watermelon
Conference
Newsletter of Green Left Spring 2023
Online Edition
Picket lines are the working class at our most beautiful. By Tarsam Singh
Capitalism makes
social crises and it is Trade Unions that solve them through strikes. So, the
Tories cause a depressing poly crisis where our people can’t afford to live and
are dying in hospital car parks; where the planet is on fire and we can’t
afford the heating. But amid the desperation and despair, rays of light: we
respond with the biggest wave of strikes since the 80s.
Strikes are the working class at its most powerful, inspiring and creative. Our picket lines are where we concentrate our woes and hopes, our solidarity and resistance to say “Enough! No more! We demand better and deserve better!” So say our railway workers, nurses, posties, civil servants, barristers, Amazon workers, lecturers, teachers, ambulance workers, drivers, retail workers, doctors and dockers, and the many others who make society and keep it running. Take pride in our class, our unions and our principles that have been forged in struggle down the ages: Unity is strength. Your strongest weapon is those you work with. NEVER CROSS A PICKET LINE! Principles that have gained us the eight hour day; the weekend; sick pay; parental leave; holiday pay; the end to child labour; and safe working environments
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CONTENTS |
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Picket Lines Are the Working Class at Our Most
Beautiful. by Tarsam Singh |
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The
Death of the NHS by Joseph Healy |
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Campaign
Against Climate Change and Green Party TU group |
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The
Carbon Capture-Hydrogen-Biomass Complex by Ellen Robottom |
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Climate
Organisations in Solidarity with Striking Workers |
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Be
Green or Seem to Be Green? A Government Question by Erwin Schaefer |
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No
Coal in Cumbria by
Alan Todd |
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Nuclear Power: A Dangerous
Throwback, Unfit For 21st Century
Needs? by Pete Wilkinson |
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Back
To Basics – Back to The Philosophical Basis by Tina Rothery |
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Another Europe Is Possible – observations from the members’
meeting – December 2022 Erwin
Schaefer, |
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Shire Elections at the Dawning of a Greater Gerontocracy RURAL
NEWS by Alan Wheatley |
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Safe-guarding greener jobs in an age of transition – “Bold
Solutions: The economic, climate and energy crises and how to fix them” |
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Poem, and Join Green Left |
Joseph
Healy writing for Covid Action.
06 Jan 202306 Jan 2023
This sounds like a dramatic title, but in truth, it is not. What we are witnessing before our very eyes is the death of the NHS. The waves of COVID and flu washing through a debilitated health system starved of funds for more than a decade and with a workforce depleted and depressed means effectively the end of public health in England.
The decision to allow COVID to let rip and the removal of all mitigations since June last year have led to this, along with years of underfunding. A system that was already finding it difficult to cope has been unable to deal with waves of COVID infections, which, along with flu, have been consistently happening since last winter. The periods between the waves have been shorter, and the breathing space given to exhausted NHS staff has been less and less.
During the summer and autumn months, there was a noticeable increase in COVID infections in hospitals. This was driven by the lunatic decision of hospital trusts, driven by the Department of Health, that hospital staff and patients not be required to wear masks—the result was that many patients and staff went down sick with the virus.
Now, in the winter months, which many experts predicted would see a wave of infections, the health system is left trying to cope with the irresponsible decisions of the government on COVID. Added to this, the refusal to pay nurses a decent wage and the general exodus of health staff from the NHS, and the perfect storm resulting from this, is no surprise.
Horror story after horror story arrives
from the frontlines, including one hospital that has a junior doctor acting as
“car triage” as his job is to visit patients waiting in the car park. It has
always been the Tory plan to destroy the NHS, and now it is succeeding. COVID,
together with the refusal to properly fund the NHS, has led to this, and we now
may be about to witness the first collapse of a public health system in the
developed world.
THE CARBON
CAPTURE-HYDROGEN-BIOMASS COMPLEX
NOT TOO BIG TO
CHALLENGE, (DESPITE THE GREENWASH!)
