Blogging Break!

I have been having all kinds of problems with my computer recently so I will not be blogging regularly for some time until I get things sorted out - most of the time I do not have access to my blog from other computers that I use, due to security issues.

Hopefully this will also give me some time to work on a few reviews and articles that I have been meaning to complete.

Apologies to any regular readers for the break in service - hopefully I will be back soon!

Greenman

Weekly Links 30/06/2008

Green Politics

Following the Green success in the Henley By-election (beating the Labour Party and the BNP to come third) the Green campaign for Howden and Haltemprice is well under way. Support Shan Oakes campaign here.

Indymedia has some pictures from the 23rd Green Fair in Sheffield, which seems to have been a success and avoided the rain.


Industrial
The latest from the National Blood Service Campaign is a big rave fundraiser being organised in London. More details here.

Meanwhile preparations continue for the wave of public sector strikes planned for Britain on the 16th and 17th of July.

The transport union, the RMT, have spoken out in favour of high speed rail links as an alternative to airport expansion, such as that planned for Heathrow. Workers in the RMT are also involved in a dispute involving cleaners on the London Underground, supported by the Campaign Against Tube Privatisation, who have a blog here.

Finally, a delegation from the IWW International Solidarity Commission is in Japan at the moment and are blogging their visit at http://iwwinjapan.blogspot.com/

Blogs
Interesting pieces on blogs this week include Aled reporting that the Unions have severed all links with the New Tory Mayor of London's de-gutted "Rise" festival, Septic Isle of Obsolete commenting on one year of Gordon Brown as PM, Janine of Stroppyblog on the RMT AGM, and Jim of Daily (Maybe) reporting on the Liberal Conspiracy blogging caucus.

Weekly Links - 22/06/2008

UK Politics News Stories
Lots of interesting, if sometimes a little depressing, stuff being reported this week. It seems all the millions spent by the climate change denial industry and the busy beaver efforts of their conspiracist right-wing errand boys on blogs and comments sections have not been in vain as a majority of Brits still "doubt the evidence" on climate change. Semi-reasonable comment (albeit from his establishment viewpoint) from Andrew Rawnsley here, but as usual the cynics, pessimists, liars and fascists are out in force on the comments section.

Meanwhile there is to be a much trumpeted "Green Energy Push" in Britain, but George Monbiot has picked out some of the flaws in the plan and its likely implementation. One thing I picked out was the lack of mention of the potential use of biogas from anaerobic digestion of food waste etc - let us hope that this is not a further signal of government "capture" by the big waste companies eager to incinerate 50% of Britain's waste and call this "sustainable" and "green" energy from waste. These firms have just managed to get the tame elements of the EU to pass legislation favourable to their plans in the face of Green opposition.

UK Royal financial reports are due out in the next few days, with the monarchist spin machine presenting it as "value for money" - the campaign group Republic is ready with the facts and arguments for an end to expensive and undemocratic hereditary offices of state. Republic are also running a campaign to challenge the oath of allegiance to the monarch.

Industrial
It is the British Isles Regional Organising Committee (BIROC) of the Industrial Workers Of the World (IWW) meeting this weekend, with preparations well under way for the international General Assembly of the IWW in London at the end of August. Before then, Wobblies internationally will be involved in a mobilisation to highlight the union-busting tactics of Starbucks. IWW members at Starbucks branches in the US have been under attack and now the IWW is linking up for action with the Spanish CNT union and the international organisation they are affiliated to the IWA/AIT (International Workers' Association) as a CNT member in Sevilla has been fired for union activity. The day of action is scheduled for July 5th.

It was the British public services union, Unison, conference this week and as well as warning the governing Labour Party over local government workers' pay they passed a motion on the situation in Palestine.

The RMT (transport) union has its' conference in Nottingham this week and there is a fringe meeting put together by the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group at 1.10pm at the Rope Walk Pub on Derby Road.

Green Issues


Despite all the campaigning by green groups over battery recycling the British authorities have failed to act and now face penalties under new EU legislation.

