Another Green World

The struggle for the Amazon can save humanity!

2009-07-17T17:30:00.009Z

Lucha Indigena has a very nice new website, if you read Spanish it will be particularly useful, I have attempted a crude translation of the editorial from issue 35....if you do read Spanish you can probably do better than me. What is very clear is that uprising by Amazon people against the sale of the forests, which resulted in a murderous attack at Bagua in June, has transformed Peru.

If you ask me it also transforms green politics....the indigenous are highly organised, militant in the defence of their forests, are the most effective at slowing the advance of climate change and other ecological ills.

The editorial clearly notes, even to my poor Spanish, that the indigenous have 'lifted' the whole country, Peru is very diverse but people in the cities, in the forests, in the Andes, are increasingly united....they want constitutional change, similar to that has occurred in Bolivia which is plural recognising that different groups exist, they do not believe the promises of the government, it helps foreign capital, most Peruvians see no benefit.

The kinds of processes that have occurred right across Latin America, to lesser or greater extent, is occuring in Peru, its on the verge of really major political change. More than anywhere except perhaps Bolivia, this process is led by the indigenous.

The indigenous network seems to have united very diverse Peruvian indigenous communities....across the world we need to show solidarity, above all we need to learn, the people of the forests are remaking not just Peru but the world, we can all be part of this process.

The politics of Lucha Indigena are my politics, ecosocialism without apology. I get the impression that diversity of opinion and culture, has given way to unity of action in Peru. The Inter Ethnic Association of the Peruvian Amazon, who also have a great website http://www.aidesep.org.pe/ are very impressive.

People get ready!

Lucha Indigena Editorial 35

A feeling of sadness, of rage, of indignation, remains a month after the massace at Bagua, The campaign to bring the perpetrators of the massacre and compensation of Awajun and Wampis victims of the massacre will continue until it succeeds. This edition of the magazine is mainly dedicated to the story in our Amazon: The massacre, the political persecution, the continued resistance right across the forest and the record of solidarity right across the planet.

There are several lessons that can be drawn from these events. The truly fascist face of the APRA (President Alan Garcia's governing party) and the right, and the presence of the Amazon peoples as a very important actor in the country and the world, for the advocacy of nature, the bonds that have been weaving between Amazonian, Andean and urban populations

The country is in convulsion. The dominant racism has been challenged with growing protests, whether the workers of La Oroya mining or carriers, certainly the biggest protests of southern Andean peasants . Andahuaylas, Canchis, Puno, Chumbivilcas, are expressing not only their claims but that their decisions will no longer tolerate the plundering of their lands and territories, and do not believe in false promises and deceit of the neoliberal. Indigenous are "lifting".

The social movements of the world observe the events of Peru together, turning in their countries, as well as action against the military coup in Honduras, designed by the oligarchy in this country to contain the social advances. The fight against imperialism is occuring across the globe.

In Peru, people are demanding a presidential vacancy and Constituent Assembly to end the legacy of Fujimorism neoliberal constitution. It is necessary to implement a multi ethnic constitution, as in neighboring countries, which recognizes the autonomy of all nationalities and people, so that no authority can dispose of their land or sell concessions to large foreign capital.

You can make all the difference in Norwich by-election

2009-07-17T15:52:00.000Z

One Week to Go for Norwich North by-election

Your Help Will Make a Difference in the Norwich North By-Election

With just a week left until polling day in the Norwich North by-election, Green Party candidate Rupert Read is asking for one last push from supporters around the country to secure a strong result.

Please spread this message to friends to see if they can help.

Help is needed before polling day with leafleting, canvassing and staffing our campaign shop.

To offer help with any of these tasks please e-mail help@norwichgreenparty.org or phone 01603 611909.

Least effective forms of political action

2009-07-16T22:38:00.001Z

I might add setting up some super Leninist faction of a faction or going into government with Fianna Fail....

Vote for the top politics blogs.

2009-07-16T17:31:00.002Z

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include ten blogs. If you include fewer than ten your vote will not count.
2. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
3. Only vote once.
4. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents are eligible or based on UK politics are eligible.
5. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
6. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2009. Any votes received after that date will not count

More details here.

Certainly won't be upset if you vote for me...and do think of other green bloggers.

New hope for Irish Green Party

2009-07-16T09:02:00.002Z

A back bench Green Party parliamentarian has come clean on the tensions between Fianna Fail, describing them as 'Gobshites',

I am not sure that this is particularly diplomatic but fair is fair, any sign of Green Party members suggesting that Green Party policies are more important than helping FF has to be progress.

Those of us horrified by the Green support for FF, while equally aware of the far from radical FG alternative, should applaud Greens who criticise FF. Good to see Green Party Senators abstaining on the justice bill, its a start too.

Sadly I suspect it is all a bit too late.

Incidentally the Australian Environment Minister seems to have come from the same mould as John Gormley. Motorways, uranium mines...well being a team player is more important isn't it.

“Look that is an old song, it’s an old cycle that we hear from political opponents who seem to forget that I joined the Labor Party, I became a member of the Government and I said at the time that I would accept, as a team player, the decisions that the Government took… And my job, as a consequence of that, is to support the Government’s decision clearly and make sure as Environment Minister that I set the bar on environmental protection as high as it needs to go and that is world’s best practice and that is what we have done with this decision.”

This was in response from Garrett, who used to be the big cheese of the Nuclear Disarmament Party,to his sanctioning of a uranium mine.

Don't forget Nick Origlass!