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This is an adaption of a series slides
presented by ELLEN ROBOTTOM, of the Campaign against Climate Change at the
Green Left meeting 7 February 2023 HOW
TO COMBAT THE CUMBRIA COALMINE AND OTHER RETROGRADE ENERGY PROJECTS video at
https://youtu.be/_cj5F5_hnGI |
In the context of the British gov’t’s declared aim of “Net Zero by 2050”, various corporations are lobbying for huge public subsidies and policy pathways designed to reassure private investors and which lock in a role for fossil fuels. This entails a massive greenwash and disinformation, about jobs as well as technologies. This includes the promotion of carbon capture, hydrogen, “carbon removals” eg biomass with carbon capture and storage. And CO2 pipelines and storage shared by industrial and power “clusters”, drawing existing and new high emitting businesses into further spatial concentration and functional interdependency.
Geographically this comprises six clusters of high-emitting industries two of which are on the north east and northwest coasts of England,
The East Coast Cluster comprises Zero Carbon
Humber and Net Zero Teesside, consortia of energy and foundational
manufacturing industries, and the Northern Endurance Partnership (headed by BP)
operating CO2 storage. This Includes: Drax woodburning biomass power station.
And a shared pipeline network to carry hydrogen to industrial and power generating
customers, and CO2 from industrial and power installations to permanent storage
below the North Sea (Northern Endurance Aquifer). In addition, the Humber Zero
project at Immingham includes production of blue and green hydrogen to local
industries and, potentially, homes, CO2 storage and pipeline transportation to
a depleted gas field.
In the northwest, Hynet NW (Liverpool Bay and North Wales could offer– blue hydrogen for homes and industry, carbon capture, pipeline and storage in depleted gas field
In these locations Adding bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (CCS)is portrayed as a “negative emissions technology”. As such, it is deemed critical to the “zero carbon” pathway, as residual emissions from fossil fuel burning and industrial emissions with CCS can be “offset” with these “negative emissions”
CCS is the centrepiece of
fossil fuel giants attempts to paint their operations as “green”.
Even carbon capture and usage for enhanced oil recovery is described as a climate benefit as it marginally reduces the energy used in the extraction process, and some CO2 remains in the depleted oil well! Government and industry statements that this technology is “proven” are quite simply false.
Claims for job creation are hugely inflated, fail to present any alternative scenarios against which to compare projections, and fail to mention that the whole project could be a house of cards. For example, Drax is often quoted in local press as “supporting 10,000 jobs”, but This figure actually applies to the peak year of the construction phase and includes indirect and induced jobs. After that, the number dwindles to 375 direct, 960 indirect, and 1,800 induced - no redeployment plans mentioned.
A similar picture is
seen for job numbers projected for the Humber cluster, the East Coast cluster
and the UK as a whole.
Benefits for domestic
energy users seem equally dubious. One study finds “[u]sing green hydrogen to
heat buildings via boilers would be almost six times less energy efficient than
heat pumps powered by renewable energy and require a 150% increase in primary
energy generation”. Retrofitting homes and neighborhoods for hydrogen would be
far more disruptive than claimed in greenwash directed at householders, and the
energy far more costly.
H2 is more dangerous than natural gas and more prone to leakage due to small molecule size.
OPPOSITION
Stepping up systematic organising in TUs and TUC is key – challenging current policy in support of this programme, as well as demanding radical alternatives.
Anti-fracking campaigns provide a strong model of how people can be radicalised by what starts as a local issue.
Could the Drax campaign similarly mobilise more people by focusing more on the dangers of the pipeline? Likewise, the proposals to put hydrogen into people’s homes, (NB Whitby and Ellesmere Port residents are organising against trials).
Campaigns
need to Focus on an overarching, unifying message, eg multiple ways of
greenwashing fossil fuels. This can help connect and scale up campaigns – but
also needs strong focus on the alternative
Climate Jobs and their co-benefits.
CLIMATE
ORGANISATIONS IN SOLIDARITY WITH STRIKING WORKERS
Three climate activist
organisations – Campaign Against Climate Change, Climate Justice Coalition and
Greener Jobs Alliance – have jointly written to the General Secretaries of trade
unions involved in the current wave of industrial action.
With the government’s
only answer to the multiple crises we currently face being to ‘clamp down’ on
the right to strike and protest, the unity of our respective goals and the need
to come together in common cause couldn’t be more clear. Here is the text
of the letter to PCS:
Letters
have also been sent to CWU, RCN, RMT and UCU which are identical other than the
specifics in the third paragraph.
