Occupy!

Breaking the silence of this blog (Silence due to many commitments including the local anti-cuts group, fighting to save jobs at work and battling against trolls, shills and apologists on many a discussion board)to give my full support to the Occupy Movement worldwide.

One of the most encouraging things about this upsurge is the challenge to the narrowness of the "accepted" political and economic discourse, by which we get the full range of views in the public arena from A to B and everyone with views from C to Z is either ignored, ridiculed or attacked as an "extremist".

Here are some useful links:

Occupy London

Occupy Wall St

Occupy Together website

Occupy Movement Wikipedia Page

Support your local Occupiers! Another World is Possible!

High School Osborne......

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

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

Interesting New Stuff From The Corner House

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.

May Day Greetings!

May Day Greetings to all readers of Greenman's Occasional Organ old and new.

It seems we are fated to live with the ancient curse of "living in interesting times"!

Feelings of solidarity and comradeship go out to all those facing attacks from bosses and governments, to all those living in the shadow of the new flu and the fears that it arouses, to all those who dream and organise and struggle for a better world.

May out of our current trials and battles come greater international understanding and unity, and clearer views of how we might work together to fight climate change, eliminate bigotry and take back control of our own lives, workplaces and communities from neo-liberal capitalism and corporatism.

Below is the draft text of the leaflet that the Nottinghamshire General Membership Branch of the IWW will be distributing at local May Day events over the next few days:

Make This A May Day To Remember – Join The IWW!

Whilst May Day has historically been a day of worker's solidarity and a celebration of the power of working people, this is not a day or year like any other.
That's because the world is in the midst of economic recession and financial failure, and it is workers worldwide who are suffering from layoffs and mass firings in almost every sector of the global economy.

While working people are under attack, the capitalists are taking advantage of the situation to claim for themselves bigger and larger shares of national and global wealth, as governments rush to bail out banks and investment firms, which have been allowed to become "too big to fail."

Under the newly amended rules of capitalism, corporations (especially in the financial sector) can scam, steal, and hustle virtually everyone, and when the economy falls, the government sails in and bails them out with public money!

Under a system such as this, the capitalists can never lose. It's like a gambling casino, where the house rules change all the time to benefit the winners.

But workers are losing.

Around the world, workers are facing lost jobs, vanished careers, repossessed homes, and families broken and shattered against the grinding wheel of Capital. Capitalism is destroying our natural environment and squandering the resources of the world in its never-ending pursuit of profit at all cost. It is even beginning to threaten the long term survival of a viable civilization. The pursuit of dwindling resources leads to more catastrophic wars.

This will be one hell of a May Day for many - but it's the one that globalized capitalism has fashioned for us all.

Only if labour – the organised working class - is truly globalized can it now effectively fight for its’ fair share from the ravages of capitalism.

Everywhere, people are beginning to fight back – strikes, occupations, militant demonstrations are growing across what were previously held up as countries of capitalist triumph. Many of the tactics and strategies being employed have a long and glorious history – some are those that were employed from the start by the Industrial Workers of the World, the international Union set up in North America at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Despite a marvellous period of struggle that union was diminished by repression, war and the false hopes upheld by business unions and dogmatic “Communists” alike. Nevertheless it survived, and now in the first decade of the Twenty First Century the IWW, or Wobblies as they are affectionately known, have enjoyed renewed growth as working people seek effective and militant forms of organisation untainted by soggy capitulation or links to failed models of 20th Century regimes.

The IWW has particularly grown in Britain, with new groups and branches springing up across the country – including locally in Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire. Many who attended the Put People First demonstration in London in March this year were surprised and impressed to see the many flags and banners of the IWW, with a block of marchers to rival many of the TUC unions.

The IWW is not exclusive, you can hold dual card membership with a TUC union if they are the main organisation in your workplace – we are not about dividing, but uniting workers around a militant platform. We are not about splitting workers and sectionalism, but about uniting all workers in each industry and all industries. We are about workers, not bureaucrats, calling the shots, about democracy and direct action rather than credit cards and funding neo-liberal political parties. We are not about narrow nationalism, but international workers’ solidarity that recognises that, as ever, UNITY IS STRENGTH!

Join with us and begin the task of building the new society within the shell of the old. Defend the gains that working people have made and look forward to a just, sustainable and dynamic society where all are engaged in democracy at every level, in every community and workplace.

Forward to the future – forward to ONE BIG UNION!

Left and Green G20 Comment

Some very good left and green commentary before and after the G20.

On Britain's Guardian Comment Is Free pages there was a good article by Seamus Milne about the protests (here) and another, beautiful and poetic statement of the situation we find ourselves in, (as opposed to where we could be) in the prosperous West/North, by Jeremy Seabrook

Imagine a society that looks with different eyes on the submissive surrender of its children to forces which, from the moment they open their eyes, ensnare them in the silken nets of commerce, instructing them in perpetual dissatisfaction and teaching the corrosive lesson that even the most abundant plenty can never be enough. Imagine a liberation that threw aside the sexual burka, the invisible but ubiquitous garment that determines a rigid hierarchy of desirability and glamour, so that the beauty of the wise, the kind, the merciful and the noble might appear once more through the shallow virtue of the skin-deep. Think of a society where voices of sobriety and wisdom are audible above the strident cries of the preachers of the market.

The hyperactivity of a manic entertainment industry will fade, and we will ask ourselves why we spent one-eighth of our life on earth gazing at other people's passions by the unearthly glow of a TV set, or why we sat for a year in traffic and stood uncounted hours in line waiting to relieve ourselves of the money we have earned. Why, people will ask, have we been both distracted from life and amused to death? Whatever happened to our ability to delight and enchant, to hold one another enthralled as we sang and celebrated our lives, rather than wept over the fate of shadows on screens, or vicariously lived the rise and fall of the famous, paying homage to their fabricated success?

More here.

Following the Summit announcements, the usual suspects like the Brownite mouthpiece Will Hutton sung the praises of Gordon and the G20. The Brownites and other enthusiasts for the deal hope that we will believe that the leopard can change its spots, that the IMF, strengthened and emboldened, will not use that new strength to impose an only slightly amended version of the "Washington consensus" globally (perhaps in the age of trillion dollar rescue packages and global "quantative easing" we should speak of the "London Consensus" - a shiny new "humanitarian" and cleaned up method of imposing the power of corporations and finance houses on the poor people of the world.)

Fortunately questions are already being asked about the lack of a significant environmental and climate change tackling element to what is proposed, and the nature of the agenda behind the agreement, as well as the unlikelihood of meaningful action by those who have been instrumental in creating the current crises in the first place.