2009-07-15T18:18:00.002Z

I have been rereading various books on ecosocialism and I still think one of the best is Alan Robert's The Self-Managing Environment'.

It was written by the Australian socialist and scientist in 1979, I remember taking it out of Chippenham Library circa early 1980s and being very impressed.

It very clearly links economic growth to environmental destruction, showing the destructive qualities of capitalism. Lots of key ecosocialist ideas such as Marx's identification of the metabolic rift between human beings and nature, the importance of commons and the need to see how capitalism shapes technological in negative ways.

I also enjoyed its crisp, clear, concise writing style....if you are an ecosocialist its a pretty powerful tool for self-education.

Above all, Roberts argues that consumerism is a product of alienation, something he takes from Marx and Marcuse. We need to be in control of our work and top down undemocratic forms of socialism are wrong. Roberts argues for self-management, with everybody in charge, not an elite, either the kind of elite we have or a paternalistic socialist or green elite.

I think I have been sold on these arguments ever since.

Robert's book is dedicated to Nick Origlass who died in 1996,

The dedication is worth noting:

'Back in the 1940s a learned judge chided him for his failure to respect the court: employers, governments and union officials had a similar grievance. All agreed that the ironwere were in a fight against impossible odds. He did not listen, nor did the ironworkers: together, quite incredibly, they won.

In the 1960s, as a pioneer in resisting 'progress' through environmental destruction, he led residents in a march against an expressway that threatened their homes. Wearing his mayoral robes, paint-pot in hand for slogan-writing, brushing police aside, he had evidentally failed to develop much respect.

In fact there is one source of authority for which he holds the deepest respect: that rank and file whose mistakes, he believes, will be numerous but never as fatal as those made by even the most brilliant controlling elite.

Not just in tribute, but with the warmest affection, this book is dedicated to the man who grasped long ago, and proved in practice, the connection between self-management and the salvation of the environment:

ALDERMAN NICK ORIGLASS OF BALMAIN.'

Nick was known as the most expelled man in Australia, expelled from trade unions, the Communist Party and in 1968 he was kicked out of the Labour Party.

Nick is one of the sadly few examples of Marxists putting environmental politics at the centre of their concerns in the 20th century. His local Labour Party was controlled by a right wing group sympathetic to property developers and industrialists.

He was expelled for opposing the siting of a chemical waste dump that he thought would put local people in danger, he set up his own local political party, won election after election, ended up as Mayor and put his back into direct action against environmental threats to local people.

Clearly a good role model and a rare example of some one who succeeded, albeit at a local level, in getting elected and far from selling out, making real progress.

I am not that knowledgeable about the ins and outs of ecosocialist politics in 1970s Australia, but I know Nick was sympathetic to the Green Ban movement.

Australia has one of the greenest and most radical Green Parties in the world, its also got a left in the form of the DSP who publish Green Left Weekly who take ecology seriously and put their back into real change.

I am sure Nick contributed to all that its good in Australian ecopolitics, I think more people should look at what he did and be proud.

There is a bio of Nick, 'Red Hot: the Life and Times of Nick Origlass, by Hall Greenland. Wellington Lane Press, Sydney, 1998.'

I haven't read it yet but I must try and get hold of it.

The only photo I have found of him is from a meeting in 1996, the year he sadly died.

You can stop Thatcher from having a state funeral

2009-07-14T20:36:00.002Z

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/thatchfuneral/

sign to stop a state funeral and spread the word only a couple of days to go, its currently on 13,000.

Remember how she cut the link between incomes and pensions, creating pensioner poverty.

How she sold off much of Britain, destroyed the trade unions and paved the wave for global neo-liberalism.

She rescued and cared for the butcher of Chile Col Pinochet.

Mumia on Michael Jackson

2009-07-14T20:10:00.002Z

MICHAEL --Man of Contradictions
[col. writ. 7/05/09] (c)'09 Mumia Abu-Jamal

Michael Jackson was, in many ways, a living contradiction.

Born Black, he would, through usage of plastic surgery, die with a somewhat white appearance.

He passed at 50, yet kept a certain child-like quality about him.

Although ostensibly apolitical as a worker in popular culture, and an artist, he inevitably had impacts that had political effects. As the first Black artist to breach the white walls of MTV, he entered millions of white homes, and introduced them to a vision, tempo and sound that rocked their worlds.

He studied some of the best dancers of his youth, and integrated many styles into one -- finally developing his own, an amalgamation of Jack Kelly, Fred Astaire, James Brown and Frank Sinatra.

He was both a Peter Pan and an astute businessman.

He was also a living symbol of the explosion of Black pop culture in the '60's, '70's' and '80's -- yet he never (as far as we read, at least) chose a Black woman to carry his seed.

He was dumped on and damned by the corporate press -- as an oddball, a child molester, or a has-been; yet his loyal fans were legion -- and loved him and his art, unconditionally.

For all that, he was reportedly achingly lonely.

He was so commercially successful that when he put out an album, and only 1 or 2 million copies sold, it was considered by the corporate press -- a flop (because it didn't match or exceed the sales of his "Thriller" album).

Ask any artist currently working if they'd be happy with a million sales!

Through it all, he treated his life much like a stage, and resented performances almost as dazzling as his dancing.

The Japanese nationalist writer, Yukio Mishima (1925 - 1970) once said, " I want to make a poem of my life."

Michael Jackson seemed like he wanted to make a song of his.

It may be a carol of contradictions; yet it is most certainly art, of enduring quality.

