Thousands in Bay Area protest Paris climate talks

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SOCIALIST ACTION DECEMBER 2015 5 OAKLAND, Calif.—Organized by a broad coalition of environmental, social justice, labor, antiwar, anti-racist, and faith-based groups across Northern California, some 3000 mobilized on Saturday, Nov. 21, to demand immediate action to stop and reverse global warming and associated climate-change-influenced catastrophes.

The mobilization was part of the world­ wide effort to protest the Nov. 30–Dec. 12 UN COP21 Paris climate conference, where little or no substantial actions were expected to stop and reverse the climate crisis.

Major organizing efforts began here some five months ago, an important fac­ tor that made the Oakland march and ral­ ly the largest in the U.S. to date among the many planned in cities across the country both before and after the UN-sponsored Paris talks.

Some 200 groups endorsed this action, initiated and sponsored by the North­ ern Climate Climate Mobilization. Fifty to sixty dedicated activists, representing almost as many organizations, met biweekly for months and then weekly to broaden and build this essential “move­ ment of movements” to demand immedi­ ate action to eliminate fossil fuel-based energy systems and rapidly replace them with 100 percent clean, safe, and sustain­ able alternatives to “Defend the Planet.”

In fact, “Defend the Planet” against cor­ porate and government polluters soon became the eye-catching focus of coali­ tion flyers and of the eight-foot advertise­ ments that were posted at seven BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train stations, at a cost of $7000. There was little or no doubt among the coalition activists that the consequences of the corporate pol­ luter profit-driven polices to increase fos­ sil-fuel extraction, and the government’s associated actions to promote these poli­ cies, threaten life on earth.

The high-spirited and colorful march was led by some 100 Native American ... Climate (continued from page 1: “Protesters demand real action on climate change”)

are entitled and rich nations can bear their responsi­ bility for the global warming they have directly caused over the last 265 years.

The series of climate talks that have taken place over more than two decades have done very little to stop the planet’s race toward runaway climate change.

Annual global carbon dioxide emissions have risen steadily from 21 billion tons in 1992 to 32 billion in 2012. The wretched showing of every nation that has participated fails to inspire confidence that the next two weeks of dithering will accomplish anything.

Climate scientist James Hansen has criticized the talks as being “half-assed and half-baked” because the worthless, non-binding agreement they are working toward will actually allow emissions to increase un­ til 2030! What is needed is an immediate, rapid, and drastic reduction in greenhouse gases from all sourc­ es—a deep decarbonization—while leaving fossil fu­ els in the ground and implementing a crash program of renewable wind and solar power along with clean mass transit, funded by eliminating the war budget.

Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which so many main­ stream environmentalists tout, is a joke in comparison since it includes deadly nuclear-power plants, fracked natural gas, and the endless perpetuation of the de­ structive car-truck culture. In Paris, the president an­ nounced that he plans to allocate funds for more re­ search and development on new energy technologies, increasing the budget from $5 billion to $10 billion and enlisting a coalition of high-tech entrepreneurs.

We already have clean technologies. They just need to be implemented ASAP, so he should be spending the money on producing them and providing green jobs.

The call for more R&D has been used for years as a stalling tactic, and if by “clean technologies” he means risky carbon capture and sequestration methods, he can forget it. The chances are all too great for a mas­ sive belch of carbon dioxide suddenly being released from a geological formation and suffocating all life Idle No More frontline community activ­ ists from Sonoma County to San Jose. It contained new, diverse—but still only modest—representation from the criti­ cally necessary sectors of the country’s labor, youth, and oppressed nationalities. The multi-cultural outpouring, included several bands and singing groups, youth contingents, socialist contingents, LGBT groups, high school student organiza­ tions, and more.

Speakers at the rally included the main leaders of the San Francisco and Alameda country labor councils, an IBEW local president, and a key representative of the California Nurses Association. All these organized modest contingents of work­ ers in the mile-long march from the Lake Merritt Amphitheater to Oakland’s Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Civic Center Plaza. Keynote speaker May Boeve, national ex­ ecutive director of 350.org, stressed the need for a united mass movement to chal­ lenge the governments worldwide whose UN climate proposals fall far short of the measures needed to stop and reverse the horrific consequences of global warming.

