New England climate justice movement plans actions

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who has been the most public figure driv­ taurants to sign up workers for the Nov. Unions, as well as low-wage-worker and 4 SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 2015 Climate activists in New England are buoyed by the role they have played in the recent decisions rolling back extreme extraction projects and pushing ahead on a series of demonstrations to build the kind of movement necessary for the giant tasks ahead. Actions to mark the opening and closing of the Paris climate talks are the focus of a great deal of organizing at­ tention.

• In Connecticut, a coalition of groups led by 350 CT and including the Sierra Club Connecticut Chapter, the InterRe­ ligious Eco-Justice Network, the Green Party of Connecticut, the police brutal­ ity group Hartford Action, and dozens of other local pipeline, power plant, and en­ vironmental action groups, are building toward a state-wide demonstration on Saturday, Nov. 21.

The protest, which is demanding “100% Renewable Energy for 100% of the Peo­ ple,” is targeting Governor Dannel Malloy, ing forward a disastrous expansion of the fracked gas infrastructure in the state.

Organizers pose the issue in this way in their literature: “We can be a leader in re­ newable energy technology, creating new jobs, lowering energy prices and stabiliz­ ing our climate, OR we can continue the status quo of using and expanding gas pipelines and dirty energy projects that keep us dependent on fossil fuels, dam­ age our air quality, exacerbate climate change and make our residents less safe.”

To learn how to develop closer ties with residents whose children suffer asthma at an alarming rate due to the remaining coal-fired plant in the town of Bridgeport, 350 CT recently sponsored a forum on the history of the movement to fight en­ vironmental racism featuring a local Af­ rican American activist, Desmond Batts. And to learn how to better think about the kind of movement that is needed in Connecticut, 350 CT activists joined with Hartford Fight for Fifteen $ to canvas res­ 10 low-wage worker rally in the state’s capital.

At a recent meeting, 350 CT voted to attend as many Black Friday pickets at Walmart as possible, in order to spread the word about the Nov. 21 demonstra­ tion and the relationship of an emer­ gency renewable-energy program to the creation of good union jobs. Activists in­ terested in helping to build the rally can email “[email protected].

• “Jobs, Justice, and Climate: Defending New England’s Future!” is the banner under which New England 350 is assem­ bling partners for a rally on Dec. 12 in Boston.

The protest, which will take place on the Saturday after the end of the Paris cli­ mate talks, is seen as the first step in the creation of broad coalition of climate jus­ tice and economic justice organizations capable of pulling off a powerful regional action in conjunction with actions at sites of extreme extraction around the globe. immigrant-rights groups, are involved in shaping the rally so that it will really ex­ press the relationship of climate justice to the creation of a just, equitable, and sustainable economy. Students and direct action groups are looking to the date as the occasion for theatrical activities in­ spired by Flood Wall Street.

The first blast of information about the rally pointed out: “No matter what hap­ pens in Paris, we know what we need: real climate solutions that create secure union jobs and strengthen community power and resiliency.

“And to get there, we need to build an unstoppable grassroots movement that can unite organized labor, immigrant rights, racial justice and climate-justice groups” (see http://350mass.betterfu­ tureproject.org/jobs_justice_climate_ral­ ly_to_defend_new_england_s_future).

Groups looking for updated information and transportation information can RSVP on the 350 Massachusetts website. n

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... Climate (continued from page 1: “Climate movement defeats Keystone XL pipeline”) movement’s figureheads to stop exclusively referring to this pipeline and discouraging us from working on other tar sands issues.”

350.org relies on local groups to take on powerful multinational fossil-fuel corporations first. Their na­ tional committee selects local issues to support based on which fights have legs, leadership, and strategic value. This approach, at least so far, has allowed sev­ eral cross-border pipelines bigger than Keystone to slip by under the radar.

To their credit, 350 has taken on a raft of other cli­ mate-change initiatives, from international fossil-fuel divestment to fighting the expansion of coal and tarsands mines. The group is playing a major role in or­ ganizing international protests around the upcoming Paris Climate Talks.

In the Sierra Club, little attention was paid to pipe­ line projects other than Keystone until local chapters around the country demanded that the national orga­ nization allocate resources to fighting them. There are now efforts within the Club to coordinate local pipe­ line fights.

In Minnesota and Wisconsin, Enbridge Energy LLC has been rapidly expanding its Lakehead Pipeline system for years to accommodate both tar-sands oil and oil from the Bakken fields of western North Da­ kota, eastern Montana, and southern Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Local coalitions, including 350.org and Sierra Club chapters, are fighting the expansion.

Enbridge plans to triple the capacity of its Line 61 pipeline, which crosses Wisconsin lengthwise, includ­ ing virtually all of the state’s major waterways. It will soon carry up to 1.2 million barrels of tar-sands bi­ tumen per day, and was already up to 950,000 bar­ rels per day in October. In addition, the company is now mulling over whether to build a new “twin” line alongside 61 that would carry another 450,000 bar­ rels per day, bringing the total up to 1.65 million. The maximum capacity planned for Keystone XL was half that—830,000 barrels per day.

Every capacity increase promises to result in new oil spills that are poisonous to drinking water, deadly for wildlife, and very difficult to clean up. A 2010 report by the National Wildlife Federation outed Enbridge’s atrocious safety record, which then consisted of over 800 spills since 2000, including a 2008 spill that re­ leased over 1 million gallons of oil into Michigan’s Kal­ amazoo River. Cleanup from that spill is ongoing.

Unlike Keystone, which public pressure forced a lengthy review of, Enbridge pipelines that cross the U.S.-Canada border have received the red carpet treat­ ment from the Obama administration. The U.S. State Department rushed to approve the company’s appli­ cation to divert oil from one existing border crossing to another, thus avoiding a requirement for a presi­ dential permit like the one that ultimately stopped Keystone. Declaration in 2010, declaring that they would not al­ low any tar-sands pipelines to cross their territories. The group spearheading the declaration, the Yinka Dene Alliance, also has released open letters to the Chinese people—the future recipients of most B.C. oil shipments—appealing for solidarity. It has filed complaints with the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, claiming that the pipeline infringes on Aboriginal land titles. The Alli­ ance has been the victim of spying by the Royal Cana­ dian Mounted Police.

In a model for American workers, Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union, has thrown its support and solidarity behind the First Nations opponents of tar sands. Unifor represents some 310,000 Canadian workers, including workers in tar-sands refineries. They are calling both for the oil to be processed do­ mestically rather than shipped abroad, and for a tran­ sition to renewable energy sources.

In the U.S., the United Steelworkers, Amalgamated Transit Union, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and three nurses unions opposed the Keystone pipe­ line. Unfortunately, building-trades unions were uni­ versally and vocally in favor of the project, and the executive committee of the national AFL-CIO passed a statement in support of building more pipelines.

This very short-sighted enthusiasm for oil pipelines rests on the basis of its providing short-term con­ struction jobs. According to Politifact, the 875-milelong northern segment of Keystone would have creat­ Andrew Burton / Getty Images (Above) Miles of unused pipe meant for the Keystone XL Pipeline sit in a lot in North Dakota.

est mass mobilization around climate change to date, in Paris on Dec. 12. The London-based Campaign Against Climate Change is planning a mass protest on Nov. 29. In the U.S., the NorCal Climate Mobilization, a coalition of environmental and labor groups, is orga­ nizing a rally on Nov. 21 in Oakland, Calif.

Such protests are important opportunities for build­ ing the movement. We encourage all readers to attend one of the planned mobilizations, or to bring fellow activists together to build one in your local area. All out to save the climate! n