--(c) '09 maj

Stop the war Afghanistan petition

2009-07-14T12:20:00.001Z

Stop the War have a petition up on the 10 Downing Street site:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/STWCAfghanistan/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to bring the troops home from Afghanistan. Noting the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, and the destabilisation of Pakistan arising from the NATO military intervention in the region, and believing that only the Afghan people themselves can generate a political solution to their country’s problems, we therefore demand that the government commence the withdrawal of all British military forces from Afghanistan.

Climate camp gathering this weekend in London!

2009-07-13T20:59:00.000Z

Dear Climate Camper,

The July National Gathering is taking place this weekend in London.
There's a jam-packed agenda, as the Camp is in SIX WEEKS! This email
contains all the info.

TIMINGS
The gathering will run from 10am-6pm on Saturday 18 July and 10am-6pm on
Sunday 19 July. If you haven't booked your travel yet, do it now!

AGENDA
Here is the draft agenda for the gathering:

SATURDAY
10.00 - Introduction for new people
10.30 – Welcome and housekeeping
11.00 - Update on Coal Mass Action in October
11.15 - Workshops Timetable update
11.20 - The Swoop (part 1)
11.35 - Defending the Site discussion
12.35 - Media Access proposal / Finance Liaisons meeting
13.15 - August gathering shout-out

13.20 - Lunch / intro for new people

14.20 - Outreach group remit + NGOs, political parties and religious
groups policy proposal
15.00 - Working Group intros
15.20 - Working Group time / Working Group spokes meeting
17.00 - Police Liaison
17.30 - Recap and housekeeping for the evening

Followed by Dinner and Social.

SUNDAY
10.00 - Welcome and housekeeping
10.15 - The Swoop (part 2)
11.00 - The Camp and Copenhagen proposal
12.00 - Break
12.10 – The narrative for this year's Camp
12.40 - Evening meetings at the Camp
13.00 - Neighbourhood spokes meeting

13.30 - Lunch

14.30 - Announcements, action shout-out and August gathering
14.50 - Finance feedback
15.00 - Decision-making at the Camp proposal
15.20 - Is climate camp embodying or challenging consumerism? proposal
15.50 - Working Group time
17.30 - Working Group feedback and proposals
18.00 - End

There will also be Legal Observer training running in parallel from 10.00
to 12.30 on Sunday.

Attached is a more detailed version of the draft agenda, including the
full text of those proposals that have come in. We are still waiting for
the full text of some of the proposals, and will circulate a complete
version when we have it.

VENUES
The venue will be the Greenpeace office on Saturday, and BASH Studios on
Sunday. We'd have prefered it to be in one place too, but it wasn't to be
- sorry about that!

Saturday - Greenpeace, Canonbury Villas, London, N1 2PN.

Getting there: The Victoria line is shut this weekend so you'll need to
get there by bus or bicycle. From King's Cross, get the 476 or 73 buses
and get off at the Essex Road crossroads. For a map see:
http://tinyurl.com/nfusf2

Sunday - BASH Studios, 65-71 Scrutton Street, London, EC2A 4PJ.

Getting there: The nearest tube is Old Street, and it's a 5 minute walk.
For a map see: http://tinyurl.com/ntw25m

TRAVEL POOL
If you haven't decided whether you can make it yet, the London
neighbourhood has got together £400 for the travel pool in advance, so
hopefully getting to London will be more affordable for those from further
afield, especially with the Camp being in London as well. The travel pool
is a way for those who have come to the gathering from nearby to
contribute towards the costs of those who have travelled further.

However please book your tickets NOW so that this money stretches further
(eg. via www.nationalrail.co.uk, www.nationalexpress.co.uk,
www.megabus.com).

CRASH SPACE
There is crash space available for Friday and Saturday nights. Please
email gathering@climatecamp.org.uk to let us know you need a spot,
particularly for Friday night. Crash space means floorspace - so you'll
need to bring a sleeping bag plus rollmat/pillow etc.

If you need a bed then email gathering@climatecamp.org.uk and we'll do our
best to find you one.

FOOD AND SOCIAL
Delicious vegan food will be provided on Saturday (breakfast, lunch and
dinner) and Sunday (breakfast and lunch). There is also an exciting social
planned for Saturday evening for happy campers to unwind after a busy day.

KIDS SPACE
We are very much hoping to have a kids space at the gathering, but have
not 100% confirmed that it is being sorted. We'll confirm after Tuesday
night. In the mean time, email gathering@climatecamp.org.uk.

DONATIONS
The suggested donation is £15 to cover the costs of the weekend, including
food. You can put in more or less, depending on what you can afford.

CONTACT US
If you have any questions about the gathering contact us via
gathering@climatecamp.org.uk or on 07534 598 733.----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

General questions / comments / suggestions can be sent to info@climatecamp.org.uk, or for more info check out www.climatecamp.org.uk.

I don't steal!

2009-07-13T11:59:00.002Z

Yes Green Parties do do some wonderful work.

I don't steal says it all about copyright, corporations, freedom and the commons.

Excellent...glad I voted for them.

Why Bother With Permaculture?

2009-07-13T11:55:00.002Z

I am not going to knock Permaculture, its great and every person who takes it up helps the planet, however Ted makes some interesting and important points.

Why Bother With Permaculture?

(From the International Permaculture Journal.)

Ted Trainer argues that although the planet cannot be saved without Permaculture, not enough people in the movement realise where Permaculture has to fit into the solution.