To: Mark Serwotka, General Secretary, PCS
As trade unionists and activists campaigning on the climate crisis, the organisations represented in this letter wish to express our unequivocal solidarity with your dispute. We stand with you in your fight against the cost of living crisis and against threats of further austerity policies which would bring even worse suffering.
As fossil fuel dependency pushes up the cost of living, the same oil and gas giants which are making multi-billions in excess profits at the expense of ordinary households are also driving climate breakdown, an irreversible catastrophe from which the poorest suffer and the richest profit.
We recognise the fundamental role our civil servants will play in providing the essential underpinnings of a decarbonised society - planning, coordinating, protecting and training to enable the transformations we need to take place. It is imperative that we see off this government’s repeated attacks on the civil service.
We stand squarely with
you in your struggle and through solidarity we will achieve victory.
We hope to continue to build closer links between the industrial struggle and the fight against climate breakdown – they are, in a very real sense, the same fight.
With all solidarity and best wishes.
Claire Arkwright,
National Coordinator, Climate Justice Coalition
Suzanne Jeffery, Chair,
Campaign Against Climate Change
Tahir Latif, Secretary,
Greener Jobs Alliance
BE GREEN OR SEEM TO BE GREEN? A GOVERNMENT QUESTION
Erwin Schaefer, West Central London GP
.jpg)
An adaption of a series slides presented by Alan TODD, at the Green
Left meeting 7 February 2023 HOW TO COMBAT THE CUMBRIA COALMINE AND OTHER
RETROGRADE ENERGY PROJECTS video at https://youtu.be/_cj5F5_hnG
Allan Todd is a climate and anti-fascist activist; a
member of Left Unity’s National Council; and author
There are many environmental reasons why the proposed
coalmine in Cumbria shouldn’t go ahead. Yet this Tory government’s support for
the new coalmine - along with its approval of new oil &; gas projects, the
‘Dash for Growth’, &; plans for Investment Zones – will make matters worse.
One reason why this NEW mine needs to be opposed is
the Environment Agency estimate that parts of Cumbria are likely to be lost to
rising sea levels by 2050,. The latest COP Reports show virtually all their
previous predictions have proved too conservative: climate changes are
happening more severely and rapidly than originally estimated. Yet, it’s clear
that, some energy’ companies - with help from governments - are intent on
increasing their emissions.
The decision to approve a new coalmine in Cumbria has
proved, controversial: locally, nationally and internationally. As COP26 agreed
to reduce coal production, that is not surprising. This was why the Tories postponed announcing
the decision until after COP27.
West Cumbria Mining (WCM) is owned by EMR Capital - a
hedge-fund based in Australia but registered in the Cayman Islands. They admit
85-90% of production will be exported - yet Tory politicians, such as
Workington’s MP and Copeland’s mayor, continue to make ‘misleading’ claims such
as: “For as long as we need steel, we’ll need coking coal”; or that the mine
will reduce the UK’s steel industry’s ‘need’ for imported coke. They do so,
despite Chris McDonald, CEO of the Materials Processing Institute (operating on
behalf of the UK’s steel industry), stating “There isn’t anyone in the steel
industry who’s calling for the mine.”
The two biggest steel producers in the UK - Tata Steel
and British Steel - say they won’t be using
Cumbrian coke; because they’re rapidly de-carbonising production by using clean
hydrogen; or because Cumbrian coke has high sulphur content. The drive to green
steel, means that by the mid-2030s, many steel companies may have moved away
from coal completely. Another ‘argument’ for the mine is stopping UK dependence
on Russian imports . This has been put forward by Mike Starkie - Copeland’s
unelected Tory mayor - who, has tried to link the mine to Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine. Yet, according to Chris McDonald, “It would not displace a single
tonne of Russian coking coal. “and Tata Steel states it doesn’t use any Russian
coke .
The people of Cumbria don’t need an “1850s
technology”: that’s left many ex-miners
suffering from Black Lung Disease. Between 2001 and 2015, this disease killed
almost 9000 former UK miners.
