TUC Climate Change Conference - June 16th

TSSA conference fringe meeting

TSSA Conference, Scarborough 2008 Fringe Meeting

Climate Change and Trade Unionists:

Time for Action

18.45 - 20.00 Sunday 11 May at the Spa Complex

Tony Kearns , Senior Deputy General Secretary, CWU

Andy Bain, President, TSSA

Richard Hampton, Zero Carbon Britain

Cllr Dilys Cluer, Green Party, Scarborough Council

Climate change is now recognised as the biggest challenge for mankind in the 21st century. What positive roles can trade unionists and others play in the struggle ahead?

Come and hear about

•    The Campaign Against Climate Change Trade Union Group
•    The powerful opposition to Heathrow expansion
•    This year’s Climate Camp at Kingsnorth power station
•    Sustainable communities and alternatives to carbon
•    Local experiences and initiatives

and contribute to the debate.

Regency Room Front, Spa Complex, South Bay
Scarborough , Y011 HD

Locally sourced refreshments and bar available.
Further information: 07981 753 970

Matt Wrack of the FBU on climate change

Matt Wrack’s speech to the CACCTU conference can be seen here.

Events and financial support

There are numerous events coming up which the Campaign Against Climate Change is part of.

In June, we will be hosting a two day, international Climate Forum to allow activists from around the world to discuss, debate and co-ordinate campaigns for real action on Climate Change. We are involved in the protests and lobbies taking place this week, around the country over the issue of Bio-fuels (something of crucial importance as food prices rise around the globe) and we are of course doing everything we can to promote the demonstration at Heathrow on 31st May.

All this is co-ordinated on a shoestring by a small team of committed activists. The campaign relies on the support and membership of people around the country, but as you can imagine this is not enough.

Last Saturday’s meeting of the CaCC Trade Union group agreed that we would ask all those delegates who came to our Trade Union conference to take out a standing order to support the work of the campaign. A few pounds a month makes a big difference, and the regular income helps the campaign plan what is possible in the future.

A form can be downloaded from the CaCC website here Membership :

http://www.campaigncc.org/membership.doc

You can also find further information about all the activities mentioned above on the website.

Many thanks for all your support

Campaign against Climate Change NUJ fringe meeting

On the eve before the National Union of Journalists annual delegates meeting began in Belfast around 15 people participated in a fringe meeting to discuss the climate crisis and what we, as journalists and trade unionists, can do to help to prevent a global disaster. Climate change is happening and it is directly linked to human activity, specifically the pumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.

Although small, it was the first fringe meeting on climate change within the union and the participants were keen to push the discussion out into the union and into our workplaces. Jeremy Dear, general secretary, addressed the meeting saying that it was important that climate change and other environmental issues were on the map for NUJ members. He said that climate change was a global justice issue and pointed
to the thousands of people still without homes after the floods last summer in the UK, let alone the millions that are affected around the world. Jeremy explained the work the union had done in the past year to reduce its carbon footprint, such as recycling, reducing air conditioning, cutting electricity consumption by a third, plus reducing water usage and waste. His proposals centred on getting chapels and branches involved in putting environmental concerns on the agenda in the workplace, maybe through environmental reps or committees to force employers to take this issue seriously.

John Woods, director (North of Ireland) Friends of the Earth, spoke about FoE’s attempts to get a strong, legally binding Climate Change Bill through parliament in order to make the UK government to live up to its promises to reduce CO2 emissions – something that it is flaunting, despite its “green” rhetoric, with its plans to expand airport capacity like the third runway at Heathrow. He also talked about FoE’s campaigning work to spread information about climate change – the Big Ask saw over 170,000 people lobbying their MPs about supporting the Bill.

Eamonn McCann, Socialist Environmental Alliance candidate in Foyle, spoke about three issues that he was involved in at a local level – but showed how these were connected to what was going on at the global level. Derry Airport’s runway is being expanded into a delicate swamp habitat because RyanAir boss Michael O’Leary bought up cheap new, larger planes that need more space to land. After doing a secret deal to give incredible discounts to RyanAir to attract its business, the Derry council cannot say no to anything that O’Leary demands. Eamonn also told of the Belfast-Derry railway campaign to get a decent, reliable and fast service between the cities so that instead of flying, people can take the train and effectively pollute less. But the government refuses to spend any money on this project. Instead it plans to build a road through Banagher Woods – where there are many species that are unique in the habitat which would be destroyed if the road is built. Eamonn also explained how the drive for profits, often hidden behind the pretence of creating jobs, trumps the needs of the community no matter where you are in the world.