We are fast approaching a period of enormous and probably chaotic change. Industrial-affluent-consumer society is unsustainable and is rapidly running into serious difficulties

Permaculture is a crucial component of the solution to the global predicament. However I want to argue that Permaculture is far from sufficient, and indeed that it can be counter productive if it is not put in the right context. That is, unless we are careful, promoting Permaculture can actually help to reinforce our existing unsustainable society. We must do much more than just contribute to the spread of Permaculture. We must locate Permaculture within a wider campaign of radical social change.

Before I try to explain this I need to outline how I see the global predicament we are in. Whether or not you will agree with my conclusions about what needs to be done and where Permaculture fits in will depend greatly on whether you agree with my view of the situation we are in.

There is an overwhelmingly strong case that industrial-affluent-consumer society is grossly unsustainable. Australian per capita rates of resource use and environmental impact are far higher than can be kept up for long, or than could be had by all the world's people. We are in other words well beyond the limits to growth. Following are a few of the points that support this conclusion. (For detailed explanation see my The Conserver Society (Zed, 1995) or Towards a Sustainable Society , (Envirobooks, 1995.)

- It takes about 4 to 5 ha of productive land to provide the lifestyle people in Sydney have (our "footprint). If 11 billion people (the expected population of the world late next century) were to live in that fashion about 50 billion ha of productive land would be needed; but that is 8 times all the productive land on the planet.

- If all the world's present number of people each used energy at the Australian per capita rate then estimated potentially recoverable resources of coal, oil, gas, shale oil, tar sand oil, and uranium would be exhausted in under 40 years.

- The climate scientists are saying that if we are to prevent the greenhouse problem from getting any worse we must cut annual fossil fuel use by 60-80% of its present volume. If we cut by 60% and shared the remaining energy equally between the 11 billion people expected you would have to get by on only 1/18 of the present Australian per capita consumption.

- The environment problem is basically due to all the resources our affluent-consumer lifestyles are taking from the environment and then dumping into it as waste. It takes 20 tonnes of new materials to provide for one American every year. One species, humans, is taking 40% of the biological productivity of the planet's entire land area, mostly to provide well for only 1 billion people. If another 10 billion want to live as we in the rich countries do how much habitat will be left for the other possibly 30 million species? We cannot possibly expect to stop the extinction of species unless we drastically reverse this demand for biological resources and the consequent destruction of habitat. We cannot do that without huge reduction in production and consumption.

These sorts of figures leave little doubt that the way of life taken for granted in industrial-affluent-consumer society cannot possibly be kept up for long or extended to all people. We can have it only because the one-fifth who live in rich countries like Australia are grabbing four-fifths of world resource production to provide per capita use rates that are 15-20 times those averaged by the poorest half of the world's people.

The outlook becomes far worse when we add the implications of our manic obsession with economic growth . If Australia averaged 4% growth from now to 2050 and by then the expected 11 billion people had risen to the living standards we would then have, the total world economic output would be 220 times what it is today. The present levels of production and consumption are unsustainable, yet we are committed to an economy and a culture which is determined to increase living standards and the GNP, constantly and without limit. It should be obvious that no plausible .assumptions about what miraculous breakthroughs technology will achieve will enable continuation of the living standards and the systems taken for granted today; the foregoing multiples are far too big for that.

This blind obsession with raising living standards and the GNP is the basic cause of all our major global problems, including resource depletion, environmental destruction and the deprivation of the Third World. For example the Third World has been developed into a form which enables its land, labour and capital to produce mostly for the benefit of the rich countries and their corporations. Most people in the Third World not only get little or nothing from the development that is taking place, their productive capacity is put into producing for export. Hence an increasingly critical literature argues that development is plunder and that growth deprives.
Globalisation is making all these problems worse. We are seeing a rapid restructuring of the world to give the transnational corporations and banks even greater freedom and access to resources, markets and cheap labour.
This basic limits to growth analysis shows our predicament to be extremely serious. We are far beyond sustainability. The problems cannot be solved without radical change.

The solution?

If the limits analysis is valid then a sustainable society would have to involve much less affluent lifestyles, highly self-sufficient local economies, little trade, little heavy industry, cooperative and participatory systems and a steady-state economy. This means much more than merely getting rid of a capitalist economy. It means developing an economy in which there is no economic growth, the GNP per capita is a small fraction of what it is in Australia today, no interest is earned on savings ( because if it is you have a growth economy), most economic activity takes place outside the cash economy and there are many free goods from the local commons, the "unemployment" rate might be 80% (because most work and production would not be for money), and in which much "tax" is paid via contributions of time to local working bees and committees. In addition a sustainable society requires fundamental changes in world view and values. Cooperation must become the dominant concern, not competition. A strong collective orientation must replace today's rampant individualism. Affluence and consumption must become distasteful; frugality and self-sufficiency must become major sources of life satisfaction. Giving must become a more important source of satisfaction than getting.

If the limits to growth analysis is valid then we have no choice about these changes. Whether we like it or not we must make these sorts of changes if we are to develop a sustainable society.

Many of us with some direct experience of alternative lifestyles and the Ecovillage movement know how easy it would be to build a sustainable and just and admirable society. Many who have lived simply and in cooperative communities know it is possible to design and run settlements in which people have a very high quality of life at a relaxed pace, in supportive communities, secure from unemployment, poverty and violence, on very low levels of per capita resource consumption. (This is not to assume that our society will make the transition. I am increasingly pessimistic about this.)

The implications for Permaculture.