Mobilise For The G20 Protests!

The G20 protests over the next week offer the first real opportunity for mass protest in Britain around the deepening economic crisis and the ongoing assault on ordinary people being carried out to appease the bankers and finance capitalists.

The neo-liberal beast is wounded, it is time to forge the coalition to begin digging its' grave and fight those who seek its' resurrection.

There are so many events and types of action planned that there is something for everyone - a way for everyone who is affected and concerned to show their anger, unrest and resolve to find better ways of running our world.

There is a massive demonstration planned for Saturday 28th March under the banner Put People First! - For, Jobs Justice and Climate. The broad demands of the march are for decent jobs and public services for all, an end to global poverty and inequality and for the building of a green economy to tackle climate change. Whether the current political and economic systems and their representatives at the G20 would be willing or able to deliver these things is another question! But in that question are the seeds of a debate that needs to be had and the beginnings of a radical critique. I would urge everyone who can to get down to London for what promises to be a massive demo - assembling at Victoria Embankment from 11am.

The Wobblies, the growing section of the IWW in this part of the world promise a vibrant and militant bloc, plus there should be representatives of just about every left of centre, progressive and campaigning organisation from the UK and farther afield.

For those interested in NVDA (non-violent direct action) the Climate Camp are holding a City G20 Climate camp on 1st April in the City outside the European Climate Exchange.

The Stop The War Coalition and CND are raising the peace issue at several points.

For other forms of action a whole range of groups are planning various actions during the summit period.
See Indymedia - main G20 page here and also - here, here, here and here.

The G20 Meltdown Site is Here.

The Alternative G20 meeting website is here.

Similar demonstrations are taking place in Berlin and Frankfurt in Germany, and then on Monday 30th March there is mass action planned in Ireland.

WE WON'T PAY FOR THEIR CRISIS!

Green Work And The Recession - Meeting in London

Green Work and the Recession

Public Meeting

Called by Haringey Green Party

Thursday March 19th, 7pm

Kurdish Cultural Centre, Portland Gardens, N.8 (rear of Haringey Green Lanes overground station, approached via Green Lanes and Stanhope Gardens

* The Green New Deal, a plan to help us find a way out of the triple crisis of financial crunch, rising oil prices and climate change.

* Limit working hours to share work and make time for living!

* Oppose workfare and benefit cuts!

With
JEAN LAMBERT,
London's Green Member of the European Parliament

and

SEAN THOMPSON,
Critical writer on political economy and Green Party activist

* The Green New Deal would:

create thousands of green-collar jobs
provide free insulation to every home
build safer ways of investing
raise finance for green energy
renew small and local businesses
increase food production in cities
invest in public transport
Greens who have been elected to local councils, the London Assembly and the European Parliament are already pushing through these ideas.

* Green work should be secure work. Jean Lambert has consistently pushed for employment rights for temporary agency staff.

* Green work must be well paid. Greens in the Greater London Assembly have pushed for a minimum ‘living wage’ of £7.45 per hour, in place of the pathetic national minimum wage of £5.73.

* Shorter working time can reduce layoffs; Jean has consistently challenged the UK Government's opt-out of the Working Time Directive and worked against it in the European Parlaiment. She recently backed the TUC’s Work Your Proper Hours Day on 27 February, the annual event which aims to ensure employees remember - and claim - their rights in the workplace. Over five million people in the UK regularly work unpaid overtime, handing their employers £26.9 billion in free work.

* Greens oppose the government’s Welfare Reform Bill, and supported the lobby of Parliament against it on March 3. Greens say no to benefit cuts, to forcing the disabled and parents of young children back to work, to workfare for the long-term unemployed, to privatisation of job centres and of back-to-work schemes .

Weekly Links 22/02/2009

International
Internationally the political temperature continues to rise, particularly for the Sarkozy regime in France, in Ireland, where 100,000 took to the streets and the inspiring Waterford occupation continues, in Latvia where the government has just fallen, and around the world as governments and their finances begin to look increasingly wobbly.


British Politics
The PCS union is mobilising around the proposed Labour Governmnent Welfare "reforms", with a lobby planned for next week.

Also this week, the Independent revealed the sorry tale of the possible destination of large quantities of British toxic waste.

On his Euro election blog this week, Derek Wall reports on the nasty effects of some EU policies on peasants and workers in Colombia.

There was a good turnout of Greens from London area (with some good work in achieving this from Green Left and the Campaign Against Climate Change)at the Downing Street demo last week against Heathrow expansion.

Peace
More details came out this week on the potentially disastrous crash between British and French nuclear submarines in the Atlantic. BBC report here and CND commentary here.

Gender Politics
For readers in England I have received the following about forthcoming events in Wolverhampton for International Women's Week -

A unique opportunity to listen to two prominent women leaders will take place in Wolverhampton on 12th March 2009. Ludmila Ermakova: Director and founder of the Crisis Centre “Ekaterina”, Ekaterinburg, Russia and Mavluda Shirinova: Director and founder of the Socio-Economic Development Centre “SABR”, Samarkand, Uzbekistan will be presenting their work together for the first time. You will also have the opportunity to listen to a contribution from Natalia Sukhareva, Head of the Sverdlovsk Regional Guild of Lawyers and her colleague Marina Zakharova, who were the first women in Russia to develop a training programme on domestic violence for lawyers.

The presentations will provide an opportunity to discuss the development of services for women abroad as well as debate and bring women’s issues to the forefront. The presentation is organised by The Haven Wolverhampton which has worked in partnership with the above organisations for over a decade and helped to support their work with vulnerable women and children (read more on http://www.havenrefuge.org.uk/International/International.htm).

The presentation will take place on 12th March 2009, from 1.00pm-4.00pm at the Light House Media Centre, Fryer Street, Wolverhampton. The event is free and open to anyone who wishes to learn more about women’s organisations in post-Soviet society. The presentations will be in Russian and in English. Please hurry, as places are limited.

On the same day the Light House will be hosting The Women’s Fair (11am-4pm) organised by WOW, The Haven Wolverhampton, YWCA and V Involved. This is a free event entitled ‘What Women Want’ which will include information stands, workshops covering everything from self defence and confidence building to pampering sessions, a children’s area and a large number of stalls from local groups and organisations. Free snacks and drinks will be provided. What’s more, the night will be rounded off with an evening of comedy from some of the UK best comediennes, courtesy of the Light House.

