Green Party: the place to start rebuilding the left?
The Green Party vote last month was four times higher than 2010. How should the left relate to the Greens? Ollie V from Sheffield argues that building the Greens is the best way of cracking the neo-liberal consensus. The Green surge took off as it became clear that Labour wouldn’t present a thematic alternative to austerity and racism, and at […]
This Changes Everything: make climate central
Bettina Trabant reports The ‘This Changes everything’ event, named after Canadian journalist Naomi Klein book, saw several hundred people gather in Friend’s Meeting House in London on Saturday to debate Climate change and listen to a host of speakers from a range of campaigns. The day started off with a Skype talk by Naomi Klein […]
Interview: This Changes Everything
This Saturday 28 March a mass participatory gathering on climate change and the alternatives will be addressed by Naomi Klein, Russell Brand and many others. Dan Swain spoke to two of the organisers, Neil Faulkner and Marienna Pope-Weidemann. Dan: Can you explain what the plans are for This Changes Everything, what you hope for the […]
Climate catastrophe in the South Pacific
Cyclone Pam has caused devastation on the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. Struggling with the legacies of British and French colonialism and current forms of neo-colonialism, the people of Vanuatu are now faced with the consequences of catastrophic climate change, writes Nick Evans. “We see the level of sea rise … The cyclone seasons, […]
Over 20,000 march for action on climate change
Bettina Trabant reports from the Time to Act on Climate Change demonstration on Saturday. Over 20 000 climate activist gathered in London on Saturday to tell the government it was time to act on climate change. On a sunny March day people from all walks of life marched from Lincoln’s Inn Fields to Millbank singing and […]
Climate change has revolutionary potential
Tabitha Spence discusses how the movements against climate change open up a space to wider radicalisation
Video: Capitalism vs the climate
In the run up to Saturday’s Time to Act demonstration, Jonathan Neale spoke in Carlisle about climate change and revolution.
8 things you need to know about the oil crash
Kate Deer, Amy Gilligan and Brian Parkin answer some of the key questions surrounding the recent crash in oil prices. Why has my petrol got much cheaper? Anyone who drives, or has passed a filling station won’t have failed to notice that petrol prices have plummeted recently. The average price in the UK for a […]
A deal to save the planet – or to wreck it?
Jonathan Neale is the international coordinator of the Campaign against Climate Change and the editor of the One Million Climate Jobs report. He has written this article on the Campaign website analysing what the deal means for all of us. Obama of the United States and Xi of China have signed a bilateral climate agreement. Much of the […]
Book Review: Can Marxist ideas help save the planet?
Ewa Barker reviews a new book that deals with both the technical and political sides of the fight against global warming. Safe Planet – Renewable Energy plus Workers’ Power John Cowsill Earth Books 2014 £11.99 Those of us involved in the struggle for climate action are very aware how time is running out for the […]
Worldwide protests against climate change
Olivia Arigho Stiles reports on the People’s Climate March. Around 30,000 people marched from Temple to the Houses of Parliament in London yesterday on the People’s Climate March. Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and actor Emma Thompson addressed the assembled crowds. Thompson asserted the need for boycotts as a mechanism of protest against polluting businesses. The […]
Stop global warming: change the world
Bettina Trabant reviews a book which puts the fight against capitalism at the heart of the struggle to stop climate change. Stop Global Warming: change the world Jonathan Neale, Bookmarks (2008) ISBN 9781905192373 Unlike most books about environmental issues, which seek to locate the problem within individual human consumption, this book is quite clear about […]
There is no Planet B: how do we stop climate change?
How do we stop climate change? Nancy Lindisfarne assesses The Burning Question. The Burning Question: We Can’t Burn Half the World’s Oil, Coal and Gas. So How Do We Quit? Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark, 2013 ISBN 9781781250457 From £6.99 ‑ £9.99 There are now plenty of books about climate change. This is a […]
Climate activism in the UK: Broadening, deepening, radicalising
As we prepare for an important conference on climate jobs and an international wave of climate demonstrations this weekend, Tabitha Spence takes a look at developments in the climate movement here in the UK. The year 2014 is proving to be significant for radical climate activism in the UK. The number of people getting involved […]
Nine years since Hurricane Katrina: has anything changed?
Nine years on from the devastating Hurricane Katrina, Lois JC, who visited New Orleans last year to see how the city had changed, writes on the lasting impact of the disaster.
Tories push ahead with massive expansion of fracking – but will they face a backlash?
report by Ewan Nicolson The government pushed out an announcement last week that over half of Britain – up to 37,000 square miles of land from Scotland to the South East of England – will be opened up to tender for energy companies to bid for fracking rights. The land that companies will be able […]
Marx’s Ecology
This article is an edited version of John Cowsill‘s presentation at the Ecosocialism: Fracking, Climate and Revolution conference. He also published an early draft in his blog notes. Introduction We’ve had report after report from the IPCC, the UN, and leading scientists about the fact that human activity is causing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to rise […]
Grandparent climate action – for our grandchildren
Nancy Lindisfarne reports: Recently in Oslo, I met with Mette Newth, and Finn Bjørnar Lund to learn about the Norwegian Grandparents’ Climate Campaign. They are both activists with ‘fire souls’, as Norwegians say. They couldn’t have been more helpful and encouraging about setting up such a network in the UK. There are already similar campaigns […]
Oxfordshire activists set up Climate and Flooding Alliance
Nick Evans reports on the Oxfordshire Climate and Flooding Alliance.
Fracking, corruption and poison
Fracking will poison the water, corruption is behind government support, it won’t bring down gas prices, and it has been banned in much of Europe.
The floods: what can activists do?
Jonathan Neale argues that we need to be raising questions of climate change, be part of campaigns to make sure people are compensated, and organise to prevent cuts.
Hundreds march against fracking in Eccles
Colin Barker, Ewa Barker, and Anne Saxon report from Sunday’s rally and look at the damage that fracking can do.
Court victory for 7,000 New Orleans teachers
An appeal court in Louisiana has ruled that the sacking of education workers that took place in the wake of Hurricane Katrina was illegal and that everyone who was fired should get two or three years back pay. Disaster capitalism has been punished, and school workers in New Orleans have won a long fight. Right […]