Permaculture design principles are obviously crucial for sustainability. Viable settlements must be designed to provide most of their needs from the local landscape without external inputs of resources, and in ways that are ecologically sustainable. But given the nature and the magnitude of our limits to growth problem much more than Permaculture is required. Fundamental economic, political and cultural change is essential and without these Permaculture will be of no significance even if it flourishes. Unfortunately much Permaculture literature and many courses tend to leave the impression that spreading knowledge about Permaculture techniques is sufficient to achieve a sustainable world and that there is no need to question affluent living standards or the present economy. In general far too little emphasis is put on the fact that a sustainable society cannot be achieved without radical a change in lifestyles, in the economy, in the geography of settlements and in world views and values.

The important point here is that Permaculture can very easily be part of the problem. It is part of the problem if does not increase the realisation that affluent living standards and this economy are totally incompatible with sustainability and with global economic justice. Much Permaculture literature not only does not increase people's understanding of these crucial themes, much of it reinforces the impression that fundamental change is not necessary because all we have to do is adopt things like organic food, composting, recycling and community supported agriculture. Permaculture is part of the problem if it is essentially enabling people to do some ecologically correct things in their gardens, such as growing some organic vegies, and then feel that they are making a significant contribution to saving the planet.

Many people do such "light green" things without questioning affluent lifestyles within a growth economy and without seeing these as the basic causes of the global crisis. For too many Permaculture is little more than another toy to play with on their hobby farms.

Similar criticisms can be made of the Ecovillage movement. This is an extremely important development; we can now point to functioning examples of more sustainable settlements. But the movement is not putting anywhere near enough emphasis on the development of self-sufficient economies, living simply and cooperatively and on the need to get rid of an economic system based on market forces, growth and the profit motive. It tends to give the impression that it will be sufficient to build Ecovillages that will function within the present economy.

In other words Permaculture can easily be seen as another 'technical fix" that can save industrial affluent-consumer society. I think most people see things like solar energy, community supported agriculture, LETS, earth building, reed bed sewage and Permaculture as new ecologically friendly techniques that will enable us to solve resource and environment problems and therefore to go on living with high living standards, growth and free market economies, jet-away holidays etc. They see technical advance as capable of eliminating any need for fundamental change in lifestyles or in the economy. I think that we are giving the impression that Permaculture is another of the technologies that will help to save industrial-affluent-consumer society, when the most important message to be given now is that we have to largely scrap that society.

There is a seriously mistaken theory of change underlying much of the Permaculture movement. Many seem to assume that that the more people we get to take an interest in Permaculture and to practise it the closer we move to the establishment of a just and sustainable society. This is not so. If all we do is work at increasing the numbers who understand and like and practice Permaculture this will probably have no more revolutionary significance than if we increased the number of people who are interested in the RSPCA or golf. This will just reach the point where all those potentially interestable in Permaculture will have become interested, and will be out their reading the books and growing things, while still living in and benefiting from and not challenging affluent-consumer society and the growth economy.

Again, replacing that society is the crucial task, not getting more people to like and practice Permaculture. Merely teaching Permaculture techniques will not get them to see that affluent industrial consumer society is a terrible mistake, that capitalism must be scrapped, that a growth economy must be scrapped, that we must build small and highly self-sufficient economies based on cooperation and participation, and that very different lifestyles and values must be embraced. People can become very knowledgable and keen about Permaculture without understanding any of this.

Why do you want people to take up Permaculture? Just to enjoy the idea and the practice? Or to help us build a sustainable society. If your our answer is the latter, then we will not get this outcome just by increasing people's understanding of Permaculture techniques. We make sure that wherever possible we connect Permaculture with the global scene and the need for radical social change, so that people understand that Permaculture is necessary but only as part of the bigger picture. We can't claim to be centrally concerned with achieving sustainability if all we talk about is Permaculture. It is in fact only a one element in the list of conditions and factors required for a sustainable world order. But there can be no doubt that it is a crucially important element.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Oh yes you have'

2009-07-13T08:37:00.004Z

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Irish Green Party betrays LGBT community":

We havent built any motorways Derek.

If this is a genuine comment from a member of the Irish Green Party, rather than a passing troll, it is shocking...not a shred of remorse for supporting FF plans to dive a motorway through Ireland's beautiful and archaeologically important prehistoric landscape around Tara.

The Irish Green Party have betrayed just about everybody.

Greens building motorways...are not green, I don't think this is a controversial point, or is there some 'New Green' idea that motorways are environmentally friendly....do let me know by way of the comments, please.

This is from Tara watch and seems to suggest the Irish government of which the Green Party is a member, is in fact building a motorway, may be it is a forged document and there is no motorway. May be John Gormley doesn't really exist or isn't a member of the Irish Green Party. Please let me know...

Despite being ‘Green’, he has done nothing to halt the M3 ploughing through the Tara/Skryne valley. Instead he has concentrated on defending his predecessor’s demolition of the Lismullin national monument which lay in its way.

Dick Roche contravened European law by failing to commission an environmental impact study on the site. The government has now spent huge sums fighting the European Commission over the issue.

Gormley also spent a bundle drafting last week’s Eirgrid Code of Practice. If the European Court finds against Ireland, the National Monuments Act will have to be amended and the code will have to be redrafted. More money flushed away.

The M3 tolls will go out of Meath to a multinational. More waste.

The mishandling of Tara proves, conclusively, that we are being governed by profligate idiots. The M3 should never have been routed through Tara/Skryne. It was always going to throw up monuments like Lismullin and lead to costly court battles. The obvious thing to do was to route to the west of Tara, avoiding the valley.

