Forest.

This led to the farcical situation of Notts County Council, (aware of their legal duties and the likelihood of them loosing a challenge if they complied with the wishes of Veolia) confronting their favoured contractor in court.

This is all a good omen for the Public Inquiry into Veolia's White Elephant Notts Incinerator (improved waste treatment technology and increasing recycling rates are already making it increasingly obsolescent before it even has final approval - the argument for an alternative waste strategy strengthens by the day) - the Inquiry starts in Rainworth next Tuesday and the public have their right to have their say on 14th October in the evening session of the Inquiry at Rainworth Methodist Hall.

Well done to Shlomo, PAIN, UKWIN and FOE and good luck for the Inquiry!

Notes
* PAIN - People Against Incineration - local Notts campaign against projected Veolia incinerator in Sherwood Forest.
* UKWIN - National anti-incinerator network, UK Without Incineration.

Interesting New Stuff From The Corner House

2009-09-25T20:20:00.004+01:00

The people at Corner House have a lot of interesting and useful new material available on climate change strategies and economics, (no apologies for the cut'n paste!). Much of this is a valuable contribution to the radical critique of the likely "solutions" touted by the big powers, corporations and politicians this week and likely to be continually pushed over the coming months:

NEW PUBLICATIONS ON CLIMATE AND FINANCE FROM THE CORNER HOUSE AND FRIENDS

The climate crisis and the financial crisis highlight the need to organise for social change -- and also open unprecedented opportunities for doing so. But to prevent a destructive return to business as usual, the roots of both crises need to be understood, together with the nature and limitations of elite responses to them. As a contribution to this discussion, 10 new documents have recently been added to The Corner House's extensive collection of free books and articles on climate
change and finance at

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/subject/climate

and

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/subject/economics.

(1)
Corner House Briefing Paper No. 40
When Markets are Poison:
Learning about Climate Policy from the Financial Crisis

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/briefing/40poisonmarkets.pdf

Around the world, progressive groups have linked the unfolding financial crisis with concurrent crises of climate, food, energy, health care and militarism, and have called for integrated popular movements to assert greater democratic control over financial and economic institutions so that economic recession and global warming can be tackled together.

But governments and business elites also claim to be tackling global warming and economic reversal. Talk of 'Green New Deals' is constantly in the air; investments are being made in agrofuels, geoengineering, carbon sequestration and synthetic biology; and Wall Street is looking forward to seeing global carbon markets expand to a multi-trillion dollar scale following the Copenhagen climate conference in December and promised new US legislation.

This briefing paper critiques one of these elite responses by detailing the close parallels between the financial innovations behind the current financial crisis and the marketing innovations associated with carbon trading -- the dominant official approach to climate change.

Both the new financial markets and the new carbon markets involve the construction of similar abstract commodities. Both heighten systemic dangers, necessitating movements of societal self-protection. Both involve regressive redistribution and the erosion of crucial knowledge. Both are vulnerable to bubbles and crashes. Both erode notions of transparency and conflict of interest. And both call into question the easy assumption that all markets can be successfully regulated, no matter what type.

Drawing on the insights of grassroots communities on the receiving end of the new trade arrangements as well as financial and carbon market practitioners and theorists, the paper urges that failures of both markets need to be investigated and understood before a coherent and effective response can be formulated to the problems that both were supposed to have tackled.

A first section describes the enormous growth in financial derivatives markets since the 1970s -- a process involving the increased commodification of certainty and uncertainty, security and risk, safety and danger, determinacy and indeterminacy -- and the associated huge expansion of credit. It is highly misleading, the paper argues, to describe the new financial practices as 'casino capitalism': they were so hazardous that no casino could have followed them and stayed in business.

A second section analyses the concurrent invention of carbon markets, which involved the increased commodification of the earth's carbon-cycling capacity. Some of the same theorists and practitioners responsible for the new financial markets helped create the carbon markets and, unsurprisingly, carbon markets rely on the same sort of abstractions and faith in quantification that brought down the financial markets. In particular, carbon markets abstract fatally from the question of how industrialised countries can eliminate their dependence on fossil fuels.

