CaCC 3rd TU Conference – Pix-&-Vidz, Sat 13 Mar 10

Dateline: South Camden Community School, London, UK, 10:30-16:30, Sat 13 Mar 10 – Scores of trade unionists and climate change activists converged in Camden to explore the consequences of The Great COP-15 Cop-Out, taking the destiny of our civilisation and ecosphere into our own hands, and just how we go about putting solving the capitalist-created catastrophic climate chaos crisis at the heart of every workplace's day-to-day functioning. Welcome to the Campaign against Climate Change's third Trade Union Conference.

A1. Florence Takes The Floor

A2. 'One Million Climate Jobs NOW!' cover

B1. Opening session – Climate Politics After Copenhagen

B2. Martin Empson – CaCC Trade Union Group treasurer

B3. Tony Kearns – CWU senior deputy general secretary

B4. Alex Gordon – RMT president

B5. Chris Keene – Zero Carbon Caravan

B6. Justin Anon – Unite the Union

B7. Sacha Ismail – AWL and Workers Climate Action

B8. Larry Lohman – Cornerhouse

B9. Amancay Colque – Bolivia Solidarity Campaign secretary

C1. Steve Johnson – Leeds climate activist

C2. Suzanne Jeffrey – CaCC Trade Union Group

C3. Florence Durrant – Unison

C4. Manuel Cortés – TSSA assistant general secretary

C5. Philip Pearson – TUC senior climate policy officer

C6. Peter Ainsley – Camden Trades Council

C7. Paul Murphy – Unison Islington

C8. Mick Gosling – NUJ press and PR branch vice-chair

C9. Özlem Onaran – UCU

D1. Paul Vernell – NUT

D2. Charlie Hore – Unison

D3. Fred LePlat – Unison Islington

D4. John Sinha – London climate activist (video still)

D5. Jonathan Neale – CaCC, editor 'One Million Climate Jobs NOW!' (video still)

E1. Lunch time noms from the Brixton Tea Party

F1. After Copenhagen, Building an International Movement workshop

F2. John Sinha – London climate activist

G1. Fighting for 1,000,000 Green Jobs session

G2. Phil Thornhill – CaCC national coordinator

G3. Rose Jones – FBU executive council member

G4. Graham Pertersen – UCU national environment coordinator

G5. Ian Hewitt – Nottingham activist

G6. George Binette – Unison Camden

G7. Prof. Barbara Harriss-White – UCU Oxford

G8. John Stewart – HACAN ClearSkies chair

G9. Shaun Dey – Reel News

H1. John Krieger – UCU and NUT

H2. Liam Mac Uaid – NUT

H3. Ann Ainsworth – GMB at PCS

H4. Chris Baugh – PCS assistant general secretary (video still)

H5. Making the Future Happen Our Way

Vidz at YouTube
• CaCC 3rd TU Conference – 1, 2, 3, etc.
» LINKs to follow shortly once editing and uploading is complete

Vidz on CaCC TU Group Website
• Jonathan Neale, CaCC international secretary – 'What needs to be done?'
» http://cacctu.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/what-needs-to-be-done/
• Chris Baugh, PCS assistant general secretary – 'A trade union strategy'
» http://cacctu.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/a-trade-union-strategy/
• Graham Petersen, UCU national environment coordinator – 'Education and climate change'
» http://cacctu.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/education-and-climate-change/
• Amancay Colque, Bolivia Solidarity Campaign secretary – 'Bolivia and climate change'
» http://cacctu.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/bolivia-and-climate-change/
• Alex Gordon, RMT president – 'Transport and climate change'
» http://cacctu.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/transport-and-climate-change/

Apologies for the delay in publishing – it's been a difficult week; if I've made mistakes in captioning the pix, please forgive me, and feel free to request corrections. Trade Unionism is BOA – Big On Acronyms – as used in the picture captions above, and expanded in the Acronyms & Website Links section below.


RECLAIMING OUR POWER
As anarchists, socialists and communists will tell you, the real power to transform human civilisation lies in mass social forces, and the only one with both the material interest, the numerical power, and the transformative potential to really revolutionise human society is the global working class. In our centuries-long class war with our capitalist rulers, our class spontaneous generates collective combat organisations: Trade Unions in workplaces, and Communes/Soviets/People's Assemblies in civil society. Now that our capitalist rulers have so blatantly proved themselves inept, intractable, and incapable of solving the climate crisis of their own making with The Great COP-15 Cop-Out in Copenhagen in December 2009, the best among our class are waking up to the necessity of reclaiming power, ditching the bosses' right to rule over us, and weaving our destiny with our own hands.

In the workplace, we have our collective combat organisations at hand: Trade Unions. As you can see from the pictures, folk from a wide variety of TU's were present. And this event saw the coming to fruition of a process initiated at the previous conference: the publication and distribution of 'One Million Climate Jobs NOW!', a product-of-participation pamphlet edited by Jonathan Neale, CaCC international secretary – grab your copy now:
• 'One Million Climate Jobs NOW!' pamphlet
» on paper, pp. 50 – http://www.campaigncc.org/greenjobs
» free PDF, 2.4 MB – http://www.pcs.org.uk/download.cfm?docid=E6FA62AA-6B54-42F9-9C87A2DEF6D84312

Citing 35 contributors, 12 of whom are pictured above, it's a deadly serious attempt to instil the motivation necessary in rank-&-file TU members to make climate activists of them all – with the aim of getting, er, One Million Climate Jobs created by the end of 2010. While some revolutionaries may balk at the threads of reformism running through it – making demands of and putting pressure on local councils, the British state, the United Nations – if it can help instil the primacy of tackling climate change, the urgency of our task, and the necessity of "Making it happen" (the final section) by taking "Action" (the final three pages) then it could be a great contribution to the battle to win hearts and minds among organised labour in Britain. Is there a Climate Action Group in your workplace yet? If not, will you take the initiative to co-create one with your workmates?