There is impressive mobilising and campaigning going on against incineration in various parts of the world, including the Basque country where 2000 demonstrated on the streets of San Sebastian last week. There was also a protest in Barcelona, Catalonia, where three weeks ago 1,000 people marched against a project from the Lafarge cement plant to burn different types of waste, including sewage sludge, tyres and solvents. The local "platform" against incineration also collected 6,200 signatures against this project.

Human Rights
The campaign for the freeing of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine continues, with a new petition. The speech given by actor Danny Glover at a vigil for the campaigner, and for freedom for Haiti is on You Tube here.

There is a demo supporting the long suffering opposition to the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe in London on Monday 23rd June. More from Action For Southern Africa here.

Blogs

Aled has a blog piece on Paul Mobbs' Energy Beyond Oil.

Derek reports that the Greens are likely to run a candidate in the Howden and Haltemprice by-election to give a voice to all those who support the former MP's stance on 42 days detention but vigourously oppose him on just about everything else and so could not bring themselves to vote for him. By voting Green people will be able to register opposition to the detention without trial moves without allowing a socially reactionary and economically neo-liberal Tory to present his party as the sole guardian of our rights and liberties. Elsewhere, Labour Left Dave Osler has taken Tony Benn to task for backing the Tory campaign.

Jack Ray is following the European football, Liam MacUaid and Dave Osler reflect on the anti-fascist event in London on Saturday, and the Socialist Unity blog reports on a call for the abolition of prescription charges.

New Labour's Dr Pangloss

It seems New Labour, in the electoral doldrums, with core voters deserting it and a whole host of economic and political problems to cope with, has its' very own Dr Pangloss who thinks we should all be happy smiley people grateful for our marvellous situation.

The Government Minister Tom Wood has opined on his blog that

'We live longer, eat healthier (if we choose), have better access to forms of entertainment never imagined a generation ago (satellite TV, DVD, computer games), the majority of us have fast access to the worldwide web, which we use to enable even more spending and for entertainment. Crime is down.'

He cannot understand why we are all so grumbly and "miserable".

Now some of this may well be true, for some people, particularly those who, a little research tells us "earn £92,100 as a junior minister and claimed £153,862 in expenses last year." Yes, life is good for such people. But does it not tell us a great deal about the mentality of New Labour that they are so out of touch with the struggling elements of the electorate in crime ridden estates, struggling to cope on benefits or two or three inadequately paid insecure jobs? More than this, even if Mr Wood is referring to the relatively prosperous elements of our society that the government has electorally pandered too, he surely must be aware, as many of these people are, that we are living on borrowed time in the face of looming economic, ecological and resource crises?

The Panglossian optimism and the failure to appreciate why so many are disgruntled reveals the vulgar materialism at the heart of New Labour - give the proles bread and circuses (or all day drinking and Big Brother on a big flat screen TV) and they should be happy! The likes of Wood seemingly cannot understand that humans cannot "live by bread alone" - there is a huge crisis of meaning, a huge deficit of purpose and a massive democratic deficit and disempowerment in Britain, and across much of the world now that neo-liberalism is being imposed or embraced by so many of the powers that be. Many of us cannot accept that the main purpose in life is to accumulate ever more gadgets, and to constantly remould our personal image to compete in some race that never ends and no-one wins. The destruction of much of the trade union tradition and the manufacturing base of the country have taken away the purpose of collective organisation and solidarity, the sense of belonging in many communities. There is a spiritual crisis, whereby the old religions have ceased to have authority and power (quite rightly, as they were more and more regarded as intellectually unsustainable and blatant servants of a particular section of the ruling class) but those communal, humanistic and democratic successors to religious communities and sentiments have not been allowed to flourish in the face of the imperatives of totalitarian and atomising capitalism.

More amazing still is that this enthusiastic former Blairite who voted for the Iraq war and sits in a government that has just started the process of introducing 42 days detention without charge cannot see that a climate of fear and hatred does not lead to smiley-happy-grateful citizens - either amongst the general populace or (particularly) amongst the target section of the community. His government wants us to live in fear and suspicion of our neighbours - and despite trumpeting about low crime feel they have to create ever more criminal offences (was it 3000 and rising?) and regularly announce (usually ineffective) headline grabbing "tough initiatives" and "clampdowns".