With all its acronyms, calculations, credits, monitoring and legal requirements, carbon trading rivals the trade in financial derivatives in its obscurity -- and in its dangers. As one carbon trader has said, 'I guess in many ways it's akin to sub-prime. You keep layering on crap until you say, 'We can't do this anymore'.' This briefing paper attempts to bring into the open the ways in which the complexity of both carbon and uncertainty markets have hidden their hazards, both from many market players and from the general public.

(2) Climate as Investment

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/Climate%20as%20Investment.pdf

Proposals for Green New Deals aimed at tackling both global warming and global recession are streaming forth worldwide. Yet, as this article forthcoming in the journal /Development & Change/ argues, many such proposals are incoherent in that they overlook the need for an immediate start to a programme of phasing out both fossil fuels and purported fossil fuel substitutes such as nuclear power and industrial-scale agrofuels. They also tend to rely on Northern-biased conceptions of
technology transfer and intellectual property that the climate crisis has helped make obsolete. To overcome these problems, future climate movements will have to focus increasingly on the democratization of research, planning and finance.

(3) Neoliberalism and the Calculable World: The Rise of Carbon Trading

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/Neolib&Calc.pdf

Carbon permit prices flashing on electronic screens in Wall Street trading rooms reflect a complex political movement to reorganize and redistribute power and knowledge. The carbon markets associated with the Kyoto Protocol, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the US's Waxman-Markey Act constitute perhaps the last great class project of a waning neoliberal regime -- the ill-fated attempt to privatize the climate itself.

Carbon trading resembles other neoliberal movements of recent decades that have invented new possibilities of accumulation through the creation of fresh objects of calculation and intensified commodification. Such movements include the hugely expanded derivatives markets responsible for the financial crisis, global intellectual property rights regimes, and attempts to transform health, health care
and even biological species into measurable, tradeable commodities.
Generating both profits and crisis, the ambitious abstraction and commensuration that are vital to such schemes can never be completed. This draft chapter for a forthcoming book on the rise and fall of neoliberalism outlines the contradictions inherent in the attempt to form a viable climate commodity.

(4) Unregulatability in Financial and Carbon Markets

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/Unregulatability.pdf

Can the financial derivatives markets be regulated? Can the carbon markets be regulated? The questions are parallel, according to this article from the June 2009 issue of /Carbon & Climate Law Review/. Both markets have involved new attempts at commodification: in the case of the financial markets, commodification of an unprecedented range of uncertainties, and in the case of the carbon markets, commodification of climate benefits or the earth's carbon-cycling capacity. Regulatory responses inspired by neoclassical economics, which assume that any problems can be handled by 'internalizing externalities', are unlikely to succeed. A more pragmatic approach looks to decommodification in both markets. Both approaches, interestingly, have attracted supporters from wide ranges of the political spectrum.

(5) Regulation as Corruption in the Carbon Offset Markets: Cowboys and
Choirboys United

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/Athens%2010.pdf

The civics-class formula 'no matter what the market, it will always be possible to regulate it' is not a useful principle for constructive social action in the real world. In markets that cannot distinguish between fraud and non-fraud, that undermine the rule of law, and that are based on conflict of interest, attempts at regulation can be worse than useless. 'Governance' itself becomes part of corruption.

The carbon offset market is one such market; the market for certain complex credit derivatives is another. Both these markets, argues this draft chapter for a forthcoming book on carbon trading in Africa, should teach us the need for new, more nuanced and practical approaches to issues of corruption and regulation.