Instead of the 500 jobs claimed to be on offer, green
jobs are needed. Both Cumbria
Action for Sustainability, and the Local Government Association, have produced
studies showing how 6000 to 9000 jobs could come to Cumbria via a programme of
renewable energy and home-insulation. Unlike the coalmine, such a programme
would mean lower household energy bills,
The real reason why Tory politicians are lobbying for
an Australian-based hedge-fund is a desperate attempt to hold at the ‘Red Wall’
Labour seats they won in 2019.
The government approved the proposed new coalmine for Cumbria in December 2022, at present, WCM’s 2021 accounts show a shortage of funds, and the need to raise extra money in order to begin work.
The proposed mine is on the former site of various
chemicals companies, which have left behind very contaminated/ hazardous waste
(mainly heavy metals). This is currently capped-off underground by concrete
slabs – because the safest thing to do was to leave the site undisturbed. The
‘contaminated land’ designation was only removed on condition that those slabs
remain. Yet WCM, haven’t done any of the scientific investigations required to
see if mining safely beneath this waste is feasible; nor of hazardous waste
disposal. To do so, they’ll need to remove the concrete safely, and then
transport the waste – but there isn’t a Cumbrian hazardous waste facility. Additionally, WCM need to
construct a new ‘drift’ tunnel over an old anhydrite mine, currently full of
toxic waste. In 2017, the Environment
Agency recommended refusal of the mine proposal, because waste could escape
into the Irish Sea. So, it’s risky to have given planning permission before all
relevant studies are completed.
Although environmental groups - such as Greenpeace,
FoE, and XR North Lakes - make cases against the mine, the main practical
opposition is currently via two legal challenges, essentially over the CO2
emissions which, , haven’t been properly considered by the government, thus
making the approval of the mine unlawful.
On 13 January, both South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC) and FoE
filed papers for their challenges process. SLACC - should hear by 1 March whether their legal challenge can
go ahead. But the legal process could be dragged out until June. Even if the
court challenges are won, the government could simply re-issue permission
slightly different from the current one. If the permission for the mine is
allowed to stand, WCM will still need to obtain the necessary permission
licences from the Coal Authority and the Marine Management Organisation
Nonetheless, it’s possible preliminary work could
start on the site this Spring. So, acting on the precautionary principle, we
need to be thinking and planning - NOW - what our first steps will be, Knowing
the government’s decision would be announced in early December, West Cumbria
FoE and XR North Lakes made plans for a gathering at the mine site: either to
celebrate or to protest the decision. As a result, following a protest in Penrith
on Friday 9 December, there was a mass protest at the coalmine site on Saturday
10 December:
The next step is surely to begin making plans -now -
‘Blockadia’: putting bodies on the line to stop fossil fuel projects with the
public support of climate and scientific experts – inspite of legal rights to
effective peaceful protest being greatly reduced since 2019.
LINKS
CAFS:
https://cafs.org.uk/the-potential-for-green-jobs-in-cumbria/
SLACC: https://slacc.org.uk/west-cumbrian-coal-mine-slacc-legal-challenge-lodged-at-the-high-court/
https://slacc.org.uk/decision-made-to-proceed-with-legal-challenge-to-government-decision-on-coal-mine/
https://www.facebook.com/SLACCTT
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/challenge-the-cumbria-coal-mine/
FoE:https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/legal-challenge-filed-over-cumbrian-coal-mine
https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/legal-challenge-
launched-over-cumbrian-coal-mine
BLOCKADIA:
https://thischangeseverything.org/the-documentary/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQhflH4alO0
NUCLEAR POWER: A dangerous throwback,
unfit for 21st century
needs?
Pete Wilkinson
Against
today’s backdrop of technological innovation in electricity generation through
utilising ambient energy sources, nuclear power is starkly exposed as an
antiquated, complex and dangerous throwback from the days of nuclear weapons
and the cold war. It requires uranium as fuel which, in the reactors operating
in the UK today, is from Russia or Russia-influenced countries. It is expensive
and slow to deploy, rendering its putative ‘low carbon’ benefits ineffective in
the fight against climate change. Its technology is a fine balance between
extreme temperatures, lethal radioactivity and shrinking water reserves.