The Greens campaigned against the M3. The World Monuments Fund and the Smithsonian Institution have placed it on their their ‘endangered’ lists. Gormley is still pushing ahead with it though.

Protest at the Irish Green Party special conference.

2009-07-12T18:06:00.002Z

Join the protest at the Green Party special conference this Saturday July 18th at 9.30am

Protest the party's betrayal of Shell to Sea, Tara, the Anti-War movement, the anti Incinerator campaigns, the education system, the health system, human and civil rights, animal rights etc. etc.

By January they will have cut the dole, made thousands redundant, further restricted civil rights, betrayed the elderly and the sick, implemented college fees and driven thousands onto emigrant boats and planes.

Be there so they cannot say we did not speak.

The Green Party conference lasts.

From: 10:00 am To: 06:00 pm
Location: Hilton Hotel, Charlemont Place, Dublin 2

There is even a face book for people who feel betrayed by the Irish Green Party.....well if I am ever in government as a Green Party member with people building a motorway next to Avebury, I dare so I will get abuse and I will deserve it.

Perhaps those betrayed should set up a new Green Party which is actually Green...by the way.the special conference will involve the party leaders leaning on the remaining members to support the Lisbon treaty.

I get the impression there has been a long process of 'modernisation' to get the Green Party in shape for 'government' i.e selling out its principles so some TDs can get salaries.

The alternative view to mine goes like this 'This analysis is broadly typical of what is wrong with Green politics, in that very many people who think they are involved in Green politics are actually involved in moral crusades, that are built around vanity and arrogance rather than any sense of urgency regarding what is happening to our planet.'

i.e the situation is so urgent we must bravely do the wrong thing and not worry our heads about being effective in tackling the ecological crisis.

Nuclear power? No point, says new report

2009-07-12T14:15:00.001Z

"Nuclear renaissance" is literally pointless - and a dangerous distraction from renewables, says Johnson

A new report from the Green Party (1) will make a powerful case that nuclear power has no rationale in terms of either economics or helping the fight against dangerous climate change.

In Nuclear Power? No Point! the Green Party's spokesperson on trade and industry, Darren Johnson AM, reviews recent developments and argues that:
a.. Nuclear power provides less than 4% of UK energy - which is far less than could be saved by energy-efficiency measures that would cut people's fuel bills.
b.. New nuclear stations will not help the fight against climate change because major CO2 reductions are needed in the next ten years. New nuclear power stations could not be built fast enough.
c.. Massive investment in renewables could deliver the necessary short-term CO2 cuts - but "feeding cash to the nuclear delusion" could help starve the renewables industry of some of the investment and skilled personnel it needs to grow rapidly.
d.. The nuclear industry's current financial problems cast serious doubt on its ability to deliver new power stations anyway.
Darren Johnson, who is currently chair of the London Assembly and Green Party candidate for Lewisham Deptford, said today:

"The industry that was going to produce electricity 'too cheap to meter' has landed us with massive costs for handling its dangerous waste. Now the nuclear industry can't even give us a reliable quote for the cost of a power station. The current projects in Finland and France are experiencing safety concerns, long delays and big overspends.

"There's no point expecting nuclear to solve the climate crisis, because new stations couldn't be built fast enough to help achieve the big CO2 reductions we need to make in the next ten years - which mature renewables could deliver.

"There is no point even considering nuclear power, because demand-reduction measures could easily save far more power than nuclear could generate. And the latest studies argue convincingly that green energy sources with a European smart grid could provide all the power we need."

Nuclear "offers nothing for the recession, and too few jobs per megawatt anyway"

In Nuclear Power? No Point! Mr Johnson also draws attention to nuclear power's poor jobs-per-megawatt ratio. He said today:

"We urgently need a Green New Deal to get us out of the recession and start building the sustainable economy of the twenty-first century. We could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in green energy in the next decade. Nuclear power can play no part in that because it takes far too long to build nuclear power stations compared with windfarms and other green measures. Wind energy sustains something like twelve times as many jobs per unit of power as nuclear does."

Note

1. Nuclear Power? No Point! will be published Monday 13 July.

Message from Hugo Blanco 'The events at Bagua have changed my life'

2009-07-12T10:36:00.001Z

Thank you very much Derek

The events at Bagua have changed my life. Now my work is to address this issue. I went to Lima, the city near Bagua, Bagua and also went to the scene of the slaughter. I am in Cusco, where I live for a few days, then go to Lima to the Amazon coordination with the organization and human rights organizations, will return to Chiclayo in the north, probably go to the city and Bagua Chachapoyas where there are some prisoners.

There are many tasks: See that the injured are cared for, find out how many are missing, visit prisoners, to campaign for their freedom, to support Daysi Zapata who is president of the Amazon organisation after the previous leader Pizango took asylum in Nicaragua.

Again thank you for your submission and I know that you do everything you can to support us.

Un fuerte abrazo
Hugo

This was in response to news of the House of Commons meeting...new Lucha Indigena out so I will translate some bits and put them up.

New Prime Minister in Peru

2009-07-12T09:58:00.002Z

Just saw this excellent report on Al Jazeera

As prime minister, Velasquez will face growing calls from unions, indigenous groups and the poor for the government to increase social spending.

In the cabinet shuffle, Mercedes Araoz, who as trade minister helped implement a free-trade pact with the US, was named minister of production and industry.

Martin Perez, a legislator from the conservative National Unity party, was named trade minister and Pedro Sanchez was retained as mines and energy minister.

