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News and views for trade Unionists and supporters in the Green Party
Thursday 27 May 2021
PROTEST: South London against immigration raids
Tuesday 25 May 2021
Migrant care workers and the health sector
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Tomorrow: Migrant care workers and the health sector |
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Friday 21 May 2021
Clean Air Day Thursday June 17th - 6-7.30pm
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Monday 17 May 2021
Green Ban, Red Union: Winning our climate demands
Green Ban, Red Union: Winning our climate demands
Wednesday 19 April @ 8pm
Join the Australian construction union (CFMEU) on Wednesday night to learn how they are reviving the historic 'Green Bans' (work stoppages) in Sydney, in the fight for climate justice, and debate what UK trade unions can learn from this fight.
You may remember last month we were unable to host CFMEU due to technical difficulties - so catch up on what you missed by joining us this Wednesday!
The Green Bans in Australia are legendary in how they brought industrial labour issues together with climate justice.
From 1971-75, the BLF in Australia placed Green Bans (orders not to work) on sites of ecological, climate or conservation interest, to stop big developers riding roughshod over local communities.
Today, the CFMEU union is reviving green bans to defend communities and climate. Join our session to hear how the CFMEU have overcome harsh anti-union laws to centre worker issues in the fight for climate justice. Hear from UCU about what they are learning from the direct action of the Green Bans.
Speakers:
- Darren Greenfield, State Secretary, CFMEU New South Wales
- Chloe Koffman, freelance writer on the Green Bans
- Marianne Quick, UCU National Bargaining Officer for Sustainability
Part of With Banners Held High Virtual Festival: the past we inherit, a green future we build
contact: Gareth Forest - gforest@tuc.org.uk
Saturday 8 May 2021
UCU London Retired Members Branch Opposing the Rebuild of the Edmonton Incinerator
UCU London Retired Members Branch Opposing the Rebuild of the Edmonton Incinerator
The London Retired Members Branch of the University and College Union is opposed to the rebuilding of the Edmonton incinerator. The North London Waste Authority (NLWA), on behalf of the seven north London boroughs, plans to replace the current incinerator with a new, much bigger version which will burn rubbish that could otherwise be recycled.
The toxic pollution, including tiny particle pollution, from this new incinerator will harm everyone who lives, works and studies nearby, in one of London’s most deprived neighbourhoods..
The waste incinerator sits in one of the poorest areas of the country, where air pollution already breaches legal limits and we note that UK waste incinerators three times more likely to be in deprived areas. The incinerator is an environmental disaster. Waste incinerators currently release an average of around 1 tonne of CO2 for every tonne of waste incinerated. The release of CO2 from incinerators makes climate change worse and comes with a cost to society that is not paid by those incinerating waste.
Over the next 30 years the total cost to society of fossil CO2 released by UK's current incinerators would equate to more than £25 billion pounds of harm arising from the release of around 205 million tonnes of fossil CO2. In 2017 the UK's 42 incinerators released a combined total of nearly 11 million tonnes of CO2, around 5 million tonnes of which were from fossil sources such as plastic. In addition to greenhouse gases, incineration releases nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, hydrogen chloride, dioxins, furans, heavy metals, and particulate matter. Electricity generated by waste incineration has significantly higher adverse climate change impacts than electricity generated through the conventional use of fossil fuels such as gas.
The 'carbon intensity' of energy produced through waste incineration is more than 23 times greater than that for low carbon sources such as wind and solar; as such, incineration is clearly not a low carbon technology.
There are many alternatives. Landfill or exporting to poorer countries are not the only alternatives. Alternatives include material recycling facilities, ‘mechanical biological treatment’, steam autoclaving, underground storage of sorted materials, and anaerobic digestion and so on.
Composition analysis indicates that much of what is currently used as incinerator feedstock could be recycled or composted, and this would result in carbon savings and other environmental benefits.
We need a system that sorts our rubbish and makes the best use of each type of material. A small portion will still end up landfill or incineration, but at nowhere near the scale NLWA currently has planned.
This is not merely a question of what type of plant to build. It’s about the type of waste management system that North London boroughs should have. The NLWA wants to spend more than £1 billion of our money on a new incinerator when it could invest that money not only on high-tech sorting and recycling facilities, but also in its people, roughly half of the rubbish going to Edmonton could be recycled if people simply threw it in the right bin.
If more money were spent on education and awareness raising, much of this ‘rubbish’ could be recycled.
More details from United Kingdom Without Incineration Network, "Evaluation of the climate change impacts of waste incineration in the United Kingdom" - https://bit.ly/3uvBRnT
Steve Cushion Branch Secretary, UCU London Retired Members Branch Assistant Secretary, TUC LESE Environmental Sustainability and Just Transition Network
BANNERS HELD HIGH On-line Trade Union Festival 2021
On-line Trade Union Festival 2021 Workshop
May 8th – 25th
The theme for this
year's With Banners Held High trade union festival is THE PAST WE
INHERIT, THE GREEN FUTURE WE BUILD
Many of the
speakers and workshop facilitators are active in CACC TU. Please share these
events far and wide - it's a good opportunity to involve far more trade
unionists in discussions about just transition/climate jobs, and also to
involve social movement environment campaigners who may not be trade union
activists in discussions about the relevance and importance of trade unions and
a worker-led transition.