The events will take place as part of the City celebrations for International Women’s Week 2009 which was supported and managed by Wolverhampton City Council. All International Women’s Week events taking place in Wolverhampton are included in a programme which has been published by Wolverhampton City Council.

Links and Events

Many upcoming events in the UK and elsewhere that might interest those of a green/left persuasion, so a section on these as well as some other links this week.

Coming Events
Keep The Post Public National March and Rally
CWU Midlands region proudly hosts a national march and rally on Saturday 14th March 2009.
To be held in the constituency of the minister for postal services Pat Mc
Fadden MP.

Assemble 11.30am at the SIKH TEMPLE, corner of Greencroft & Arthur Street, Bilston, Wolverhampton

Speakers include

Billy Hayes GS CWU

Dave Ward DGS(P) CWU

Geraldine Smith and John Grogan CWU supported MP'S

Roger McKenzie TUC

Gerard Coyne UNITE

Chaired by Jane Loftus CWU Vice President.

The CWU also have a National Rally and Lobby planned for 24th February in London.

Anti-Heathrow Expansion Demo 19th Feb - Beat the counter-demo !

A message from the Campaign Against Climate Change -

Urgent - now is the time to fight on Heathrow !
Demonstrate against Heathrow Expansion, Downing Street,
London from 5.30 pm this Thursday 19th February
www.campaigncc.org www.campaigncc.org/heathrow.shtml
This is a demonstration against the crass decision to expand Heathrow – 5.30 pm to 7.00 pm opposite Downing Street.
Speakers to include John McDonnell MP, Susan Kramer MP, Jean Lambert MEP.
Pre-demo photo-op 1.00 pm, see below.
However, a counter-demonstration in favour of expanding Heathrow is happening at the same time in Parliament Square. See here –
http://www.climate-resistance.org/2009/02/the-modern-movement-vs.-the-miserable-moment.html
We need maximum number of people to make sure their effort is dwarfed. Please make it if you can – its only an hour or so after work. No doubt there’s aviation money behind the counter-demo (it also looks to have links with the whole sceptic backlash network..) …we have to beat them with people-power !
If you can make it lunchtime – 1.00 pm – for our photo op outside the Dept of Transport, Horseferry Road (St James Park or Westminster tube) that would be really helpful. This is for media for whom the demo is too late in the day, and is our chance to get our message across in advance.
The theme is Green Future versus the BROWN past – please come dressed/equipped appropriately for either of these – on one side, the colour Green - windmills – solar panels – placards saying ‘low carbon economy’ ‘Green jobs’ ‘renewable revolution’ etc…and on the other side the colour Brown, aeroplanes, smoking chimneys, coal, placards saying ‘business as usual’, ‘carbon-intensive growth as usual’ ‘climate suicide’ etc..etc…(note we have Gordon Brown masks – we need appropriate placards for Brown to be holding – and props to go with them)
You can also bring the themes, as described above, to the demo itself. Or your own brilliant ideas and creativity. (We will be there from 4.30 pm if you want to help us get set up)
Finally - they will never build the 3rd runway but this decision shows that Brown is happy to continue in ‘carbon-intensive-growth-as-usual’ mode just when we should be sending out a strong signal that we are making climate change priority number one, in advance of the critical Copenhagen Climate Talks coming up in December …….. Another reason this decision has to be challenged ….to the maximum degree possible !
PLEASE PASS THIS NOTICE AROUND !!

March for Jobs, Justice And Climate - 28th March
I have mentioned this before, and it looks to be shaping up to be a biggie. Now is the time to pull together our local networks of activists to mobilise and organise transport for this and the other events around the G20. Despite the usual, predictable, soggy centrist pleading to the ruling class of the union and NGO leaders these events will offer an opportunity to raise more radical demands and strategies and connect with broad swathes of the population coming into socio-political activity and conflict with the status quo. This is the press release that went out last week -

A huge new platform of unions, development agencies, faith and environmental groups plans to tell world leaders attending the G20 summit in April that only just, fair and sustainable policies can lead the world out of recession.

The alliance, which includes the TUC, Oxfam, ActionAid, Friends of the Earth and CAFOD, is calling on people to join a major demonstration for jobs, justice and climate in London on Saturday 28 March, five days before the summit.

Under the banner Put People First - March for Jobs, Justice and Climate, the groups will demand decent jobs and public services for all, an end to global poverty and inequality, and a green economy.

The march will assemble on the Embankment en route to Hyde Park for a rally to be addressed by speakers and celebrities from the UK and around the world.
The organisations backing Put People First say: “Recession must not be an excuse for putting off action for global justice or to stop climate chaos. The only sustainable way to rebuild the global economy is to create a fair distribution of wealth that provides decent jobs and public services for all, ends global inequality and builds a low carbon future.”

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “People are angry at the job losses caused by this recession made in the world’s banks and at the slow response of world leaders to the challenges of poverty and climate change.

“But while these are going to be desperately tough times, the collapse of free market fundamentalism and the big changes already brought about by President Obama provide the hope that world leaders can change course and start to build a fair and sustainable world.”

Director of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition Ashok Sinha said: “We can and must tackle climate change and the economic downturn together. Only by investing in green jobs and thriving low carbon economies will a sustainable way of life be secured for generations to come.

“The lives and livelihoods of millions of poor and vulnerable people across all countries are at stake. The leaders of the G20 owe it to those most at risk yet least responsible for both the economic crisis and the threat of climate chaos to help create a global Green New Deal to tackle both.”

ActionAid Head of Policy Dr Claire Melamed said: “The crisis is more than a banking failure - it is a crisis of the whole system, but also a huge chance to put the economic system on a new and fairer path.

“With rising inequality and poverty made more desperate by the impact of the financial crisis, world leaders have to step up to the challenge - and the world is watching. The time is now: to make finance transparent and accountable, to share wealth more fairly, and to make markets work for everyone.”