Opposition parties had demanded cabinet changes since last month when at least 34 people died in clashes between police and indigenous groups in the Amazon rain forest.

Yehude Simon, the outgoing prime minister, was heavily criticised for botching negotiations with protesters, who wanted the government to scrap laws designed to open up their ancestral lands to foreign mining and oil companies.

I haven't had the pleasure

2009-07-12T09:08:00.002Z

Noticed the following comment about my severe worries about the Irish Green Party on
http://www.politics.ie/green-party/84072-irish-green-party-seen-uk-greens.html

'He's also a good friend of Patricia McKenna if I'm not mistaken, so his stance is probably not completely that of a neutral bystander, that said... '

Yes you are mistaken

I have never had the pleasure of meeting Patricia Mckenna, however I am not really 'a neutral bystander' in that I have been a member of the Green Party for 30 years, well in fact back to 1979 when it was the Ecology Party, so although my analysis may be wrong, it is based on a long standing concern with Green politics.

I tend to agree with what I have heard about Patricia McKenna's analysis of the Irish Green Party but no she is not someone I know personally.

I am certainly supportive of Green Parties anywhere when they do good green stuff, Croydon Green Parties work opposing incinerators comes to mind and I am very happy with all the good work done by the UK's two excellent Green Party MEPs.

But you can't just say in politics, my party is always right and all the other parties are always wrong....and who would take me seriously when I praise Greens when they do good if I didn't criticise when they did bad.

More positively if you have any links for real green politics in Ireland, mail them to me and I will publicise...

Stop the war Afghanistan demonstration on monday

2009-07-11T20:37:00.003Z

EMERGENCY PROTEST DOWNING ST
MONDAY 13 JULY 5-7 pm.

Fifteen British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan in the last ten days, bringing the total to 179 and surpassing the number of UK deaths in Iraq. The troop "surge" which was meant to pacify Helmand province has become a nightmare for the British army.

This unwinnable war must stop now. All British troops must be withdrawn to prevent any more futile deaths, and to stop the carnage suffered by the Afghan people.

Stop the War has called an emergency protest at Downing Street
on Monday 13 July, 5-7 pm. Please spread the word now.

* JOIN THE PROTEST, DOWNING STREET, MONDAY 13 JULY, 5-7 pm
* SIGN THE TROOPS OUT NOW PETITION: http://bit.ly/ft6BP

JOINT UCU/UNISON STRIKE – TUESDAY 14TH JULY (BASTILLE DAY)

2009-07-11T16:21:00.001Z

JOINT UCU/UNISON STRIKE – TUESDAY 14TH JULY (BASTILLE DAY)

Our picket lines will commence at 8am at each of our main campus buildings in Holloway Road, Moorgate, Aldgate East, and Whitechapel (see http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com/2009/07/support-our-pickets-tuesday-14th.html for details).

In addition we will be holding a mass rally from 12-1pm outside our Central House Building (just opposite Aldgate East tube on the District line), before sending a delegation to the Dept of Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS), in Victoria (opposite St James Park tube) to hand-in a 3,500+ petition, demanding a full public inquiry and a halt to the job cuts at London Met, to Peter Mandleson.

Please make every effort to join us in the morning on our picket lines and to send delegations (and banners) from your branches to our rally in the afternoon. Further updates will be posted on our blog: http://savelondonmetuni.blogspot.com

We believe that the situation at London Met, though very specific on the one-hand re the serious financial mismanagement of our institution, is also far too generic re the response of university/college management generally to attack staff, students, and the very education ideals we believe in, to pay for either their own, or Government induced, financial crisis, or to use the threat of financial crisis to remould the shape of education institutions to the dictates of what can best be described as the failed neo-liberal market model of education. We are only the tip of the ice-berg, as the threat to jobs at 100+ institutions across both FE and HE indicates. This is therefore not simply our fight, but one of the first salvos in a much bigger fight for the sort of education system that all of us - students, staff, community, deserve.

Please join us.

In Solidarity.

Mark...

Mark Campbell
UCU Co-ordinating Committee - London Metropolitan University
UCU National Executive

You helped stop the killings

2009-07-11T10:39:00.003Z

I have just found this wonderful blog , that argues that international solidarity i.e you dear reader, helped prevent more killings in Peru of indigenous people.

Its put together by CARLOS A. QUIROZ, an indigenous Peruvian living in the US, its great add it to the list.....

Please take a look and link, its in Spanish and English, which is useful.

Through photographs, videos and testimonies I had seeing the brutality of the killings suffered by my people. They were shot, tortured, burned and disappeared in Bagua . This proved not only the brutal practices of the racist and genocidal Garcia regime, but also that they will never respect the lives and rights of its own citizens.

The disgustingly cynical response of the Peruvian government was first to blame the Indigenous leaders of the violence in Bagua. This forced Amazonian activist and educator Alberto Pizango and other two Native leaders to ask for asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy in Lima, and Pizango has left the country after a warrant for his capture was issued by the politically controlled Judiciary system of Lima.

When international groups showed support for Pizango and his organization AIDESEP, -including the quick visit of Native actress and activist Q'Orianka Kilcher- then Lima moved on to accuse "some criminal groups” from Bolivia and Venezuela who were agitating and promoting violence among the Indigenous peoples. They even mentioned official authorities from those countries.

Not only the Garcia cabinet made a huge mistake by sending poor Indigenous and Afro descendant policemen to kill poor Indigenous civilians, but now they had the shameful nerve to blame others of their crimes. Cowards.

