Total, the world’s sixth
largest oil multinational sacked 600 workers at the Lindsey oil refinery last
week. Illegal walkouts and strikes have occurred in solidarity in power
stations and other sites.
The Lindsey workers had
already been on strike for a week in protest at the earlier sacking of 51
workers which in turn was the company’s attempt to get rid of ‘troublemakers’
in response to strike action in January/February.
Climate
change is not simply a question of carbon emissions. The depletion of water,
soil and mineral resources and decimation of biodiversity and ecosystems now
being experienced across the planet are the result of an utter bankruptcy in
the relationship between human economic activity and the rest of life on earth.
It is now clear that if this relationship is not drastically altered in the
coming years the consequences will be, to say the least, disastrous.
The struggle for an environmentally sustainable future is a struggle for control. Its a struggle for control of our workplaces, our univeristies, our land and our lives. As things stand at the moment, all the important decisions that govern our lives and the lives of our communties are dictated by the rule of profit.
Capitalism and the government have already proved to us that they lack the will, the power, and the inclination to take action to mitigate the effects of climate change. Both rely on the continuous, maximal economic growth which results in climate change, and both have shown us again and again that they can find ways to benefit from ecological disaster.
As the threat of climate change approaches, the tasks that face us seem enormous; we are overwhelmed by feelings of powerlessness. However, a look at the history of working class anti-capitalist struggle shows that when the trade union movement is fighting and winning, anything is possible. The story of the New South Wales Builders Labourers Federation points precisely to the kind of trade unionism that we need to face the problems of today. The following article is an adapted excerpt from Greg Mallory's
University of Queensland PhD thesis, Going Into Uncharted Waters,
Previously reported in UK indymedia.
Original article and comments here
reprinted from UK Indymedia
Original article and comments are here
The attached memo was sent round the email list of Sheffield Trades Council by Secretary Bill Ronksley. A Trades Council or local TUC is the local forum for trade union branches to delegate members to come together on a monthly basis to discuss shared issues, campaigns and politics in general. I am a member of the Trades Council and am it’s Youth Officer.
Though I do not know who wrote this memo, by emailing this round, Sheffield Trades Council are implicitly accepting the case presented in support of Kingsnorth Power Station. It is not my belief that this is the view of Sheffield workers as a whole necessarily, but it is representative of several prominent members of the trade union movement in the city.