People can keep in touch with the campaign via the website www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk

Text of the statement endorsed by organisations backing the march: On Thursday 2 April the leaders of 20 of the world’s biggest economies meet in London to tackle the recession and global financial crisis. Even before the banking collapse caused recession, the world suffered vast poverty and inequality and faced the looming threat of climate chaos. Governments, business and international institutions have followed a model of financial deregulation that has encouraged short-term profits, instability and an economy fuelled by ever-increasing debt, both financial and environmental. There can be no going back to business as usual. The only sustainable way to rebuild the global economy is to create a fair distribution of wealth that provides decent jobs and public services for all, ends global inequality and builds a low carbon future. Recession must not be an excuse for putting off action for global justice or to stop climate chaos. Creating a just, fair and sustainable world is the only lasting way out of recession.On Saturday 28 March thousands of people will march through London as part of a global campaign to challenge the G20 leaders.
Our message is clear.
We must put people first.
Put People First: Decent jobs and public services for all.
Put People First: End global poverty and inequality.
Put People First: Build a green economy

Initial list of organisations backing the march: ActionAid, Action for Global Climate Community, ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa), Advocacy International, Akina Mama Wa Africa , BECTU, BOND (British Overseas NGOs for Development), Bretton Woods Project, CAFOD, Centre for Democracy and Development, Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, CHIC (Change is Coming), Christian Aid, Equity, Everychild, Fairtrade Foundation, Fatima Women’s Network, Friends of the Earth, Global Call to Action Against Poverty, GMB, Jubilee Debt Campaign, MRDF (Methodist Relief and Development Fund), Musicians Union, Muslim Council of Britain, National Union of Journalists, National Union of Teachers, New Internationalist, One World Action, Oxfam, Pants to Poverty, PCS, People and Planet, Progressio, Salvation Army, Save the Children, Stamp Out Poverty, Stop AIDS Campaign, Stop Climate Chaos Coalition, Tax Justice Network, Teach a Man to Fish, Tearfund, Trade Justice Movement, Trades Union Congress, Trading Visions, Traidcraft, UCU (Universities and Colleges Union), UK Aid Network, UNISON, UNITE, War on Want, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, World Development Movement, World Vision, WWF.

Jim, at Daily Maybe has info and links on a whole lot of other events coming up, including the Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union conference and a Hands Off the People Of Iran benefit and Pete Postlethwaite talking about his climate change themed film - Age of Stupid.

Tyne and Wear Working Class Bookfair
Tyne and Wear GMB of the IWW are organising a Working Class Bookfair in March -
Saturday 14th March between 11 and 4.00 at the Linskill Community Centre, North Shields, Tyne and Wear.

During the bookfair we also have 3 meetings on site:-

Dave Hopper, Gen Sec, Durham Miners Association
(NE Area NUM) and Davie Guy, President North East Area of NUM (and DMA) are speaking at 12.30 on the Miner's Strike 25 Years on, and the NUM today.

Tyne and Wear IWW on organising at work.

Trevor Bark (WEA) on the Credit Crunch.

Printed publicity available.

Web site:-

http://workingclassbookfair.vpweb.com (comments welcome!)

Unions and Work

A message from the (UK) Labour Research Department
The TUC and its affiliated unions have asked the Labour Research Department (LRD) to carry out a survey on climate change and the workplace. We hope to find examples of union workplace action on global warming and to identify the problems faced by union reps and activists in this area. The survey will contribute to union campaigning and publications on the environment.

The survey is on LRD's website:

http://www.lrd.org.uk/surveys/climate/

Please spend a few minutes completing the questionnaire as soon as
possible.

The campaign of Jerry Hicks in the Unite union election continues to be supported by various left bloggers including Green Left's own Derek Wall.

Meanwhile, Dave Osler blogged this week on the dispute at the Morning Star newspaper.

British Politics
Surprise, Surprise! the architect of New Labour's Draconian Welfare "Reforms" has defected to the Tories. I'm surprised he bothered really, but I suppose he is trying to get in with the likely new regime - looking after number one, no change of personal politics and prejudices required! Says it all really.

International
The crisis rumbles on. The question is now being seriously asked as to which country in the EU will be the first to default on its debts. One contender for this dubious honour is currently Ireland. We are on the verge of completely new political and economic territory internationally - the ancient Chinese curse of "living in interesting times"!
Derek has blogged this week on death threats and harassment of journalists, peasants and environmentalists in Peru.

Blogging
Finally this week, a good post on the Socialist Unity Blog from Phil BC, where he links a selection of lefty blogs, some new, some old friends. Plenty of good reading!

Coming Events To Raise The Political Temperature

A series of coming events should help to raise the political temperature and build the kinds of coalitions we need to see developing in the current period.

This week there is to be action on the London Underground situation - the RMT have arranged a demonstration in London against LU/TfL proposed job cuts

Wednesday 11th February 2009
Demonstrate against the proposed job cuts on LUL / TFL.

Meet outside St James Park tube station at 07:30 am to demonstrate outside 55 Broadway.

At the end of the month, various anti-poverty, environmentalist and campaigning groups have organised a discussion and "teach in" day in London entitled
6 Billion Ways -

As climate, food and financial crises start to look like a GLOBAL MELTDOWN
Come to 6 BILLION WAYS to discuss making another world possible...
Debates, films, music, workshops, art

Saturday 28 February
10am - Midnight @ Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA

Including discussions on: the financial crisis and economic alternatives, conflict and liberation in Palestine and Iraq, climate catastrophe and building a green new deal, the future of feminism, the impact of Obama on race politics, when resistance is successful and how to change consumer culture.

Speakers include: Tariq Ramadan, Mark Thomas, Susan George, Karma Nabulsi, Meena Raman, Tariq Ali, Ken Livingstone, Trevor Ngwane

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
10am - 7pm. Workshops, debates and discussions FREE
7pm - 8.30pm. Final plenary with keynote speakers FREE
8.30pm -Midnight. Gig £7/£5 concessions

Organised by City Circle, Friends of the Earth, Jubilee Debt Campaign, People and Planet, Rich Mix, War on Want and the World Development Movement.

Big mobilisations are planned for March and April around the meeting of the G20 - various organisations and publications including New Internationalist have come together to form a coalition known as Put People First which is planning a mass march in London on 28th March - Unions like Unison are amongst the sponsors.

A second series of major demonstrations are planned for 2nd April - these involve the peace movement, the conclusion of a Socialist march for jobs, and potential mobilisations or radical activists from all over Europe that are planned from 28th March onwards.

Then, immediately afterwards the focus shifts to the NATO summit in Strasbourg, Kehl and Baden Baden.

And then we have Mayday, everywhere! A good head of steam of resistance, defiance and protest should have built up by then.

The ruling class must be told in no uncertain terms that we will not pay for their crisis. The demands of the rising social and political movements are non-negotiable - real democracy, real freedom, real equality - an end to militarism, the surveillance state and corporate rule. There must be a real, effective programme for combatting climate change and resource depletion on an international scale and on an egalitarian basis.

Hopefully, our would-be rulers will now see, as the failed leaders of countless regimes saw before them, that the game is up. The bribes, the threats, the "bread and circuses", the lying propaganda machines have all failed them. People have begun to believe that another world really is possible.

Occupy!