Despite all this, I think Mr Wood is wrong - most people are not miserable, those of us who can (and that is not all, even in this rich country) try to enjoy life and the benefits we have based on hard work and the hard work of our ancestors - no, what people are, is not miserable, but ANGRY. Angry that we have a bunch of incompetents at the helm in hock to the most right wing of US Presidents, state-building Eurocrats, nuclear energy companies, biotech firms and global media corporations - a government that worships the free market such that they know the price of everything and the value of nothing, a government that has mortgaged our children's future through expensive PFI and PPP schemes. Angry that every initiative, good or bad, is choked with bureucracy and red tape that confuses the public and demoralises the workers tasked with implementation. We are angry that we have a government that participated in launching an illegal war, sees fit to ignore and override public opinion in a patrician manner and runs shy of electoral contests that it knows it will lose. That 's how grateful we are!

Weekly Links - 16/06/08

Pictures of Green Left reps at the "unwelcoming" event for George Bush in London are on the Green Left blog here.

Last week's issue of the online journal Climate and Capitalism contains some interesting pieces.

After linking last week to James Caspell's blog, this week I am happy to be able to link to the blog of Aled Dilwyn Fisher, the excellent LSE SU General Secretary-Elect and Green Party & Green Left activist. Aled has posted this timely corrective to some of the less critical responses to the David Davis campaign. I have added Aled's blog to my links column.

New Ecosocialist Blog

A big welcome to the Ecosocialist blogosphere to James Caspell whose blog is entitled "La Lutte Continue!"

James' latest post covers the Labour Government yet again acting against the best interests of agency workers.

Weekly Links - 09/06/2008

Another quick few links this week :

Here is a short experimental film on the subject of wind turbines from Duncan Kenning, a fine art student at University College Falmouth in Cornwall. Yeah, yeah, we know they won't solve the energy crisis alone and will not give security of supply/baseload etc, but I'm getting a bit tired of the "they are a useless waste of money" brigade. Latest is Noel Edmonds (yes, that Noel Edmonds! The poor man's Jeremy Clarkson - or the rich(er) man's Jeremy Clarkson given his penchant for choppers and fat cheques from his TV employers?) who is mouthpiece for something called the Renewable Energy Foundation, and has a doom and gloom piece in the Daily Mirror. Now Noel makes some worthwhile points, but I am a little concerned about where he is coming from and where he is going! REF have form, uniting all the opponents of wind energy around a dubious negativist prospectus. I am no fan of the energy companies and corporate spin, but the agenda of many of the "private backers" of REF is all too transparnet and none too appealing either. Like the larger debate on climate change, the wind energy debate in the popular media is unfortunately now a minefield of competing corporate interests, reactionary agendas and conspiracism.

In the blogs this week, Jim reflected on the candidacy of Barack Obama, as does Septicisle at Obsolete whilst Derek saw his ascension in a more critical light.
SUB have a report on the Keep Our NHS Public AGM from Norma Turner, World By Storm started a debate on this week's Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. (I'm for a No, but at least this appears to be a civilized debate. We shall see what happens later this week!)

Greenman's Holiday

One of he surest things about going on holiday is that you will have a lot of catching up to do when you get back - hopefully normal service will be restored on the blog soon!

In the meantime, the Guardian devoted today's leading article to the subject of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) - here is the link.

Weekly Links - 24/05/08

Another quick selection of links for you this week during a busy period.

Blogs
Lots of comment everywhere about Labour's Crewe and Nantwich by-election disaster. As ever, perceptive comment from Green blogger Jim at Daily (Maybe)

From Jim's piece -

Hidden beneath the anger that New Labour had departed from Old/real Labour policies has always been that layer of voters who thought that was a good thing. Who wanted them to be less socialist, less working class, less orientated on the trade unions. More than that, New Labour persuaded a whole layer of people that it was the right and proper thing to do to desert those Labour traditions. There has been a gradual shift to the right in society, one that is becoming more obvious as Brown's government slowly crumbles and dies.