(6) /Mausam/: Issues 2-5 of the Indian Climate Change Magazine

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/Mausam2-5.pdf

This is the long-awaited latest issue of a magazine aimed at returning the dialogue about climate change and its solutions to the 'public space.' Featured are pathbreaking articles uncovering the reality of UN-sanctioned 'carbon saving' projects in the metals, hydroelectric, wind power, chemicals, waste management and electricity generating sectors, as well as analyses of the political economy of the scientific controversies over the monsoon and over Asia's so-called 'brown cloud'
of pollution.

(7) Uncertainty Markets and Carbon Markets: Variations on Polanyian Themes

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/NPE2high.pdf

New markets in uncertainty and in carbon are advertised as making both finance and climate action more cost-effective. Both fail to do so, argues this article forthcoming in the journal /New Political Economy/. Creating the commodity framework necessary to make sense of the notion of 'cost-effectiveness' causes both markets to lose touch with what was supposedly being costed. One consequence is systemic crisis.

The new financial markets expanded credit and multiplied leverage by isolating, quantifying, slicing, dicing and circulating diverse types of uncertainty; an unchecked pursuit of liquidity led to a catastrophic drying up of liquidity. The carbon markets, meanwhile, by identifying global warming solutions with reductions in an abstract pool of tradable emission rights and commensurating them with 'offsets' manufactured by 'quants', ended up blocking prospective historical pathways toward less fossil fuel dependence and thus exacerbated the climate problem. Unsurprisingly, both markets have provoked strong, if diverse and confused, movements of societal self-defence. This pattern of action and reaction is similar to the one seen in movements to commodify land and labour.

(8) Imagining Climate Solutions

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/CanDimension.pdf

These days, being a climate activist can easily get you arrested -- or worse. But the bigger danger -- especially for activists in industrialised countries -- may be that of being seduced into expending your imagination on 'solutions' that turn out to be bogus.

(9) The Trouble with Carbon Trading: A Short Debate

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/MerrillLynchvsCH.pdf

In this brief exchange from ClimateChangeCorp's website, The Corner House rebuts claims from a Wall Street carbon trader that: (a) the climate problem is a problem of quantity of emissions; (b) carbon trading lowers costs; (c) putting a price on carbon in Europe helps Southern countries reduce emissions; and (d) carbon markets can work in concert with other policies and measures.

(10) Hold the Applause: A Critical Look at Recent EU Climate Claims

http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk/pdf/document/HoldtheApplause.pdf

The European Union has recently congratulated itself for being 'on track' to meet its Kyoto Protocol emissions targets. But is it? And, more importantly, is the EU 'on track' in the effort to wean itself off fossil fuels -- which is the point of the Kyoto Protocol and other climate change mitigation efforts? The answer to both questions is no. Misleading accounting has produced an illusion of effective action; the reality, as a careful examination of the figures shows, is more complicated and disturbing.

Green Billboards To Confront Labour in Brighton

2009-09-21T23:01:00.002+01:00

Greens launch billboard campaign to run during Labour conference

The campaign for the Greens to win Brighton Pavilion stepped up a gear this week, with 14 billboards going up around Brighton and Hove, timed to coincide with the Labour Party conference in Brighton.

The billboard campaign has been devised by the Green Party's retained ad agency, glue London.

In the ads the Green Party's slogan for the Pavilion campaign - "Labour is old news in Brighton" - accompanies an image of a tired-looking Gordon Brown made out of newsprint. Other versions of the ad show Jack Straw and Peter Mandelson.

The advert observes that twice as many people in Brighton (31%) voted Green in the recent European elections as voted Labour (15%) - and that the Conservatives also finished far behind the Greens, on 22%.

The Greens' campaign director for Brighton Pavilion, Paul Steedman, said:

"We're going all out to win in Brighton Pavilion. Caroline Lucas is an exceptional candidate. We have hundreds of volunteers committed to helping the campaign. On the doorsteps, where it really counts, people are telling us that they're sick of Labour, that they don't trust Cameron, that they want the positive change we're offering."

