Last year thousands of people camped at Kingsnorth coal fired power station, casting a big question mark over new coal in the UK. Then in the spring of this year thousands of people swooped on the city whilst the G20 was meeting in London: tents were pitched and the carbon trading centre in the hub of the financial district shut its doors for the day, Last Year The Drax 29 as they become known, including two Theos, a Felix, Bertie, Robin, Oliver, Jasmin and a Clemmie, stoped a train full of coal.
This year 114 people were arrested in a 2am police raid on a community centre and school on Sneinton Dale, Nottingham, early on Easter Monday, 13th April.
It is believed that a demonstration was planned at the E.On powerstation at Ratcliffe-on-Soar as a spokesperson for the company claimed that it was the “planned target of an organised protest”. The Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station is the 3rd largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK and has been previously targeted by the climate activists? are they right, or does coal as an energy source, via clean coal technology, have a future – as we believe? Or more to the point, are human beings, however well intentioned, capable of controlling the Earth’s climate by the measures proposed by Theo, Bertie and Felix?
The Crisis
160,000 of the worlds most vulnerable people are dying every year because of droughts and famines brought on by human-caused global warming. Soon enough, these problems will effect all of us, with rising sea levels, water scarcity, and insecure food supplies. It will even impact those of us working in high emissions industries such as power generation, since the bosses will show as little regard for our wages and working conditions as they do for the planet when they are faced with a choice between their profits and our welfare.
For Workers Control
It will be the workers, not the bosses who are hit the hardest by the effects of climate change. And it is the workers who will be expected to pay for the disastrous effects through lower wages, worse conditions, higher prices, and regressive taxation. Organised labour is also in the best position to prevent a climate disaster. We have the power to take control of our workplaces, to strike, and to halt production. We have the potential to control and limit carbon emissions through collective action, and the power to force the Government to implement the green technology that we desperately need. Without the collective action of organised labour, we will be unlikely to make the changes to our economy we need, before it is too late.
For a Just Transition
We must move our economy away from fossil fuels – but we must do it in a fair and just way. That is why we are working for a programme of Just Transition. This means that changes in employment and activity should be fair and not cost workers or communities their health, wealth or assets. Those affected by these changes will take a leading role in creating new policies and solutions. It will mean that the cost of those changes will fall on those who can afford it, not on those who can’t.
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