That means all we're left with is whether Labour are a more efficient, in touch Conservative Party than the Tories. And for a few years they were. But no more. As Harriet Harman said that "people are feeling the pinch". That's right. You for one.

Socialist Unity Blog have the Labour soft left Compass response to their party's defeat and an analytical piece by SUB uber-blogger Andy Newman.

Protest
The big protest against the Third Runway at Heathrow is coming up on 31st May - more from the Campaign Against Climate Change here.

Weekly Links - 19/04/08

I am very busy at the moment and over the next couple of weeks - hence the more infrequent nature of posting. Just time this week, then, to post a few links of interest.

The main continuing stories in the news have been the terrible disasters in Burma/Myanmar and China. In Britain the Burma aid effort is being coordinated through DEC, the Disasters Emergency Committee that links together major charities and aid organisations. The British Red Cross is coordinating a China Earthquake appeal.

Green Politics
A hard hitting new report on Climate Change was published last week and drew comment from the South East England Green Party Euro MP Caroline Lucas. Jim at Daily (Maybe)last week posted his final analysis on the London election results.

Blogging
Tim at Green Left Infoasis posted links to a range of interesting stories on Friday, including this article about John Cusack's film War Inc.

Derek Wall commented on the trials (and trial!) of infamous right wing Anglo-Irish blogger "Guido Fawkes" on the Socialist Unity Blog.

Weekly Links - 12/05/2008

Blogs
Critical Labour Left blogger Dave Osler has started a discussion on the class nature of Ken Livingstone's "progressive alliance" following Ken's latest Guardian article.

Green Left blogger Jim has an article on the Green-Ken "alliance" from the Green perspective (responding to the Independent publishing a critical letter on it from a "former" ultra-rightist, political tourist and all round dodgy individual), and also talks about Burma.

Sian Berry, the Green's Mayoral candidate posted her response to the result of the campaign on her New Statesman blog on Friday.

Meanwhile, GPEW Male PS Derek Wall posted an appeal for support for Zimbabwe's persecuted trades unionists on the Socialist Unity Blog.

Human Rights
The Amnesty International short film The Stuff Of Life exposing the reality of the torture known as "waterboarding" has been creating a real stir. You can watch it (not for the faint hearted or squeamish) here.

Nuclear Issues
An interesting analysis of some of the reasons why the British Government's enthusiasm for nuclear new build is misplaced by a member of the ruling party and former Cabinet Minister was published in the Guardian last week.

The Left
Former Soviet dissident and Socialist Boris Kagarlitsky had an article published by the CPGB this week giving his take on the choices facing the Left in Europe. Basically he diagnoses a fatal combination of utopianism and then disastrous alliance with the neo-liberal captured "centre left" in the name of "realism".

International
The Australian Green Left magazine last month had an article on the global food crisis and the role played in that by Biofuels.

Green Politics
The Crewe and Nantwich By-election is scheduled for next week on 22nd May and campaigning is well under way. The Greens have a young candidate, Robert Smith, fighting on a progressive platform with a focus on transport and the issue of the disaster that has been rail privatisation.

Weekly Links 05/05/08

This corner of the blogosphere
Jim at Daily (Maybe) has an excellent round up of green and left responses to this week's election results.

Also on this subject, Septic Isle at Obsolete takes a sober look at why Boris beat Ken.

Meanwhile over at Socialist Unity Blog, Labour left winger Louise looks at the poor Labour performance last week, Phil BC looks at the post-election situation in the Potteries and Andy Newman looks at the relative success of Plaid Cymru.

May Day Events
Lots of May Day events over the last few days. Here is a report and pics from the Nottingham event. West Midlands IWW had a May Day celebration on May Day evening, reported here. There were major confrontations in Istanbul (where the state tried to cruch the demonstrations) and in Hamburg where there was a three cornered fight between fascists, anti-fascists and police. In the US there was a dock strike against the war in the face of legal and bureaucratic opposition.

