labor

All I Want for Christmas is a Union that Fights Climate Change

Gary Engler Dissident Voice
Two pieces on the labor movement and climate change. First, an article by Gary Engler, who argues, "There is nothing more important than a healthy environment. Without that, all the other fundamentals — food, housing, education, family, leisure, pensions etc. — are at risk." Second, a link to a video interview of Sean Sweeney, by Laura Flanders.

Friday Nite Videos -- Dec 13, 2013 (Movies)

Portside
The Egyptian Revolution Behind the Headlines. Hustlers' Convention: The Roots of Rap. Searching for Sugarman. The NSA Is Coming to Town. Rhymes With Smokey Joe.

Rhymes with Smokey Joe

"Smokey Joe" Barton, known for apologizing to BP after the 2010 Oil spill, and harassing climate scientists, is a key connection between the tobacco industry and the climate denial industry.

Extending Solidarity to the Ecosystem: Laura Flanders Interviews Sean Sweeney

Laura Flanders, Truthout Interview Truthout
What would it mean to extend solidarity to the ecosystem? That's the question at the heart of this conversation with union activist and environmentalist, Sean Sweeney. Even conservatives are saying that 50 years will be more than sufficient to witness the worst impacts of climate change. And if past is prologue, poor and working-class communities will be hit doubly hard. Climate change is a class issue, and yet the trade union movement continues to drag its feet.

Solar Would Be Cheaper

Juan Cole Informed Comment
It has cost the United States $8 trillion to provide military security in the Gulf since 1976. The supreme tragedy is that the US has bankrupted itself ensuring military security for the oil-producing nations of the Gulf when oil production is destroying the world.

Tidbits - November 28, 2013

Portside
Reader Comments - Black Friday protests; Walmart and retail workers; Congress filibuster; Warren, Sanders - the 2016 elections; healthcare; Detroit; Climate Change; "Hunger Games;" Africa; Iran; Announcements - NC Music Love Army benefit album; New Books - What We Can Learn from the New Deal and JFK - The Cuba Files the untold story of the plot;; Performance-talk and jam - Nueva Canción - New York - Dec 6; PM Press - Holiday Sale and Upcoming Releases!

labor

Green Groups/Unions Walk Out of UN Climate Talks

John Vidal and Fiona Harvey The Guardian and ITUC
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) joins major environmental and development groups in protest action at COP 19 in Warsaw where Governments are not acting responsibly to tackle the threat to lives, jobs and livelihoods that climate change represents.

How to Reverse a Slow-Motion Apocalypse - Why the Divestment Movement Against Big Energy Matters

Todd Gitlin TomDispatch
Climate Change crossroads - Super-Typhoon Haiyan, possibly the strongest such storm ever to hit land; Australia, elected a climate-change denialist as prime minister is experiencing its hottest year on record; the rest of the world is living through the seventh warmest year on record. And...young activists organizing a growing campaign to pressure universities and colleges to divest from the giant energy companies, to change the mood and calculations of our moment.

Surviving Climate Change

Michael T. Klare TomDispatch
With an awareness of climate change growing and as intensifying floods, fires, droughts, and storms become an inescapable feature of daily life across the planet, more people are joining environmental groups and engaging in increasingly bold protest actions. Sooner or later, government leaders are likely to face multiple eruptions of mass public anger and may, in the end, be forced to make radical adjustments in energy policy or risk being swept aside.
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