The main event with
a line-up of trade union speakers will be online on Saturday 15th May, 11am -
12.30pm, see here: https://www.facebook.com/events/457556441868873
The workshops,
which would normally be held on the day, are to be held online spread
throughout the month. Participants must pre-register to join these
meetings, so please check the With Banners Held High Facebook pages for links
to each workshop and for further details - see https://www.facebook.com/withbannersheldhigh
.
Saturday 8 May, 11.00am-1.00pm
Educating for the climate emergency
Schools and colleges play an essential role in the climate emergency educating
the next generation and laying the foundations for our young people's
career and life choices. In this workshop there will be a panel of four
teachers, leading climate education in their schools and in wider networks of
schools across the region.
Tuesday 11 May 7.00- 8.30pm Youth voice - speaking up for the planet
Across the region young people have been calling for action on the climate.
Greta Thunberg has spoken for the next generations. We need to do our homework,
listen to the science and take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In this workshop we will hear from a range of young people from right across
the region who need us to listen. Their future is in our hands.
Wednesday 12 May 7.30-9.00pm One million climate jobs
Join this workshop to discuss the jobs that are needed to tackle the
environmental crisis. Whether it's retrofitting homes or greener transport, we
need urgent investment to tackle climate change. Suzanne Jeffery from the
Campaign against Climate Change will speak about the new edition of One
Million Climate Jobs, looking in detail at homes and transport and
where investment and jobs are really needed.
Friday 14 May 7.00-8.30pm The right to protest - hosted
by Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
Join an exciting panel of speakers on this important issue:
· Chair: Chris Peace:
Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign activist
· Shami Chakrabarti:
Human rights activist, lawyer and Labour Peer
· Kate Flannery:
Secretary of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
· Abdullah Okud:
Co-founder of Sheffield Black Lives Matter
· Declan Owens:
Campaigning lawyer and joint chair of Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
· Rosa Tully:
Socialist, feminist and climate justice activist
· Music by Sam
Browse, folk musician and political activist
Tuesday 18 May 7.30-9.00pm A just
transition - what does it mean for you?
Join Unite's Andy Pearson for this workshop to find out what just
transition means for you.
Wednesday 19 May 8.00-9.00pm Green ban: red union - winning our climate
demands
From 1971-75, the BLF in Australia placed Green Bans (orders not to work) on
sites of ecological, climate or conservation interest, to stop big developers
riding roughshod over local communities.
Today, the CFMEU union is reviving green bans to defend communities and
climate. Join our session to hear how they have overcome harsh anti-union
laws to centre worker issues in the fight for climate justice.
Speakers:
· Darren Greenfield,
state secretary, CFMEU New South Wales
· Historian of the
Green Bans 1971-75
· UK trade union
speaker
Saturday 22 May
11.00am-1.00pm Future Energy Needs – is hydrogen the answer?
Hydrogen is being talked up by government as a centrepiece of a low carbon
economy, not least as a replacement for natural gas in our homes. How realistic
is this scenario, and what are the alternatives? We explore the potential and
limitations of hydrogen technologies, with Simon Pirani, energy researcher and
author of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption and members
of Leeds TUC's environment sub-committee.
Saturday 22 May 3.00-4.00pm Winning Better Buses for
Yorkshire
We Own It host this workshop which will look at how public
transport really could make that green future more than an ambition.
Tuesday 25 May 7.30pm-9.00pm Organising for the Climate Emergency -
from the Workplace to COP26
We know that we need to organise to get businesses, employers and governments
to act and our last workshop focuses on that.
We have a fantastic line-up for this workshop: a GMB shop steward will
describe how he has brought in workplace changes, Sarah Woolley,
general secretary of the bakers union, BFAWU will describe how they have been
making sustainability a strand throughout the union and with other unions.
And Sam Mason, policy officer of PCS will show how it has
been possible to use workers concern for the environment as a a key driver of
change.
We will consider how in the year of COP26 we can organise to make trade union
voices heard, from the workplace to intergovernmental panels as they
prepare to meet in Glasgow.
Solidarity Greetings
Organisers of With Banners Held High would welcome greetings from branches
who would have attended with their banners.
Please send photos of your banners with a message and they will post on
their Facebook page and may also include them in the online procession.
Email these by
8 May, but please send earlier if you can.
A few NUM banners will be available to see in person in the Burton Street
windows of Wakefield MDC building, Wakefield One, from 7 May.
Wednesday 5 May 2021
The Green Party Trade Union group sends a message of support to teachers and support workers at Beal High School
The Green Party Trade Union group sends a message of support to teachers and support workers at Beal High School who are striking with the support of the NEU (The National Education Union) for inclusion in a nationally-agreed sick pay scheme. It is a disgrace that key workers should have to strike for this reason during a pandemic. GPTU sends it’s solidarity to the strikers and hopes for a speedy and satisfactory outcome for this dispute.
P.Murry Secretary
pp Green Party Trade Union group
Sunday 2 May 2021
Death By Pollution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ9xO7MeTfs
Death By Pollution | Novara Docs
8 views
•2 May 2021
Novara Media
Do we all breathe the same air? Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah was a nine-year-old girl who lived in south-east London and died in 2013. The cause of death was listed as air pollution, now her mother is fighting to make clean air a human right. This Novara Doc was made by black & brown films and supported by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (London Office) as part of Novara Media's Decades Project. https://novaramedia.com/tag/climate-f
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