Weekly Links 27/04/08

A very busy week this week in the run up to May Day and the elections, but just enough time for a quick run around this corner of the blogosphere......

Plenty of stuff on the coming elections, particularly those in London.

Derek Wall at Another Green World pointed out that the Observer newspaper Leader this weekend, whilst ultimately backing Ken Livingstone, has favourable comment on the Mayoral campaign of Sian Berry and suggests a first preference for her!



Derek also blogged on the record of the Greens on the London Assembly.

Andy Newman at the Socialist Unity Blog has had a post critical of the SWP's Left List leaflet in London and another post praising the strategy of the Greens.

Stroppyblog highlights the News Of The World story on the far right candidate in the London Mayoral elections.

The Lenin's Tomb blog made a relatively rare excursion into environmental topics this week with observations on the implications of the latest news and predictions of Arctic thawing. He then spoils it in the comments by the usual predictable green-slagging, oh well, you can't have everything.

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Anton Vowl at Enemies of Reason blog this week reported on the strange tabloid story of the mutant squirrels and the unpleasant undertones in the reporting. Always a pleasure to end, News at Ten style, on a fluffy animal story.....

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Weekly Links - 20/04/2008

Blogging
This week Duncan Money reports on the latest inanities of the leadership of the Oxford Union.
Labour Left bloggers continue their fight against the direction of the party that holds them captive, now in the face of the latest 10p Tax row, commented on by Dave Osler. Susan at Grimmer Up North reports from the coal face.
Derek Wall this week blogged on the campaign of Noel Lynch to join the Greens Darren Johnson and Jenny Jones on the London Assembly.
Green From Below commented sensibly on the latest bad news from European Green parties.

British Politics

The British campaign for the abolition of the monarchy, "Republic" held their Spring Conference in Cardiff this weekend and launched their new campaign to Challenge The Oath.
Republic have also launched a new Republic Scotland website.
Left wing Republicanism should perhaps be centre stage in any new vision for these islands - perhaps Paul Kingsnorth could consider this in the light of his interesting article in the New Statesman this week about the Left and an English Civic nationalism similar to those present in Scotland and Wales. This forgotten initiative from a few years ago may contain ideas towards such a vision.

Preparing for May Day
The London May Day March this year assembles at Noon at Clerkenwell Green on May 1st, and veteran socialist Tony Benn is due to speak at the rally in Trafalgar Square.

A lot of "May Day" events elsewhere in Britain actually take place on the weekend following, or on the Bank Holiday Monday. In the West Midlands, however, the local General Membership Branch of the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) are holding a May Day event on May Day itself. They are showing films at the Lamp Tavern, Digbeth from 8 'til late, including Chaplin's Modern Times, the film "An Injury To One" about the slaying of union organiser Frank Little in Montana and film from Birmingham Indymedia on recent social and industrial struggle in the West Midlands. More here.

In the East Midlands, meanwhile, the traditional Chesterfield and District TUC May Day march, rally and celebrations in the market place take place on Bank Holiday Monday, 5th May from 10.30am. Nottingham's May Day march is on Saturday 3rd May.


In the USA there will hopefully be workplace action against the continuing war on May Day.

Unions and Work
Here is a report on the National Blood Service Demo I mentioned last week.
Meanwhile the international solidarity action of the South African dock workers was an example for us all this week.

Green Politics
The Biofuels issue is getting more coverage, particularly as the evidence grows for what Greens, Ecosocialists and many other commentators suggested was likely to happen - food prices pushed up and the poorest hit hardest.
South East MEP Caroline Lucas this week slammed the latest "Green" credential claims of David Cameron and his Tories.

New Links and Green Books

I have added a few new links to my links column, the first being Skeptical Science, an interesting and useful site set up by John Cook, an ex-Physicist who majored in Solar Physics at the University of Queensland. I have added it to my resources section. From the site intro -

Scientific skepticism is a healthy thing. Scientists should always challenge themselves to expand their knowledge, improve their understanding and refine their theories. Yet this isn't what happens in global warming skepticism. Skeptics vigorously criticise any evidence that supports anthropogenic global warming and yet eagerly, even blindly embrace any argument, op-ed piece, blog or study that refutes global warming.