Joy Macknight, a representative from the CCC Trade Union group, spoke about the CCC and specifically the TU conference it held at the beginning of February when around 300 trade unionists got together to discuss what to do about climate change. She said how Matt Wrack form the FBU had set the tone for the
conference when in the opening plenary he spoke about how climate change was related to the system under which we live – capitalism – and how we needed to replace it with socialism if we are really going to be able to reverse the damage already done. Joy said how important it was that trade unionists move past the
division between jobs and the environment – it is not either/or – and how we needed to come up with an alternative when the bosses or the government or even other trade union leaders try to scare us into accepting the status quo in terms of the burning of fossil fuels. She invited all NUJ members to get involved in two demonstrations that the CCC is building for – 15 April protest against biofuels and 31 May protest against the Heathrow expansion.

The discussion centred on practical things we can do – one suggestion put forward was to create a sub-group of the CCC trade union group like Media Workers against Climate Change, which would organise media workers specifically addressing the role they have to play in combating the lies around climate change. The New Scientist magazine did a great exposé in May 2007 called Climate change: A guide for the perplexed – we should try to get the journalists to tour union branches (contact Liz Else, London Magazine Branch, liz.else@rbi.co.uk). We should take the measures the union has taken to reduce its carbon footprint into our chapels and branches and get it on the workplace agenda. As a union we should also get involved in local campaigns. Finally, the NUJ should fulfil the motion passed at last year’s ADM and ballot our membership to affiliate to the Campaign against Climate Change.

The fringe meeting showed the way forward – there are many things we can do as individuals, like recycle or cut down on our car usage, etc, but it is collective action as a trade union to force the big corporates to change their behaviour that will make a difference. For that we need strong unions and to unite across the unions to halt activities that contribute to climate change.

National Union of Journalists climate fringe meeting

Fringe meeting: How to stop climate chaos Climate change, due to human activity, is creating wild weather patterns, such as hurricanes, floods, and droughts, which have devastating effects on people’s
lives. What can we, as journalists and trade unionists, do to make a difference?

3 April 2008
19.30 - 21.30
Room: Dublin 1
Europa Hotel,

Great Victoria Street

Belfast

Speakers:

* Jeremy Dear, general secretary of National Union of Journalists
* Eamonn McCann, Socialist Environmental Alliance candidate in Foyle
* John Woods, director (North of  Ireland), Friends of the Earth
* Joy Macknight, Campaign Against Climate Change TU group

Format of meeting:
Each speaker should speak for about 8 - 12 minutes, and then we will open up the floor for discussion. Speakers will have the opportunity to sum up after the discussion.

Objectives:
1. To raise the important issue of climate change.
2. To get NUJ members thinking about what they can do in the workplace to help combat climate change.
3. Also to promote other activities outside the workplace that trade unionists should get involved in.

An Inconvenient Spoof

I’ve paved my front garden and planted three cars,
The rain cannot reach underground reservoirs

But I just don’t believe what they say are our follies,
That the poles are now melting like two big ice lollies

Great Yarmouth, it sizzles like somewhere in France,
And scorpions are spreading all over Northants

The warmest year yet since records began. It
Was the hottest one yet on our little planet

The forests are falling in the Amazon Basin,
But I just won’t acknowledge the problems we’re facing

So, I’ve bought me a Hummer and I drive it around,
I know that it’s not ecologically sound

I hog all the roads from St.Albans to Peckham,
And I boast that I’ve got one just like David Beckham.

I’ll read a newspaper that questions the proof,
That this warming is global and not just a spoof

I’ll battle my corner and hold my position
I don’t give a toss about carbon emissions

Why should I be bothered or remotely concerned?
I’m just reaping the benefits of what I have earned

Recycling is barmy, the greens are just daft,
Composting is something at which to be laughed

Wind turbines are hideous. They’re not the solution.
I prefer nuclear waste and industrial pollution

No time for soul searching, no time to reflect
It’s just all those pinko’s being politically correct

So please just ignore me when the sea starts to rise,
Don’t throw me a line when it’s up to my eyes

Inconvenient truth? Or elaborate farce?
Now, excuse me while I disappear………

by Rob Barratt 

Model Motion in support of the Campaign against Climate Change (CCC)

This model resolution can be amended for your own organisation.
This meeting notes:

1) That the level of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere is up one third on that of pre-industrial times: a level higher than it has been for at least 400 000 years.

2) The evidence that human activity is changing the climate is now overwhelming. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that future greenhouse gas emissions are likely to increase average global temperatures by between 2 C and 6.5 C this century.

3) That continued global warming threatens to undermine or even reverse human Progress, as flooding, drought, disease and ecological disruption increasingly affects the world’s population. The IPCC notes that the poorest countries will be by far the worst affected by climate change. Ultimately ‘run-away’ climate change threatens a global catastrophe of unimaginable scale.

4) The contradiction between the Government’s stated aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and its practice of expanding roads and airports.

