A billion for the aluminium industry, Rudd’s small change.

by asenkids Comment Closed
Aluminium giant Alcoa has spent the last year manoeuvring for the release of the Federal Government’s climate White Paper in December. Planned expansions were canned, dozens of workers laid off, and Alcoa’s constant refrains warned of moving operations offshore if they did not get their way in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It is a role Alcoa have been playing for decades: undermining efforts to regulate and reduce pollution, flooding Canberra with lobbyists, and putting the brakes on political change. Aluminium is Australia’s most emissions intensive industry, using 13% of all electricity and polluting 6.1% of national emissions. The industry’s processes in Australia - from bauxite mining to alumina refining to aluminium smelting – rely on oil, gas and vast amounts of coal-fired power. The industry is set to receive over a billion dollars in free permits under the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS), to be announced in next week’s White Paper. Drew Fryer, of sustainability and finance advisors Innovest, says...
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Environmental Direct Actions and Rebellions

by asenkids Comment Closed
Anti-Nuclear Struggle in Comiso, Italy In the early 1980s there was a key struggle against a U.S military base in Comiso, Sicily that was to house 112 nuclear missiles. The agreement between the Italian and the U.S government was made in secret in 1979, but in spring 1981, the news began to leak out. Immediately, there was anger over this obvious intrusion into the lives of the people in the area. Large numbers of anarchists, students, workers and the unemployed organised into self-managed leagues. These leagues adopted a principle of ‘permanent conflict’ regarding the construction of the base, meaning that they would remain in opposition with it until the project was defeated, without thought of compromising. High school students in Vittoria carried out strikes, using the time to discuss plans for action. The effects of the base became clearer as local peasants were evicted from their land to make room for missile test ranges. American and NATO officers reserved use of various hotels and other...
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Open Letter on green capitalism & climate justice movements

by asenkids Comment Closed
This letter was written in response to an e-mail arguing that we should not criticize the emergence of ‘green capitalism’ & that doing so was giving far too much weight too ‘politics and ideology’. Rather we should focus our activism on encouraging ‘swift global co-operation’ to solve the climate crisis. It has been argued that climate change will be solved not by ‘politics’ but instead by ‘swift global co-operation’. It’s implied that this means prioritising big international climate summits like Poznan recently and Copenhagen next year and seeing them as decision-making forums of the utmost importance. Rather than struggling against them, we have to influence them. To me this logic means ignoring huge class divisions: somehow attempting to foster ‘co-operation’ between us and the rich, privileged climate delegates who’ll be staying in Copenhagen’s exclusive hotels next December. In terms of the Australian representatives, it means trying to influence a bunch of people whose idea of ‘emergency state intervention’ is almost certainly a...
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On Sovereignty: an interview with Aunty Peta

by asenkids Comment Closed
What does sovereignty mean to you? Burangidigol, it means freedom, it means ancestors, it means sovereignty in our own language. We come from a society of freedom. That’s what our society’s based on; not just free for all and do what you like, but freedom. So in being a sovereign and standing as a sovereign and walking as a sovereign and breathing as a sovereign I am living my culture. It’s not an appendage, I am it – that’s how important it is to me. The word sovereignty, being an English word, that’s a fantastic one, Burangidigol is sovereignty as well in our language and it’s our birth right, it’s not something that we should just reclaim, it’s about who we are. It means walking who we are, walking our culture, not culture as a physical act, like making a basket, but this is our culture too, quite frankly. What actions do you take that are informed by your sovereignty? For a start, I...
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The Prescribed Area Peoples' Alliance

by asenkids Comment Closed
The Prescribed Area People’s Alliance is a group of Aboriginal people from communities affected by the NT Intervention. More than 130 people have joined Alliance over two meetings in Mparntwe - Alice Springs on September 29 and November 7. Today, Friday November 7, the Prescribed Area People’s Alliance held its second meeting. We have issued the following statement: We are outraged that today Lex Wotton, an Indigenous man from Palm Island, was sentenced for 6 years for protesting the murder of another Indigenous man by a white policeman. That policeman has since been promoted and given $100,000 compensation. Police brutality and harassment of Indigenous people continues throughout Australia, including here in Central Australia in our town camps and communities. It has gotten worse since the Intervention with new powers and military style raids. The NTER* must be immediately repealed. The $1 billion that has been spent on rolling out this legislation has been wasted, and could have been spent supporting our communities, the...
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