So this website gets skeptical about global warming skepticism. Do their arguments have any scientific basis? What does the peer reviewed scientific literature say?

My other new link is in my left parties and blogs section, where I have added the very brave young anti-fascist Duncan Money's blog - Nation of Duncan.



Sian Berry's book, 50 Ways To Save Water And Energy is getting a boost from her high profile during the London election, which is a very good thing as the book promotes things that individuals can do to help save the planet, whilst also usually saving money - and Sian's profile shows that it is not all just about individual action, collective and political action are essential.

The Green Party Political Broadcast for the local elections aired on TV last night, and very good it was too. The Greens also have this excellent website up and running for the local elections - http://www.votegreenparty.org.uk/



Back on books and Lancaster Green Party City Councillor Anne Chapman has a book out entitled Democratizing Technology, published by Earthscan, which looks at risk, responsibility and the regulation of chemicals.

Weekly Links - 13/04/2008

Peace Movement
One of the biggest UK news stories this week has been the stunning victory at the High Court of The Corner House and the Campaign Against The Arms Trade against the Government over the dropping of the BAE-Saudi arms deal inquiry. This has excited much comment across the blogosphere and elsewhere, and is now putting pressure on Gordon Brown to answer serious questions.
CAAT have announced a demonstration outside the BAE AGM on 7th May. They also have an online petition to the Prime Minister. Here is how the High Court victory was reported on the CAAT blog.

Meanwhile, in Wales a demonstration is scheduled for Saturday 26th April about the privatised St Athan Military Academy. Assemble at 1.30pm on the lawns opposite Cardiff City Hall for a March at 2pm.

Workers' Struggles
The teacher's strike planned for 24th April is gaining momentum, and Stroppyblog lists some of the marches and rallies planned around the country on the day. The Green Party Trade Union Group blog has a report from the recent NUT conference by Phillipe Harari, which concludes "this was a great Conference, showing the NUT at its best – united in fighting for a fairer education system within a fairer society."

The Blood Service Workers' demo at the NBS HQ in Watford took place on Friday.



Here are photos from other actions during the ongoing campaign.

In Health, there is much disquiet over the behaviour of Unison representatives in the lastest negotiations, particularly New Labour candidate-to-be, Karen Jennings - more from Martin Wicks' blog here, and Gill George (Unite union NEC member) here.

Green Politics
Green Party Mayoral candidate Sian Berry has blogged her reasons for standing on her New Statesman blog. Her percentage in the opinion polls has significantly improved since the start of the campaign.



Rupert Read has recently blogged a summary of the Norwich Green Party manifesto for the local elections there, where the Greens are challenging to become the main opposition Party. The London Greens also launched their manifesto this week.

International
London Green MEP Jean Lambert this week called for action on human rights in Bangladesh to ensure free and fair elections there. Green Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has been speaking out on the situation in Zimbabwe, China and Tibet. Renegade Eye has stimulating posts on Zimbabwe and Lebanon.
Indymedia has a report that armed Canadian coastguards have stormed the Sea Shepherd ship, (in the area to obstruct the seal cull), and arrested the crew. Indymedia also has more news on the repression directed towards Mexico's indiginous community in the Oaxaca area.

Weekly Links - 06/04/08

Blogs
Jim, at Daily (Maybe) this week launched a survey of readers of his blog on the British political situation and also linked to the "Vote Match" site for the London Election.
On that subject, Liam Mac Uaid this week reported on his left group's statement on the London Mayoral election - calling for a first preference for Sian Berry, the Green candidate.
Duncan Money, one of the bravest current anti-fascist bloggers, reported this week on the latest foot shooting incident of one of the far rightists in London.
In a week that has seen day after day of barely concealed tabloid joy at stories which gave them the opportunity to play on the meanest and basest prejudices, Anton Vowl at Enemies Of Reason took a look at the pit of stench that is the current worst offending tabloid, The Express. At Obsolete, Septicisle also looked at the influence of the tabloid scum on topics such as privacy/data theft and cannabis classification.
Meanwhile, from Ireland, there is comment on Cedar Lounge Revolution blog in the wake of the Bertie Ahern resignation announcement.
From the US, Renegade Eye started a debate on Obama and US foreign policy on Monday.
Finally this week, news that the lefty blogger responsible for high traffic UK blog Lenin's Tomb is going into print.