Workplace or institutional occupation is a tactic having an international comeback. It is ideally suited to situations where workers have little to lose and can force concessions in the most desperate circumstances. Occupation can be used by students as in the recent wave of University occupations pressuring Israeli links of UK Universities around the Gaza situation, but is also a time honoured method of working class struggle.


Poster for the Movimiento Nacional de Empresas Recuperadas (MNER), at a worker-recovered print shop, Chilavert Artes Gráficas in Buenos Aires, Argentina - from Wikipedia entry by Brian Zbriger.

Info here on recent or ongoing occupations in Ukraine, in Ireland (complete with the reappearance of the Starry Plough flag - the symbol used by James Connolly's Irish Citizen Army in the early 20th Century)and in Chicago, USA.

The plus points of occupation as opposed to other tactics are that it prevents lockouts, it actively prevents any economic activity that is not under the control of the workers, it captures plant and buildings and holds them as a bargaining chip, it is often warmer inside at this time of year (!) and last but not least it prefigures more generalised self management. Let us hope that these good examples begin to spread around the world. Things may be about to get quite exciting.

Rising Revolt - French Workers Show The Way

Events in France over the last 48 hours show that whatever the ruling class of Europe thought they could get away with in terms of making the ordinary people pay for the profligacy, recklessness and irresponsibility of the bankers (and their tame government stooges) is now seriously being questioned. This is immensely heartening.
After the people of Iceland showed what they felt and drove the neo-liberal government there from office - and Greek workers and farmers have used the example of their students and youth to go on the offensive against the capitalists - the general strike in France shows that the stakes are being raised. This crisis of capitalism gives immense opportunities, the likes of which have not been seen for a couple of generations, for a reshaping of the world into something where workers and ordinary people, not banks, corporations and corrupt politicians set the agenda.

The IMF report this week showed the scale of what is faced - and showed how in Britain this crisis is likely to be deeper, longer lasting and more consequential than elsewhere. Quite clearly this "recession" (the "D" word is still only hinted at) is said to be going to be worse than any of those of the 70s, 80s or 90s in Britain.

However, although it seems that it takes longer for the working class of Britain to rouse itself than in other parts of continental Europe, the ruling class here should not be complacent, things are beginning to move. The angry walk-outs over social dumping and job cuts that have sprung up this week are a sign of the new mood. Gordon Brown's attempt at whipping up nationalism and racism - "British jobs for British Workers" - is quoted back at him in a new and more dangerous (for him) context in relation to corporate plans to replace local labour.

Obviously there are dangers here also for the workers, in that little petty nationalists and fascists will see the nature of the dispute that has started in Lincolnshire and Teeside as a massive opportunity for the propagation of their ideas. However - the left and union activists should not allow this to happen - this is not an issue primarily about "National interest" or immigration, but about the capitalist class acting in its usual immoral and insensitive way to use working people as pawns in their money-making game. It is also about the labour laws of the new European Capitalist superstate that have been opposed in campaigns led by the likes of the RMT

Meanwhile, the ruling class fall to arguing amongst themselves - hurrah! - Obama (either because he does not see it as good PR at the moment or because he really is pursuing a different agenda) shuns the depressed elite jamboree at Davos and various others grandstand and stage walkouts there.

The opportunity is arising for raising more radical demands than it has been possible to get a hearing for for many a long year. These demands - that workers should not pay the price of the crisis, that economic democracy is something that should be taken seriously and explored, that politics should not be about swapping representatives of the same plutocratic class every few years that their inevitable corruption becomes blatant and that transition to a new "green" economy must be worker-led and socially just - can unite the disparate elements of the left and workers' organisations in Britain and begin to make the challenges that our European comrades are making. When this process gets going in enough countries we will begin to see the marvellous change in consciousness where huge masses of people begin to see that another world truly is possible.

Weekly Links 18/01/2009

The "Crunch"
News this week that Ireland has nationalised the Anglo Irish Bank.

At a press conference held at Government Buildings, the finance minister Brian Lenihan said that the admission last month by former chairman Sean FitzPatrick that he had taken secret loans of over €87 million over a period of eight years had caused "serious reputational damage" to the bank.

The Irish economy is in serious trouble - we will see whether the obvious culpability of Ireland's politicians and capitalists for the severity of the difficulties to be faced by Irish workers results in good left conclusions being drawn.

Meanwhile, in Britain, all the signs are that unemployment will continue to grow rapidly for some time.

Climate Change
NASA scientist Jim Hansen has warned Barack Obama ahead of his inauguration as President later this week that there are as little as four years left to make the major changes in economic, energy and transport policies necessary to have a chance of averting catastrophic climate change - i.e dramatic action needs to take place during Obama's first term.

As a result of his fears about sea-level rise, Hansen said he had pressed both Britain's Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences to carry out an urgent investigation of the state of the planet's ice-caps. However, nothing had come of his proposals. The first task of Obama's new climate office should therefore be to order such a probe "as a matter of urgency", Hansen added.

Unions
IWW IU 530 emergency appeal
EMERGENCY APPEAL – FUNDS NEEDED IMMEDIATELY

The IWW has been organizing Truck Drivers in Eastern North Carolina and Virginia for much of the past year. In response to our growing power and planned founding convention this upcoming weekend, the bosses have begun firing the union's leadership.

Two log drivers and five container haulers have lost their job over the past two days. The union is already discussing legal and direct action means to fight these unjust firing, but right now we need funds to support our fired drivers.

These drivers have families to support and this is a part of the country where economic opportunities are very limited. Please offer whatever you can, drivers are counting on you.

Checks can be sent to the Freight Truckers Organizing Committee at PO Box 274, Waukegan, IL 60079. Please include "emergency relief" in the memo line.

We are in the process of setting a PayPal Acct for online donations.
Thank you and please be generous.

In Britain, organised teachers and campaigners have scored a victory in the fight against the government's attempts to break up and part-privatise more of the education system - this is form the Anti Academies Alliance :

UNIONS at WORK ! from the Anti Academies Alliance

Derby Council cabinet voted to abandon their plans for an Academy to replace Sinfin Community school last night (Tuesday 13th January). This is a significant victory for the determined campaign run by teachers and parents.

The campaign has involved 7 days of strike action by NASUWT members, one of those a joint strike day with the NUT.

It involved a public meeting of 100 parents and teacher.

883 people returned the consultation document, including 150 pupils, 793 rejecting the proposal.

The campaign managed to shift the Headteacher from supporting the academy proposal to opposing it.

The campaign persuaded the governors that the academy would not be good for local children.