The adopted demands included opposi­ tion to oil wars, racism, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, corpo­ rate and government-backed and imple­ mented policies that foster increased, not decreased, fossil-fuel extraction as well demands for reparations to fund poor nations around the world to guarantee the introduction of sustainable energy systems, a just job transition for all work­ ers at union wages, civil and democratic rights for all in a world where Black Lives Matter, for immigrant rights, and an end to environmental racism.

Following a month of democratic dis­ cussion and debate, these points of unity and demands were hammered out and adopted unanimously, an indication of the growing radicalization and sophis­ tication of the climate-crisis movement.

Indeed, the ideas presented by the local chapter of System Change Not Climate Change and various socialist groups found a hearty reception among virtually all the activist participants. See the full demands and points of unity at NorCal­ ClimateMob.net.

A spirited and enthusiastic post-Nov. 21 evaluation meeting on Dec. 3 attributed around at ground level.

Needless to say, the U.S. goal to reduce emissions by 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2030 is not impressive when one considers the administration’s “all of the above” strategy for providing energy.

The European Union, a bloc of 28 rich nations that emit one-tenth of global emissions, the third highest after China and the U.S., still uses an absurd carbontrading system, which amounts to licenses to pollute. Increased solar power and energy-efficiency mea­ sures became non-binding in the EU’s package due to relentless lobbying by Carbon Barons Shell, BP, To­ tal, and Statoil, who wanted emissions cut by a single “technology-neutral” target that would encourage a fuel switch from coal to natural gas. This is because there is a fracking boom underway on the continent. Poland’s energy is 90% coal combustion, and it will not easily give that up, and Germany balked at car fuel-efficiency standards following the scandal over VW’s rigged emissions tests.

As for China, the world’s leading polluter, thanks to the success of industrial nations having off-shored production and thereby exported their carbon emis­ sions, it has announced that it will launch a national carbon market in 2017 based on the U.S. Environ­ the fact that this year’s march was not qualitatively different in size from last year’s Sept. 21 effort to the relative lack of national coor­ dination.

It was noted that local climate actions initiated by national 350. org were organized mostly on a last-minute basis and on a number of different dates before and after the Paris talks. In contrast, last year’s Northern California mobili­ zation significantly benefited from the “wind in our sails” flowing from the New York City mobiliza­ tion of 400,000 organized by the People’s Climate March.

This year’s relatively diffuse choice of mobilization dates and organizing activity limited most U.S. actions to a few hundred par­ ticipants at best. The post-COP 21 Dec. 12 national and international mobilizations promoted by 350.org and other world environmental organiza­ tions have been called to make the point that an ongoing movement is sorely need “through” Paris and afterward.

At the close of the UN conference, 350. org leaders are expected to set a national date for coordinated May 2015 spring re­ gional mobilizations in some nine to 12 U.S. cities.

Meanwhile, the Nor Cal Climate Mob, as this new Oakland-based united front mass action coalition is popularly known, voted unanimously at its Dec. 3 evalu­ ation meeting to continue its efforts through the spring actions.

The S.F. Bay Area branch of Socialist Ac­ tion played an important role in helping to initiate the Nor Cal Climate Mob and build its September 2014 and November 2015 marches. Socialist Action’s tent was a popular rally attraction, with activists purchasing some $150 in Socialist Action newspapers and pamphlets. Forty-two participants, mostly youth, signed our mailing list for more information and to meet Socialist Action members. n BBC (Above) 5000 marched in Edinburgh, Nov. 28.

mental Defense Fund’s design. Given the level of cor­ ruption in that super-growth, market economy, there will be plenty of profiteering from the scheme but not much of a decline in global-warming pollution.

Then there is India, which plans to build yet more coal-fired power plants to fuel its raging economy. Australia is a major coal exporter, and Canada is heav­ ily invested in filthy tar sands, so it is not too likely they will meet whatever pathetic goals they have set since none have taken the pledge to overcome their addiction.

As the journal Science states, the world is at a “cli­ mate crossroads” and to limit warming to any level, carbon emissions must ultimately be brought to zero well before 2100—in fact, the sooner, the better. That will require replacing the fossil-fuel-based, growth economy with one that is sustainable, democratical­ ly planned, and guided by eco-socialist and climatefriendly principles. To accomplish that, it will take a powerful worldwide movement linked from country to country that mobilizes millions in the streets. It’s really the only option we have to save Mother Earth for human habitation. n