"Rigorous Green policies for more jobs"

Caroline Lucas, candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said:

"I will be putting forward rigorous policies for more jobs, and better pay for nurses, cleaners and shopworkers, not just City slickers; for an NHS that doesn't leave people in Brighton - or anywhere else - without healthcare because they can't afford prescription charges or dental fees; for a rail network that works - and that people can actually afford to use. I will stand up for all of Brighton's communities, and we're going to show that politics can be about a fair deal for everyone."

Paul Steedman added:

"In Brighton Pavilion, it's a straight fight between the Greens and the Conservatives. Every election in the city since the last general election has demonstrated this. The Conservatives are desperate to stop a Lucas victory. They don't want the only female leader of a political party in parliament, breaking up their old boys club. The Conservatives say they'll hold a splashy 'primary' contest to grab headlines, but it will leave our broken political system unchanged.

"I'm confident Brighton voters will see through this charade to the slash-and-burn Conservative policy of service cuts that will apply, whoever they select."

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/imagelibrary/straw-billboard.jpg

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/imagelibrary/mandelson-billboard.jpg

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/imagelibrary/gordon-brighton-billboard.jpg

Jeremy Clarkson and a pile of ****

2009-09-17T21:54:00.003+01:00

No, I said Jeremy Clarkson and a pile of **** :)

From the BBC -

Climate change protesters have dumped a pile of horse manure at the home of Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson in a protest about vehicle emissions.

Six women stood by the dung in the drive of his home in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, with a sign that read: "This is what you're landing us in."

The protesters from direct action group Climate Rush said they were being as "blasé as him" about emissions.

Clarkson made no comment and Thames Valley Police said no-one was arrested.

More here and here.

Meanwhile a slightly less smelly climate protest is being organised by Avaaz and tck tck tck on a truly international scale - more here.

Charity Watchdog Investigates Prince Charles' Charity

2009-09-14T08:19:00.005+01:00

Press Release From Republic

CHARITY WATCHDOG INVESTIGATES PRINCE CHARLES CHARITY FOLLOWING REPUBLIC QUERY

The Charity Commission is investigating the relationship between Prince Charles and his charity, the Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment, following a complaint made by Republic.

Three weeks ago Republic lodged a complaint questioning the independence of the charity and whether it was acting for the public good or pursuing Charles's own personal agenda.

The Charity Commission has responded by ordering the foundation to explain its trustee decision-making, the activities it undertakes to further its charitable purposes for the public benefit, and its relationship with Prince Charles.

Republic spokesperson Graham Smith said:

"We welcome this response. The Charity Commission's reply to our complaint indicates there are serious questions to be answered about the relationship with Prince Charles and the charities he has set up and whether they are pursuing a public good, or working for Charles's benefit."

"Charles is renowned for attempting to influence public policy and lobbying ministers. We believe the relationship between him and the charities he has set up must be made clear, to ensure they're not being used as his own private lobby firms."

"Charities are legally obliged to remain independent and to take decisions in the interests of the objects of the charity. They are required to work for the public good, not personal interest. We simply want to ensure this is the case with the Foundation."

"We are greatly concerned that Charles is using his privileged and secretive access to government ministers to lobby in favour of his own pet projects on health, the environment and architecture. We will continue to seek to hold him to account and demand more transparency over his attempts at political interference."

It is high time that the Prince was challenged on his views - particularly by those in the green movement, where he and his aristocratic acolytes need to be marginalised if the public is to be convinced that we can have sustainability that is both progressive and scientific. Charles views on health, the environment and architecture give the neo-liberal right and stalinoid elements of the left a convenient brush with which to paint Greens and the ecological left as fellow travellers to (if not actual advocates of) anti-scientific panderers to quackery, reactionary traditionalists and advocates of semi-feudalist social structure.

The ecological left should fully back the continuing attempts of Republic to expose the Prince's manipulation of public disquiet at the neo-liberal trajectory to his own reactionary ends. We must seek to go beyond capitalism to self managed sustainability and progress, not back to some fictional feudalist idyll.