At the cabinet meeting councillor Allen said "There is an overwhelming objection to Sinfin school becoming an academy. We have an obligation to listen to the people of Sinfin".

Dave Wilkinson, NASUWT secretary sent us this comment:

"The decision by Derby City Council to abandon its academy plans really is a historic victory in the battle against the privatisation of our schools brought about by the Government's academy programme. Eighteen months ago, opposition to academies in Derby was confined to a handful of trade union officials from the Education unions. Last night was the culmination of a campaign where literally thousands of Derby residents have shown their opposition to the closure of a school which has served working people in Derby since it was established. A coalition of organisations and trade unions has brought about this victory, but I do want to pay particular tribute to the two teacher unions in the school, NASUWT and NUT, who took eight days of strike action against the academy plans. NASUWT members have also maintained action short of strike action from May 2008 onwards."

Meanwhile, following the craven apologetics for government and big business from the TUC and some Labour-affiliated unions over the Heathrow expansion announcement it was good to see that the main rail and civil service unions in Britain proposed a more progressive and environmentally sensitive option.

High-speed rail would create tens of thousands of jobs – including at Heathrow – and would provide a cleaner option than airport expansion, say RMT, ASLEF and PCS.

Welcoming positive government statements on the benefits of high-speed rail and electrification and the accelerated provision of new passenger rolling stock, the unions point out that the emphasis should be on modal shift that will help meet the carbon challenge

I can also report on success for left candidates, including Green Left's James Caspell in Unison elections in Lambeth, London. They showed that united, and fighting on a radical programme, the left can win union elections against Labour timeservers and those on the left who adopt a more sectarian approach.

Ecosocialist Theory
An interesting contribution to the discussion on individual versus social solutions to the ongoing ecological crisis by Don Fitz, the editor of Synthesis/Regeneration has been published on the excellent Climate and Capitalism blog.

The Crisis And Social Change - January Meeting In London

The following is an initiative of comrades from the Radical Activist Network:

Financial crisis: What does it mean for social change?
January Activist Forum

When? 7pm, Monday 12th January

Where? The studio at 22 Betterton Street, London WC2 (through the blue door and upstairs)

What? Economist Paulo dos Santos (SOAS) will kick us off with some thoughts on the economic crisis and radical social change. Then we'll all discuss it. Come to join in, or just to listen.

Why? This is the first in our series of monthly activist forums, a regular space where we can discuss the politics of social and ecological justice, make links between issues we're involved in as activists, and help strengthen radical politics in London.

January's Activist Forum

A major economic crisis is hitting the world again, and this time rich countries will be severely effected. Neoliberal free market dogma and corporate welfare, which have represented the status quo for thirty years, are being questioned a new. For progressives this is not just a crisis, but an opportunity. Proposals such as the 'Green New Deal' promise to resurrect the idea of state intervention for the social good. But is a new wave of Keynesianism just a way of propping up a system which needs more fundamental change? Or could it be a first step towards that change?

Paulo L dos Santos is a lecturer in Economics at the School of Oriental and African Studies. His recent work focuses on the contribution to the current financial crisis of rising inequality and increased lending to ordinary wage earners by the financial system.
While Paulo will be giving us an introduction, the emphasis is very much on the discussion, including what the implications are for how radicals should organise.

Find background articles to read on our website

Activist Forums: The general idea

Activist Forums will take place on the second Monday of every month in 2009. They're initially organised by folks involved in the Radical Activist Network, but are open to everyone. They're not just about discussing politics, but about organising and networking.

Our February Activist Forum (on 9 February) will focus on the politics of the movement(s) to stop climate change - more details to follow next month.

the enemy of nature

Sometimes, when you are reading something it is just so appropriate to the times and other things you have recently read or heard about. So it was for me the other day when I was reading Joel Kovel's excellent argument for ecosocialism, the enemy of nature.

The Bhopal anniversary was just the other day, I had just been reading in the newspaper about the plans to privatise parts of Scotland's forestry in order (it is claimed) to "pay for climate change tackling measures" and this weekend sees the annual climate change demonstrations in London and elsewhere. With these in mind, Kovel's words (on page 40-41 of the 2007 Zed second edition) took on an extra immediacy and relevance -

The essential argument for environmental economics within the capitalist system is that by privatizing nature people learn to care for it as their property. However, the problem is that, being made property, nature is a priori severed from its ecosystemic ways of being. Thus the ceaseless rendering into commodities, with its monetization and exchange, breaks down the specificity and intricacy of ecosystems. To this is added the devaluation, or basic lack of caring, which attends what is left over and unprofitable. Here arise the so-called "externalities" that become the repositories of pollution. To the extent the capital relation, with its unrelenting competetive drive to realize profit, prevails, it is a certainty that the conditions of production at some point or other will be degraded, which is to say, natural ecosystems will be destabilized and broken apart. As James O'Connor has demonstrated in his pioneering studies of this phenomenon, this degradation will have a contradictory effect on profitability itself (the Second Contradiction of Capital"), either directly, by so fouling the natural ground of production that it breaks down, or indirectly, in the case of regulatory measures, being forced to pay for the healthcare of workers, etc, re-internalizes the costs that had been expelled into the environment.(see note)
In a case like Bhopal, numerous insults of this kind interacted and became the matrix of a ghastly "accident." For Bhopal, degradation was concentrated in one setting; while the ecological crisis as a whole may be regarded as its occurrence in a less concentrated but vastly more extended field, so that the disaster is now played out more slowly and on a planetary scale.
It will surely be rejoined to this that a great many countervailing techniques are continually introduced to blunt or even profit from the degradation of conditions and production, for example, pollution control devices, commodification of pollutants, etc. To some degree these are bound to be effective. Indeed, if the overall system were in equilibrium, then the effects of the Second Contradiction would be contained, and we would not be able to extrapolate from it to the ecological crisis. But this brings us to the second great problem with capital, namely that equilibrium and confinement of any sort are anathema to it.

Note - The first contradiction of capital is that of the classical "realization crisis", where cutting workers wages makes it more difficult for them to purchase the commodities they produce.

Wise words indeed - I recommend Kovel's book to all seeking a deeper understanding of the current systemic economic and ecological crisis.

Pre Budget Statement - "A Missed Opportunity"?