Activism
Rising Tide called a day of action on polluting energy companies failing to address the challenge of climate change on April 1st, entitled "Fossil Fools Day".
There were a series of actions around the country, including in Nottingham, where E.On were targeted and blockaded, and in London where the Football Association were targetted due to their acceptance of prominent sponsorship by E.On.

Green Politics



Just love those Sian Berry posters!
The Green Party of The United States this week posted election news from Illinois and Wisconsin.
English Green MEP Caroline Lucas this week led a delegation to talk to EU Commissioner (Environment) Dimas about illegal logging and deforestation.

Labour News
Various interesting stories highlighted on Labourstart this week - amongst those catching my eye were a large protest against low pay and corporate greed in Slovenia, continuing industrial unrest amongst Nike workers in Vietnam, and repression of workers struggles in Egypt.

Weekly Links 01/04/08

Various posts worthy of note from fellow green and left bloggers over the last week:

Green Party London Mayoral candidate Sian Berry turned her spotlight on the Liberal Democrats' candidate Brian Paddick in her New Statesman blog.

Derek Wall has been supporting the campaign of Bristol Green Party Councillor Charlie Bolton and others against the destruction of the Bristol-Bath cycle route.

Peter Tatchell continued his coverage of events in Pakistan-controlled Baluchistan.

Caroline Lucas commented on the Canadian seal cull.

Jim at Daily (Maybe) blogged on the situation in Tibet and the debate in the West.

Molly at Gaian Economics commented on the Tata motor industry take-over.

Green From Below picked up on the Qollasuyo Declaration on climate change from the Climate and Capitalism blog.

Bhopal Marchers Have Reached Delhi

I blogged back in February about the struggle of the survivors, relatives and supporters of victims of the Bhopal Disaster (December 1984) and their renewed march on Delhi after the Indian government failed to live up to previous pledges. The marchers have now reached Delhi. Here is the press release issued at the end of the arduous protest march:

Bhopal Survivors Arrive on Foot to Remind PM of Unkept Promises

28 MARCH, 2008. NEW DELHI – Marking two years since their last padayatra from Bhopal to Delhi, 50 people, including survivors of the 1984 gas tragedy, their children, people exposed to contaminated drinking water and their suupporters, today concluded their second 800 km march by walking from Nizamuddin park to Jantar Mantar. "We were forced to undertake this grueling walk because the PM failed to keep his word. This time, we are not going back until we get a public declaration from him that he will deliver on his promise," said Hazra Bee, a survivor and one of the padayatris.

The PMO has rejected a request for an appointment with the PM, and two further requests have not elicited a reply. However,international support for the survivors is pouring in. More than 1300 faxes from 18 countries have already reached the PMO, prompting officials there to threaten survivors with legal action. Yesterday, members of the Scottish parliament marched to the Indian embassy in Edinburgh, even as other Bhopal supporters in London went to the Indian embassy there to submit a memorandum urging the Prime Minister to meet the Bhopalis' demands.

On April 16, 2006, the Prime Minister ended a 21 day strike, including a 6-day hunger strike by the Bhopalis, by promising to meet the demands of the survivors. The survivors had demanded an empowered Commission to implement social, medical and economic rehabilitation schemes for survivors and their children, in addition to cleaning up Union Carbide's toxic wastes, providing clean water to water-affected communities, and taking legal action against Dow Chemical and Union Carbide. However, the PM suggested a Coordinating Committee to oversee implementation of rehabilitation schemes and environmental remediation.