Unmitigated direct cooling from the sea or from rivers has a devastating effect on marine life: Hinkley Point C, should it ever be completed, is expected to kill 11 billion fish over its projected lifetime of 60 years. French engineers have labelled the EPR ‘too complicated to build’. It generates radioactive waste which requires indefinite, constantly monitored storage for thousands of years, representing an intergenerational burden of unacceptable proportions. Nuclear reactors emit millions of microscopic, radioactive particles of uranium, the health effects of which are bitterly contested. Nuclear reactors suffer from a syndrome known as ‘low frequency, high consequence accidents’: see Windscale 1957, Three Mile Island 1979, Chernobyl 1986 and Fukushima 2011. The search for a geological disposal facility has relied on imposition on unsuspecting and hostile communities. The switch to volunteerism since the recommendation from the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management in 2007 has not produced a ‘willing community’ after fifteen years of effort.
Uranium is a finite resource. After mining, it has to be milled, enriched to increase its fissionability, fashioned into pellets, configured into assemblies, transported at every step before being loaded into a reactor core in the heart of a complex building which itself has generated an unhealthy carbon footprint. This ‘front end’ of the fuel cycle is carbon heavy and capital intensive as is the ‘back end’ which begins with the removal of a third of the exhausted or ‘spent’ reactor fuel after a year or 18 months in the reactor core to make way for fresh fuel to be loaded at a permanent, geological disposal facility (GDF) for super-hot and highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel .
The
anti-nuclear argument is countered by the claim that the lights will go out
without ‘always on’ nuclear. But nuclear plants are not always on (maintenance
outages, refuelling and precautionary shut-downs occur) and are not good at
following the fluctuating demand, as they require lead times to ‘fire up’. load factors – the ratio of how much nuclear
electricity was produced as a share of the total generating capacity - also
give an indication of how important nuclear is power to powering the grid. In 2016, the nuclear average load factor was
80% which fell to below 60% in 2021.
And, ‘baseload’ is a concept which has been dismissed by the CEO of the
National Grid as irrelevant in national
electricity provision.
Pete
Wilkinson
Committee on
Radioactive Waste Management member 2003 – 2007
Former advisor to the
Office of Nuclear Regulation
Deputy Chairperson,
Sizewell site stakeholder group
Deputy Chairperson,
Together Against Sizewell C (TASC)
Co-founder Friends of
the Earth
Co-founder Greenpeace
UK
BACK TO BASICS – BACK TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS by Tina
Rothery
We’re in an ecological crisis, ,yet politics continues to fudge the action required to save ourselves and all else that depends on nature and the environment Does our Party have the right focus for this crisis?
Each member has their own particular take on what the purpose of the Green Party of England & Wales is ‘a political party seeking electoral power’ but what do we want that power for? GPEW makes clear in the Philosophical Basis that it’s not about being IN power, it’s decidedly more moral than that:
When I first read the Philosophical Basis, I decided to join the Party. which I
saw as the ‘political wing’ of a global movement of campaigners; facing each
crisis with science-based facts and stubborn determination to protect our
life-support-system.
I’ll
admit a UK-politics naivety but, realising how unjust life was and how
dangerous many political decisions were, I came to GPEW to see if anything
could be done to try to stop the nonsense masquerading as democracy.
Under First Past the Post GPEW stands little chance in a 2-horse race. I was not deterred. GPEW is clearly the Party needed during an ecological crisis – that’s the very reason it was formed!
I noticed that GPEW was heard by creators of other parties’ Manifestos– in fact the Labour Manifesto of 2019 was so similar to GPEW’s Manifesto that FoE said: “The Labour party has come out top in Friends of the Earth’s environmental assessment of the main UK-wide party manifestos, with the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats also putting forward a wide-range of significant policies to respond to the climate and ecological crisis.”
Everyone
of every Party or none, needs unpolluted air, clean water, a survivable climate
and the biodiversity of nature. This is the urgent mission that sets us apart
from other parties
When I started opposing fracking, stopping it was a distant aim. My every decision was based on getting closer. A lot of GPEW members feel that the ‘elections-first’ approach damps down other campaigns. Although many GPEW members are involved in XR, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, challenging HS2, fighting for clean air, opposing sewage-dumping, defending trees etc., we don’t see these as particularly GPEW campaigns. . Our Green Politics is about more than our Party or just politics:
Sustaining our moral core and our aims is tough in a politics, which involves FPTP voting, dubious funding and biased media,. I recall how refreshing it was to see Caroline Lucas tour of ‘leave’ areas to understand what the issues were; i she genuinely cared. Not that the media paid much heed of course.