Whilst some of the measures announced in the government's Pre Budget Statement (trumpeted as a dynamic range of measures to shorten and lessen the depth of the recession) cannot be sniffed at and others positively welcomed, (as indeed they have been, by various TUC union leaders) the missed opportunities on some environmental and energy issues and open reverses on others are frankly underwhelming. Here is Mark Lynas from the Guardian website:

A "green new deal" it ain't. More motorways, cheaper fuel, more of the same. The planet's ecological crisis makes the current financial crisis look like, well, something very small and insignificant indeed. Had he aimed to shift the UK economy on to a greener track, creating jobs and reflating the economy at the same time, things might be looking more positive. But he just doesn't seem to get it.

And even the most radical version of the Green New Deal put forward by the New Economics Foundation (whose website was inexplicably inaccessible at time of writing) does not really go far enough or adequately tackle the inequalites of power and weatlh that are the crux of the problem (to be fair it was not meant to - it is presumably meant as something that is implementable without major political upheaval or change) But at least some of the Green New Deal measures might be a start. Instead Labour have given us re-hashed, not-quite-Keynesianism designed to return us to a situation where we can restart the economy and carry on "as normal" (where carrying on "as normal" self evidently aids and abets economic insanity and planetary disaster). It is a measure of the disarray and lack of ambition or long term strategy of the soft left that some of the liberal left commentariat are heralding this return to not-quite social democratic politics as a brave new dawn of European-style welfarism. As with their unjustified, (though understandable given what it replaced) hopes for the new Obama regime, I suspect they are courting disappointment at least.

Most of the mainstream papers have gone with the line that as the Independent puts it, the Pre-Budget Report is "A gamble that will decide Britain's political future" And indeed , it is a gamble, though the stakes may be higher than even the yellow press anticipate.

Quoted in the same paper, Green Party of England and Wales leader Caroline Lucas said of the Report :

"The Chancellor's plan to cut taxes to promote a consumer spending boom is short-term thinking in the extreme. Even if it works, it will simply ship money abroad, as most consumer goods are imported, rather than supporting jobs here in the UK. More seriously, it also represents a return to the vicious cycles of debt and over-consumption that caused the crisis in the first place. Not only is this economically unsustainable, it is environmentally unsustainable, driving a major depletion of natural resources and growth in climate emissions."

Other interesting comments came from psychologist Oliver James:

"If everybody is agreed that we have been spending too much money, how can spending more be the answer? The fact is we're already poisoned and Mr Darling wants to give us more poison. We've built our economy on debt. And now the demand is for us to spend yet more. We're in this mess because of selfish capitalism; why not try unselfish capitalism, which is what they do on the continent? We should, like Denmark, work a 35-hour week and redistribute the work. Then we should hammer the rich, so that all of us can learn to work less and buy less."

John Sauven of Greenpeace did not spare the rod over the lack of environmental and energy foresight:

"We had hoped Mr Darling might fire the starting gun on a clean energy revolution that would unlock hundreds of thousands of green collar jobs and develop a new UK manufacturing base capable of exporting renewables and energy-efficient technologies to the world. This was an historic opportunity to invest billions in a low-carbon, high-technology future, but the Chancellor blew it. We can only hope that by the time he formulates the Budget itself, he will have grasped the potential of hi-tech climate solut-ions to get us out of this recession."

I suspect that even on its own terms this package may not achieve that much - anecdotally a lot of people are saying that they do not feel the measures will alter behaviour too much, and any extra cash may just go into paying off some of the massive accumulated debts. (Consumer debt overtook Gross Domestic Product last year) Not that the main opposition offer anything likely to appeal - just Blairified Thatcherism. The New Year may bring interesting challenges for us all.

Weekly Links 17/11/2008

Television
The waiting is over! Two long awaited drama serials are set to start on terrestrial TV in Britain this week - the remake of Terry Nation's seminal apocalyptic series Survivors, which I have blogged on before, and the English Civil War story The Devil's Whore by the man who created the brilliant Our Friends In the North.
The BBC is due to air its first episode of Survivors on Sunday 23rd November.
Channel 4 air the first episode of The Devil's Whore on Wednesday 19th November.
Here is a topical (see later) piece by Ronan Bennett on The Devils Whore.

I am very excited by both of these series and will report back in due course, along with posting more links on both.


British Republicanism
Graham Smith, of Republic returns to the fray at the Guardian Comment is Free site this week after a Republican article by him last week got a massive response, pro and anti.

"You may have seen reports that prince Charles wishes to become an activist-King. Not content with meddling in political debates and haranguing ministers as heir to the throne, he craves power and influence at the highest level, but wants to be spared the inconvenience of an election. In the article I argue that a politically active King would be tantamount to winding the clocks back on centuries of gradual democratic reform. The only answer of course is the abolition of the monarchy and the creation of a democratic alternative."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/17/prince-charles-monarchy

Graham blogs here.

Workers and Unions
This is from Eric Lee at Labourstart -
I doubt if many of you regularly buy leather goods sold by Prada, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry and Nicole Farhi. These are luxury brands, priced too high for ordinary working people like us.

But the people who make those products are often low-paid, non-union workers. When those workers stand up and fight for their rights, it's our responsibility to stand with them.

Earlier this year, hundreds of workers at the Turkish leather manufacturer DESA -- which produces for all the luxury brands mentioned above -- joined a union. The reaction of the company was fierce: 44 union members were sacked, and 50 more compelled to quit the union.

Nevertheless, the workers have stood firm, holding daily protests outside the factory. Local police have been called in to arrest them, and bribes offered to union leaders to call off the demonstrations.
Families have been threatened.

Workers at DESA need a union urgently. They complain of poverty wages, long hours and terrible health and safety conditions.

Please take a moment to send off a message to DESA's customers -- the luxury fashion brands -- telling them that you support the DESA workers in their struggle:

http://www.labourstart.org/desa

Tell them that a union is right, not a luxury.

Thanks - and spread the word!

Eric Lee

Green Politics
The German Green Party, much reduced after its years of historic compromise has elected a new broom as co-leader.

This from the BBC -

The first ethnic Turkish head of a German political party has dismissed any comparisons between himself and US President-elect Barack Obama.

Cem Ozdemir, who was elected co-leader of the Green Party at the weekend, told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper such comparisons were "inappropriate".

Closer to home, the Green Party Trade Union Group's latest bulletin is now out.

Lefty Politics
For us lefty trainspotter types, there are some interesting, dare I say even slightly original (if still mainly plagiaristic)new boys on the block of lefty politics these days - for example the International Luxemburgist Network and in Britain The Commune, Group of International Communists who put a libertarian socialist motion to the recent Labour Representation Committee conference -

Social Ownership and Workers Self-Management

After years of being told 'There is No Alternative', the crisis of global capital has shown that the entire system can be brought into question. Furthermore the widespread state intervention to preserve finance capital has brought into question previously conceived ideas of nationalisation and "public ownership" traditionally accepted in the labour movement.