After weeks of hard work I was emotionally exhausted and I had to slow down. A meeting of bloggers in Chicago gave me the chance to reflect about what I wanted to do next, and how to do it best.

Today I am convinced that justice in the world -at least in the near future- will depend not only in the leaders of the world but also on the action taken by regular folks like you. People who made those phone calls, sent those emails and letters and expressed an opinion bravely and openly in defense of the Amazon Indigenous peoples of Peru. We can be heard if we want to be, and some world leaders will listen.

Now we must stand vigilant because the threats of violence and abuse in Peru are still there, and I thank you and ask you to continue your support.

The Open Veins of Bagua

2009-07-10T18:43:00.005Z

"Utopia is on the horizon. Walk two steps, it is two steps away and the horizon runs ten steps further. So where is utopia? It is made by walking"

The Open Veins of Bagua

As part of our environmental work lets make tribute to the solidarity show by the town of Bagua to the brothers of the Awajun and Wampis; before, during and after the 5th June; thanks to the brothers of Bagua for giving us their confidence and warmth that has enabled us to carry out our work of documentation, research and reporting and delivery to all defenders of the nature of Lambayeque, Peru and the world.

What is giving me real hope is the confidence and organisation of the indigenous, I am getting lots of stuff direct from 'the young defenders of the rainforest', I will try and translate some of it.

There is an ongoing investigation into the deaths at Bagua on 5th June and discoveries of human remains are being carefully collected.

its horrible to see these photos...but this is what the crisis on our planet is about, people killed to extract oil, log forests and devastate the Earth.

Human rights and ecology are part of the same struggle....indigenous people are in this struggle, the good news is that they are increasingly winning....we need to show our solidarity and spread the word

If you read Spanish there is a full report here

Irish Green Party betrays LGBT community

2009-07-10T18:23:00.002Z

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-13151.html# is where to look for this story.

One prominent Green Party member over here has noted

I can confirm that on my recent trip to Ireland I found considerable
hostility to the Irish GP leadership from ordinary Greens and other
progressives over their role in the quite reactionary coalition
government, including over their compromise on same-sex civil
marriage.

At a recent LGBT conference, five Irish activists told me they were no
longer supporting the GP because of its acceptance of the second best
option of civil partnerships - instead of marriage equality.

A sad but probably justified decision.

I suppose the hostile comments will be coming in soon from the Irish Green Party loyalists, all two of them...lets just recycle this comment to save them the energy needed.

here goes:

This analysis is broadly typical of what is wrong with Green politics, in that very many people who think they are involved in Green politics are actually involved in moral crusades, that are built around vanity and arrogance rather than any sense of urgency regarding what is happening to our planet.

Prince Charles and the merchant bankers

2009-07-09T08:17:00.003Z

"Just as our banking sector is struggling with its debts... so Nature's life-support systems are failing to cope with the debts we have built up there too," he said. "If we don't face up to this, then Nature, the biggest bank of all, could go bust. And no amount of quantitative easing will revive it."

However the bankers are in charge of climate change policies, making £bns out of carbon trading but doing nothing to reduce greenhouse gases.

Be nice if we took the job away from the bankers.....I am not sure this has dawned on Prince Charles though.

One lesson the current financial crisis teaches us is: beware of the new carbon markets that constitute today's main official response to climate change. These markets are startlingly similar to the financial derivatives markets that have thrown banking systems into chaos and the world economy into a tailspin.

THE COUP IN HONDURAS

2009-07-09T08:09:00.000Z

by Diane Raby

The recent coup in Honduras (which I gather has received very inadequate, and biased, coverage in the UK media - surprise, surprise!) is extremely serious. It is clearly directed not just at President Zelaya but at the entire popular and anti-imperialist trend in Latin America headed by Venezuela, with the aim of halting and indeed reversing the most important progressive development in the world in recent years. It is also almost certainly part of the behind-the-scenes struggle for power in the US, with the mini-Pinochets in Honduras being backed by the Republicans, the Pentagon and CIA as part of a strategy to neutralise Obama.

Fortunately the US military-industrial complex and their Honduran puppets miscalculated, and were met with a totally unprecedented unanimous vote of condemnation by the Organisation of American States, the UN General Assembly, the US government (although with some ambiguity resulting from the aforementioned tensions) and the EU. Equally, they underestimated the level of consciousness and combative disposition of the Honduran people, who have taken to the streets on a massive scale despite brutal repression.

It is still by no means clear exactly how and when the Honduran junta will fall. Unlike the Venezuelan coup in 2002, where the people in the streets could count on a large revolutionary section of the Armed Forces to join them in overthrowing the coup-mongers, the reactionaries led by Mr Micheletti (or “Pinochetti”, as he was described on one demonstrator´s poster) can count on a thoroughly disciplined repressive force trained for decades by the Pentagon.

But fall the junta certainly will before very long: total international isolation and a fragile internal base of support guarantee this. Moreover, when it does fall the result will almost certainly be an acceleration of the process of popular change in Honduras, where the people are now mobilised as never before behind “Mel” (President Manuel Zelaya) and his project for a popular Constitutional Assembly.

This in turn will further consolidate the regional ALBA alliance (which now has nine member states) and its project for alternative development based on anti-capitalist principles. It will also increase international awareness of the idea that democracy in today´s world can only mean real popular participation in government, and not just a formal charade controlled by elites - something which is very relevant right now to us in the UK!

Diane Raby is a national council member of Respect. She sent this report from Venezuela.