Over the last two years, the Coordination Committee has had three meetings and accomplished nothing. More than 25,000 people continue to consume poison-tainted groundwater in the absence of reliable and good quality water supply. More than 5000 tons of toxic wastes remain buried and spread in and around the factory site, and no efforts have been taken to contain them or export them to the US for final disposal. No rehabilitation schemes have been implemented.

Government inaction on rehabilitation and environmental remediation has placed Bhopalis at the receiving end of two disasters – the 1984 gas leak and the ongoing water contamination -- both with pronounced effects on children and future generations. Despite a 1991 Supreme Court order directing the Government to extend insurance benefits to 100,000 gas-affected children, not one child has been covered, leading to a spurt in destitution among families with sick children. In contamination-affected communities, congenital deformities among newborns is a rising trend.

The future generations are in danger. That, say Bhopal survivors, is why any Commission that is set up has to execute its schemes over at least 30 years. The Bhopalis estimate that the Government needs to invest in a corpus of Rs. 2000 crore to provide an annual budget of Rs. 100 crores for the Commission throughout its term.

In contrast to the inaction on Bhopal, the Government has, in the last two years, openly advanced the cause of Dow Chemical and Union Carbide. Information unearthed from the PMO through RTI indicates that ambassador Ronen Sen, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Ratan Tata, P. Chidambaram and Kamalnath have all written letters supporting Dow Chemical. In response, the Cabinet Secretary has suggested exonerating Dow Chemical keeping in mind the scope of investments by Dow and other US companies in India.

In less than a decade, Dow Chemical has chalked up an impressive list of violations of law and due process. In February 2007, Dow caught for paying more than Rs. 80 lakhs in bribes to Indian agriculture ministry officials to register three toxic pesticides. In 2005, Indian Oil revoked a technology deal with Dow after it found out that Dow was trying to sell Union Carbide's technology by lying that it was its own. Recently, Dow has managed to convince Government of India to approve the sale of Union Carbide's technology to Reliance Industries despite the fact that a 1992 court order directs the Government to confiscate all Union Carbide's assets in India.

"This is a repeat of the betrayal of 1989 where the Government colluded with Union Carbide to shortchange the people of Bhopal on the compensation settlement," said Satinath Sarangi, another padayatri and a long-time Bhopal activist from Bhopal Group for Information and Action. "23,000 people have died, and the collusion still continues. We're determined to break this corporate-Government nexus that plays havoc with people's lives."

A daily account of the 2008 march can be found here.

Weekly Links - 24/03/2008

Today is the anti-nuclear demonstration at Aldermaston marking 50 years of CND (The Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament.) I will hopefully be able to post some links to reports later in the week. First here are some photographs from the 15th March anti-war demo in London posted on the Green Party Trade Union Group blog. The blog also advertises the South East London Health Rally planned for Saturday 29th March.

Around the blogs this week A Very Public Sociologist comments on the turmoil within the Labour Party in Scotland, and Jim at The Quiet Road started a discussion on CO2 emissions per barrel of various oil products here, and continued it with corrections to some dubious oil company data here.

Chicken Yoghurt and Enemies of Reason blogs have posts about the human-animal embryo debate.

Smiffy has a post on Cedar Lounge Revolution blog dissecting the latest war apologetics of Christopher Hitchens which found their way to the Irish Times after being published in Slate (Warning for those of a nervous disposition - it starts with a truly stomach churning pic of Hitchens in the shower!) Dave Osler this week looked at the Iraq War anniversary.

Louise posted on the "counter terrorism" bill at the Socialist Unity blog this week, while Charlie Marks at Rebellion Sucks commented on the failure of the Police to prosecute the Tory MP at the centre of a nepotistic corruption scandal.

Liam MacUaid reports on the experience of attending a local Catholic Mass over Easter, while Jack Ray comments on the current debate around religion, race and politics in the US started by the words of Barack Obama's associate Reverend Wright. Green Left Infoasis has comment on similar topics from Cynthia McKinney.

Lastly, Derek Wall at Another Green World over the weekend blogged on food miles and the despicable behaviour of Foreign Office Minister and Columbian regime apologist Kim Howells.