As part of developing a vision of a viable alternative to capitalism our movement needs to develop new ideas of social ownership and abandon statist conceptions which have proven to be an historical failure.

1. State ownership, no matter what pseudonym it goes under is not social ownership. They are in fact two counter-posed things: one cannot equate the state with society.

2. The state is not a neutral force concerned only with the welfare of society and possessing the ability and the means to take measures suited to this end. The state
is not a vehicle to achieve 'socialism' and cannot be relied upon to act as a protective shield against capital.

The capitalist system, whether in its private or state forms of appearance, does not and cannot work in the interest of the majority. It is an unjust system, an economic tyranny where the rulers at all levels make the crucial economic decisions that affect our lives, solely on the basis of what will increase their profits and promote their interests. The Labour Representation Committee considers that the people who should have the deciding voice on the economy and its problems are the people most directly connected with it, the workers who produce the goods and services.

As such the Labour Representation Committee sets as it goal a system of genuine social ownership, organised on the basis of workers' self-management, a system of participatory democracy based on the sovereignty of those who produce the goods and services in society.

Conference recognises that if we are to realise the slogan 'another world is possible' workers' self-management is a necessity in the creation of a new cooperative society based on common, social ownership. Workers' self-management is not something which can be proclaimed or enacted from above, nor is there a blueprint. It requires a process of social self-organisation and creativity from below.

The publication of Building a new common sense, Social Ownership in the 21st Century is a welcome initiative in helping rejuvenate discussion of these issues in the movement.

Conference agrees:

1. To hold a series of forums and conferences on the question of social ownership and workers' self-management, with LEAP and fraternal organisations.

2. To publish a series of pamphlets on making the case for social ownership and workers' self-management, drawing on historical, international and contemporary experiences of the working class.

3. To develop with affiliated trades unions the case for workers' self-management in specific industries.

4. From these discussions and debates to take forward a campaign for workers' selfmanagement and social ownership

International
Interesting blogging here on the situation in Iceland.

Some updates from my blog on Saturday re

Italy

and

The Paris Demo

A Wave Of Job Losses

It did not take long for the effects of the credit crisis to begin to seriously impact the real economy in Britain. This week has seen announcement follow announcement of job cuts. The total announced by Friday 14th November of major UK job losses was at least 20,000 with 10,000 of these at British Telecom. This followed announcements by JCB, Leyland, Yell, Virgin Media and Vodaphone. In addition, job losses continue almost unremarked in the construction industry, now spilling over in to supply lines like brick factories. As I was writing news was breaking of further planned job losses in the financial and banking sector - at the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The response so far of most of the unions whose members are being affected has not been overly promising. A mood of fatalism and bipartisan "flexibility" can only encourage the employers to further offload the costs of the downturn onto the workforce and consumers rather than their profits, bonuses or shareholders. The time could not be more appropriate for building the necessary links, organisation, strategies and solidarity being advocated by some Trades Councils, the National Shop Stewards Network and the British Isles Regional Organising Committee of the IWW.

Weekly Links 09/11/2008

I'm very busy at the moment, so just a short links posting this week.

Food for thought from the Guardian regarding the prospects for the British economy -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/03/recession-economicgrowth

News from France regarding the electoral list launched for the coming Euro-elections involving the Greens and anti-globalisation campaigners like Jose Bove.

The New Economics Foundation published the much talked about Green New Deal proposals some time ago, this week their policy director Andrew Simms posted some ideas and recommendations for approaching the crisis at the Guardian Comment Is Free site ahead of the NEF publication of 20 First Steps To Rise From The Ashes Of The Crash

The Times has picked up on a story about Prince William that Republic have been pursuing via a Freedom of Information request.

The big news of the week was of course the US election. The people at Avaaz have been supporting a campaign to demand a change in US foreign policy from the new regime. The campaign highlights the importance of holding Obama to his campaign promises which are likely to come under significant pressure from global vested interests and reactionary elements of the US state apparatus - the mass mailed letter is below -

Dear President Obama:

As citizens across the world, we congratulate you on your election, and celebrate your campaign commitments to sign a strong new global treaty on climate change, close Guantanamo prison and end torture, withdraw carefully from Iraq, and double aid to fight poverty. No one country or leader can meet the world's most pressing challenges alone, but working together as one world in a spirit of dialogue and cooperation, yes we can bring real and lasting change.

Fianlly news this week from the Green Party Trade Union Group blog of a success in the London Living Wage campaign after Green Councillor Jenny Jones was successful in getting passed a motion to make Southwark Council a Living Wage employer.

Weekly Links 02/11/08

Green Issues
There is to be a meeting on Thursday 27th November 2008, where The Public Interest Research Centre will launch the report "Climate Safety" at Friends Meeting House, Euston, London. Speakers Caroline Lucas, George Monbiot, Kevin Anderson, Jeremy Leggett and Tim Helweg-Larsen will be discussing the question 'How do we get back to climate safety?'

An ecosocialist view on climate change from writer John Bellamy Foster here.

Unions and Work
Labourstart this week linked to a variety of interesting stories - a mass teacher's strike looming in Romania, conflict brewing between local government workers and the state in Nigeria, a series of strikes in motor vehicle and electronics plants in Germany and news on the struggle of workers employed by transport companies subcontracted by Unilever in Turkey.

Closer to home Scottish Water workers are being balloted on industrial action.

The IWW British Isles Regional Organising Committee now have a website created by members in Wales -
In Welsh -> http://union-wales.org/
And English -> http://union-wales.org/intro.html

A fellow worker alerted me to an article by US journalist Frank Joyce that has provoked debate on Alternet - Union Card or Mastercard - How a nation of workers became a nation of debtors

Italy
The dispute between teachers, pupils, lecturers and students and the right-wing Italian regime continues. Interesting stories and links on UK Indymedia about this - here, and here (with an account of protesting students clashing with far rightist students - some of the far right seem to want to attack the movement, others to infiltrate it)
Another report here from Libcom.

Meanwhile, the Italian Airline Alitalia is still in a state of crisis - Reuters report this weekend. The BBC has further news on this.

US Politics
The big media event of the week of course, barring any unexpected drama, should be the US election. Looking at the possible election of Obama from the left a range of positions are possible - here are the views of Howard Zinn, Todd Chretien and Mike Davis

Polemic
Ecosocialist writer John Bellamy Foster has written a Postscript to "The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis" which is available here.