Clearly
we need political change and GPEW has the focus on the environment that’s
needed , other Parties merely pay lip-service for votes. We need more than
adding to our impressive list of
Councillors or another MP.
We need to continue to act beyond politics. Rapid change is going to happen ‘naturally’ as nature continues to be depleted, agriculture pollutes soil and waters and fossil fuel projects do more harm. Every decision we make must first consider “where’s the environment/climate/nature/ecology in this?”
We all want GPEW to ‘win’ and to be much more than a pressure group –but at least, we are an effective pressure group. In 2020 Caroline Lucas introduced the Climate & Ecology Bill that has received cross-party support and is making its way through Parliament. Many GPEW Councillors have succeeded in putting motions to Councils. IF the CE Bill was to pass – it would mean that plans to frack, to build new coal mines, to pollute and allowing nature to waste away would be illegal..
Although it feels like the cost-of-living crisis, social injustice, class wars, privatisation of vital public services and corrupted politics should be a priority as they ensure that the vast majority suffer whilst the very few succeed, in the end everything depends on the environment. All our fights for a fairer, greener society will count for nothing if we stay on a planet-wrecking trajectory there will be no justice.
Another Europe Is
Possible – observations from the members’ meeting – December 2022
Erwin Schaefer, West
Central London GP
AEIP was formed in the aftermath of the brexit referendum by several progressive forces with support by high-profile Green Party members. It has over the years successfully campaigned for migrants’ rights, against Islamophobia, has supported Freedom of Movement with the EU, the struggle against austerity and, in the last year, has been on the side of the progressive resistance against aggression in Ukraine.
At its core it is a
pro-European group aligned with a progressive view of a cooperative Europe. As
an elected member of the National Committee, I recommend checking them out
online and joining.
We need to get away from the gaslighting by the Tory government and their false narrative of ‘illegals’, as such language encourages far-right acts of violence. But we do need to have the difficult conversations in the deprived areas and to channel the anger, showing genuine working-class solidarity with the lived experience of people to find the common struggle against austerity and conflict – and to show we have more in common with immigrants than divides us. There are human faces and stories attached to people who should better be known as ‘undocumented workers’. Leaving conflict areas to simply stay alive and not be drawn into a war, or to escape from the effect of climate change is a fundamental human right and Britain, as a major arms exporter as well as a major contributor to carbon emissions, needs to look at what is being done.
Cost of Living / Energy / Climate crisis is it also a crisis in the credibility of our main stream media? Why are we accepting this particular crisis as a matter of fact and not challenge it as the outcome of a failure of global capitalism? Climate justice and workers justice are part of the same struggle. Green New Deal and Green Jobs proposals could be seen as a reaction to the 2008 financial crisis but governments failed to take the required decisive action. international solidarity with workers in even more repressive countries is necessary – what impact do the recently introduced West African oil and gas imports due to Russian restrictions have on the local communities? These cannot be positive developments, within the same economic model that caused the earlier crises in the first place.
There hasn’t been a generalised social movement in this country since the early 2010s. The various groups that do exist are diverse but with a broad agreement it should be possible to find some overall alignment.
The main event, for me, was a zoom call on Russian anti-war activities, with an activist, in Russia, online, and a Ukrainian activist in the room.
The economic sanctions are
not yet felt enough in Russia, not to change the attitude of the population
about the conflict.
Russian tactics used in Ukraine are similar to previous events in Syria, Yugoslavia and Chechnya, with widespread population suffering. Human rights violations are not new and Russian society has huge steps to take towards full human rights.
There is opposition to the
state, but Russia has an aging population, with large rural poor areas where
Soviet rhetoric still dictates that ‘the state knows best’.
There is also significant influence by the orthodox church that largely follows the Kremlin rhetoric.
Some affected people have left the country but for anyone inside Russia, while they can join increasing numbers of protesters, they know the consequences.
Russia has a historical
mindset of ‘life is cheap’ and the huge loss of life, not least due to ill
equipped military, combined with a primarily masculine society means that
feminist, non-violent changes will not be happening in the country while
violence is so inherent. But significantly, women are daring to speak out
against historical and generic violence normalised in society.