5) The devastating impact a proposed third runway at Heathrow Airport would have on local communities as a consequence of increases in air and noise pollution, and on climate change as a result of increased emissions of greenhouse gases.

This meeting therefore demands that the UK government immediately scraps all plans to build a third runway at Heathrow airport.

This meeting agrees to:

1) Affiliate to the Campaign against Climate Change (Affiliation fees: National Unions £250 per annum; Districts and Regions £100 per annum; local branches £25 per annum), and help its work with a further donation of £… (cheques payable to Campaign against Climate Change should be sent to Campaign against Climate Change , Top Floor, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX)

2) Send a delegation and banner to the National Demonstration against the third runway at Heathrow at 12 noon on Saturday 31st May 2008.

Aims and Objectives Statement of the Campaign against Climate Change

The Campaign against Climate Change exists to push for the urgent and radical action we need to prevent the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate. The destabilisation of global climate has become the very greatest threat to our planet and everyone on it - with the possible exception only of all-out war with modern weapons of mass-destruction. We do not know how much irreversible damage we have done already but we know that if we do not act now the effects will be many times more devastating still.

1/ The CCC exists to secure the action we need - at a local, national and, above all, international level - to minimise harmful climate change and the devastating impacts it will have. To that end the CCC seeks to raise awareness about the gravity and urgency of the threat from climate change and to influence those with the greatest power to take effective action to do so with the utmost speed and resolution. Where ignorance, short term greed and vested interests stand in the way of the action that is urgently needed, the CCC exists to fight against all of these things.

2/ In particular the CCC brings people together to create a mass movement to push for our goals, including street demonstrations & other approaches.

3/ The CCC seeks a global solution to a global problem
and aims to push for an international emissions reductions treaty that is both effective in preventing the catastrophic destabilisation of global climate and equitable in the means of so doing. To be effective such a treaty needs to secure such reductions in the global total of greenhouse gas emissions as are deemed by the broad consensus of qualified scientific opinion to be necessary to prevent harmful climate change. The CCC aims to campaign against those with the greatest responsibility for preventing or delaying the progress we urgently need towards an international climate treaty.

4/ The CCC recognises that the issue of the destabilisation of global climate has enormous implications in terms of social justice and global inequality. The damage to the earth’s atmosphere has so far been done mainly by the rich nations but it is the poorest who will suffer the greatest and most immediately. The CCC recognises that any solution to the problem must be as fair as possible, incorporating principles of social justice and not exacerbating global and local inequalities

5/ The CCC aims to bring together as many people as possible who support our broad aims of pushing for urgent action on climate and reducing global emissions. The CCC does not therefore campaign on the important but more detailed questions of how best to achieve these emission reductions and recognises that supporters will have different and deeply held views on these issues.

NUT fringe meeting report

The CCC fringe meeting at NUT conference on Saturday went very well indeed. Phil Thornhill, Christine Blower (deputy general secretary) and myself spoke to around 40 delegates, and there was a very positive and interesting discussion. Following that meeting, we have now received pledges from senior officials within the union for help with ensuring that climate change will feature on the main agenda of our next annual conference.

If any of you are organising fringe meetings at your own union conference, please send in a brief report of how it went, and also let me have a list of email addresses of any delegates who wish to be added to our e-list.

In Manchester, we are going to produce a local version of the Heathrow Demo leaflet (which can be downloaded from www.campaigncc.org ) with details of our coaches. If you are able to do this for your own area please let me know. Also, please let me know of any union contingents that you know will be attending the demo.

An issue which might well arise when you raise Heathrow expansion in your union branch is the effect on jobs. Some union leaders have argued that we need to expand Heathrow in order to compete with other European hub airports in Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt, and that if we don’t build a third runway tens of thousands of jobs might be lost. My response to that would be that competition never benefits workers, and that instead of competing with our brothers and sisters in those cities, we should be fighting alongside them to resist all airport expansion, across Europe and beyond.

Our government was more than happy to nationalise Northern Rock in order to protect the interests of financiers; perhaps they should consider nationalising the airports in order to protect the livelihoods of those who work in them – by for example cutting hours of work instead of jobs; and by providing retraining and redeployment (with no loss of pay or worsening of conditions) into sustainable industries such as rail. I think this would be a better union response than just going along with the bosses’ drive for ‘competitiveness’ regardless of the environmental cost of doing so.

I am confident that we may well win the campaign to stop the third runway. If we do so it will give a huge boost to all campaigns against airport expansion, including here in Manchester, but also internationally. So please do try your very best to ensure a big union turnout on the 31st May.

Fringe meeting at NUT conference

 Download the CACCTU flyer for the NUT conference fringe meeting.

NUT CACCTU leaflet