Will Ukraine end up as a new colonial territory between Russia and the West?
Q: “What can the West do?”
– Russia needs to find its own voice; right now it needs support through war
protests not political protests; an international civic movement taking steps
towards supporting transformation of Russian society; also including criticism
about environmental war effects.
Can sanctions stop war?
There are too many aspects preventing a clear answer.
RURAL NEWS by Alan
Wheatley
2023
is a Shire Elections year and I suspect that the 2019 ousting of Tory
domination on Herefordshire Council by a coalition of Independents,’ and Green
Party, united by a manifesto for greater public transport and cycling provision
vs Tory plans for more roads to ‘ease congestion’.
Public
transport provision is costly for those whose comparative youth excludes them
from Senior Bus Pass and other age benefits, and Herefordshire is a
geographically large county. Those below state pension age are also excluded
from full Council Tax Reduction Support,. A Senior Bus Pass (age 60+) costs £10
for 4-years . Yet current Monday-to-Saturday bus provision can help lighten the
financial load at a time of burgeoning inflation in what New Internationalist
magazine calls ‘the cost of greed crisis’(1).
‘Information’ toward ‘informed choices’ comes from many sources including
advice from Public Health England and our own observations. As an example, I
now realise that the ‘walking with heavy shopping helps build muscle mass and
bone density’ advice issued on the Diabetes Protection Programme (DPP) I
attended May 2018 to March 2019 needs to be age-nuanced with, “Don’t let your
mind make appointments for you that your body can no longer keep.” By the end
of DPP I had lost 10% of my body weight, but by overdoing things, six months
after DPP, I had a hernia before my 66th birthday.
So, for large Hereford Co-op shopping loads, I now use large wheelie case
(dragged behind me, not slouched into) rather than shopping bags, and don't
shop when there is no bus service. (No longer, at age 69, will I carry heavy
shopping bags between bus stops.)
Yes, 2023 is a Shire County Elections year as veiled ‘vote Conservative’
letters to Hereford Times point out. Councils have 4-year terms of office, UK
Central Governments 5 year terms; and both the Elections Bill that comes into
force in May 2023 (2). Chancellor of
the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt’s proposes a hike in the State Pension Eligibility
because‘we can no longer afford’ so many state pensioners. Years earlier, as
Health Secretary, on the cue of a working tax credit cut for for low paid
families, he said that Britons should work much harder “like the Chinese
Welcome to the ‘corporate demolition of the
welfare state’.(4) “Work to death or get private ‘income protection insurance’”
trumps welfare state “from cradle to grave” ethos.
What services would a Herefordshire elected
Conservative Council from 2023 gladly axe? I shudder to think, while I wonder
what little Herefordshire Green Party will do for ‘levelling up’. “To please
some of the voters, some of the time”?
Meanwhile,
public transport provision: use it and explore it, if you can afford to, or
lose it.
(1) https://newint.org/node/29987
See
also
https://newint.org/features/2022/12/05/wealth-safari-cargill-family-bernard-looney-gautam-adani-bernard-arnault
(2)
https://www.camdennewjournal.co.uk/article/we-must-oppose-this-bad-elections-bill
(3) https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/jeremy-hunt-wants-poor-brits-6580580
(4)
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/disabled-researchers-book-exposes-corporate-demolition-of-welfare-state/
Safe-guarding greener
jobs in an age of transition – “Bold Solutions: The economic, climate and
energy crises and how to fix them”
Erwin Schaefer, as London Green Party Trade Union Liaison Officer (job-share)
As this recent TUC seminar
attests, unions are responding to the challenges of decarbonising industrial
jobs. Starting with ‘communicating a socially
just ambitious vision’, the need to radically tune into people’s
experiences and aspirations and to be willing to listen to their fears about
their livelihoods is really the only way to engage workers. Involve people
affected by the transition process decisions. Solidarity instead of instances
of perceived hypocrisy. The unifying villain can be found in the form of a
capitalist system reliant on fossil fuels and common ground can be found
mutually exploring inspirational green jobs that are not in conflict with
tangible, realistic and genuine changes.
Moving on to ‘future-proofing high carbon jobs’, the same
theme of solidarity emerged. Workers threatened by redundancy because their
deprived areas do not attract alternative work opportunities, or due to old
age, are in a particularly precarious situation and may be open to far-right
propaganda. A labour activist from the ‘Global South’ made the valid point that
solidarity needs to include all potential victims of a globalised capitalist
system; there are many workers in countries seen as providers of cheap labour,
with little protection, few rights and being vulnerable to corporate and
political abuse.
The next debate on ‘climate energy and inequality: interlinked solutions
focused on London as an urban example for existing Green New Deal examples –
dangerous and deadly air pollution as one of the reasons for a necessary
transition and ongoing work by City Hall to establish retrofitting solutions to
help keep houses warm and reduce residential fossil fuel consumption. The
massive current skills shortage in the UK was repeatedly mentioned throughout
the day and I noted, with interest, how union reps unfavourably compared the
training and apprenticeship options in this country with the ones actively being
pursued in the EU. Seen from a competitive point it is a concern, seen from an
empathetic secure employment scenario, it seems clear that the voices condemning
the government’s approach to a meaningful transition with full workers’ rights,
job security and satisfying work are only going to get louder.
‘Green jobs must be quality jobs’ should be an obvious statement and the next panel debate led on the
crucial need for skills training, yet again, and demands for quality green jobs
that provide well-paid unionised work. The North Sea gas conversion in the 1960/70s
was mentioned which provided much needed skilled work at the time; but there is
no leadership from government for any recognition that workers in deprived
areas, or in aging industries, need to be listened to. Once again, the UK
situation compared poorly to more sustained efforts being made in Europe. Green
jobs can be made attractive and well-paid but will the current economic system
– aka globalised capitalism – enable or prevent investments? Do we really have
to let the private sector finance transition technologies, training and
apprenticeships and still expect an outcome that favours workers’ rights,
empathetic support of workers wishing, or needing, to leave their jobs,
training and education that is fit for the future and satisfying well-paid
jobs?
Talking about the public
sector, the final panel debate explored ‘public
ownership of energy – for a safe climate’ with the assertion that energy
supply must be run for the people by the people and not for private profit, as
the current non-public energy ownership has tangible, visible, negative effects
on our energy cost structure. Another mention of Europe, where public energy
supply ownership is much more prevalent, followed by a shocking comparison of
the costs of the bail-out payment for energy cost assistance. If one contrasts
these costs to-date of around £2.7 billion with estimated costs of
nationalising the ‘Big 5 (or 6)’ (British Gas, EDF, e.on, npower, Scottish
Power, SSE) which would run to approximately £3 billion, the chance to
nationalise our power supply has been thrown away in favour of maximising
private profiteering.
Private ownership has no
incentive for training investment. The public will, however, have to deal with
– and pay for – net zero action anyway, irrespective of public or private
ownership.
A brief analysis of the event
from an eco-socialist perspective: Nobody is disputing the urgent need for a
transition towards a zero-carbon world anymore, but the debate needs to framed
around solidarity for affected workers, the need to listen to their expertise
and concerns. This must also include workers in ‘outsourced’ countries who
desperately need our solidarity in their struggle against globalised
capitalism. It is a government’s responsibility to ensure workers are supported
at all stages in their lives – from young people needing comprehensive,
meaningful and attractive apprenticeships to workers needing new skills
training for satisfying future-proof jobs to people choosing other options –
and this government is, unsurprisingly, failing in its duty.
I want to finish with the
impression that unions appear to be coming round to the realisation that having
put some trust in the Tories’ promises surrounding the exit from the EU, they
have become disillusioned by the realities.
Solidarity – training for
green jobs – international outlook – public ownership.
25/2/2022 Old man lies in bed,
sleepless, listening to the radio voices, That, late at night,
can lull him; Talking of cricket
matches, or bringing Stories, music and recipes
from far-off places. But the radio voices
aren’t comforting tonight, The old man turns
over and tries to sleep Because nightmares
might be better Than listening again To voices of
desperation and defiance in the face of fear. He’s heard them
before Calling from the
Czech lands as the tanks rolled in. Young man went out to
shout, In the street outside
the Russian embassy. He can’t even do that
now. So, he just has to
listen To the ingredients
describing the recipe For Chicken Kiev. |
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