THE INTERNATIONAL – SYSTEM CHANGE NOT CLIMATE CHANGE
A healthy note of internationalism was injected by Amancay Colque, of the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign. She was more than a little surprised that British trade union activists were so relatively unaware of the participatory direct democracy that informs so much of the global South's world changing social movements. And she encouraged British trade unionists to engage with the 'World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth' in Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 19 to 22, 2010 – http://pwccc.wordpress.com
• Amancay Colque, Bolivia Solidarity Campaign secretary – 'Bolivia and climate change'
» video – http://cacctu.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/bolivia-and-climate-change/

Also I got up to mention that the newly emergent Climate Justice International is putting participatory direct democracy at the heart of People's Assemblies – the means by which we challenge the legitimacy of the capitalist's discredited and bankrupt Parliamentary representative democracy. And in Britain, we hope to demonstrate what that means by occupying Parliament Square on International Worker's Day, Saturday 01 May 2010, with a May Day Carnival which convenes a People's Assembly – see the WHATEVER NEXT? section below.


ACRONYMS & WEBSITE LINKS
» AWL – Alliance for Workers' Liberty – http://www.workersliberty.org
» Bolivia Solidarity Campaign – http://www.boliviasc.org.uk
» CaCC – Campaign against Climate Change – http://www.campaigncc.org
» Campaign against Climate Change Trade Union Group – http://cacctu.wordpress.com
» Cornerhouse – http://www.thecornerhouse.org.uk
» CWU – Communication Workers Union – http://www.cwu.org
» FBU – Fire Brigades Union – http://www.fbu.org.uk
» GMB – Britain's General Union – http://www.gmb.org.uk
» HACAN ClearSkies – Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise – http://www.hacan.org.uk
» NUJ – National Union of Journalists – http://www.nuj.org.uk
» NUJ Press and PR branch – http://www.nujppr.org.uk
» NUT – National Union of Teachers – http://www.teachers.org.uk
» Reel News – http://www.reelnews.co.uk
» RMT – National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers – http://www.rmt.org.uk
» TSSA – Transport Salaried Staffs' Association – http://www.tssa.org.uk                     
» UCU – University and College Union – http://www.ucu.org.uk
» Unison – http://www.unison.org.uk
» Unite the Union – http://www.unitetheunion.com
» WCA – Workers Climate Action – http://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com
» Zero Carbon Caravan – http://zerocarboncaravan.net


WHATEVER NEXT?
The Great COP-15 Cop-Out in December 2009 showed how The Powers That Be cannot even be prevailed upon to meet their own woefully low expectations in co-operating to halt the Catastrophic Climate Chaos Crisis into which they are plunging humanity and our ecosphere. So it's time to begin making ourselves ungovernable by their discredited and bakrupt Parliamentary representative democracy, by developing our own dynamic and blossoming Participatory direct democracy – through the People's Assemblies called for by the emergent Climate Justice International.

Over four Election Meltdown Mobilisation gatherings, our numbers, reach and plans have grown from strength to strength. From co-creating a May Day Carnival in Parliament Square, fed by four convergent Carnival Parades, to taking up the call from the Climate Justice International to convene People's Assemblies in the Square and elsewhere, these are exciting times for those who would actively create a popular, truly democratic, and ecologically harmonious future for human civilisation and our biosphere. We're an Open Network collective, open to individuals and groups who'd like to collaborate face-to-face and online, to build a better world for all life on Earth – so YOU are invited, to help broaden out these initiatives, add in your own to the mix, and spread the word before the UK general election: there IS a 'System Change not Climate Change' alternative to the mainstream party's planet-wrecking austerity measures – because We Weave Our Destiny With Our Own Hands!

• Election Meltdown Mobilisation gathering #5
• EMM#5.1 – Saturday 27 March 2010, 15:00-19:00
• EMM#5.2 – Sunday 28 March 2010, 15:00-19:00
• Downstairs at The Foundry, Old Street tube (exit 3), 80 Great Eastern Street, London, EC2A 3JL‎
» Phone Contact: 07 854 390 408
» Queries: email – election.meltdown@gmail.com» Location: Map / Street View – http://tinyurl.com/Foundry-SVmap
» Election Meltdown Mobilisation #5: Facebook Event – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=366623394500 – click on 'Attending', then 'Invite people to come' and invite your friends to join in

On Tueday 30 March 2010, at Southwark Crown Court, three Labour MPs and a Tory Lord will be put on trail for Theft and Embezzlement. Eliot Morley MP, David Chaytor MP, Jim Devine MP and Baron Hanningfield are being used as scapegoats to vent public outrage at the corrupt politicians without the real criminals having to change their ways. The courts cannot provide the justice we need. The system must be put on trial, not just these four corrupt scapegoats. Election Meltdown therefore calls for a PEOPLE'S COURT to put the whole system on trial. People from all over the country will come to Southwark to add their voices to the clamour for REAL CHANGE, not just false reforms!

• People's Court – Putting the System on Trial!
• outside Southwark Crown Court
• Date: 10:00-17:00, Tuesday 30 March 2010
• Location: 1 English Grounds, London, SE1 2HU (right behind the HMS Belfast)
» Street View / Interactive Map – http://tinyurl.com/SCC-SVmap
• To bring: picnic nick-nacks and food to share; DIY placards and banners
• Public Transport: London Bridge rail and tube station (Jubilee and Northern lines) – 3 mins walk, 300 m
• Journey Planners:
» TfL – http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk 
» Nationa Rail – http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk 
» Transport Direct – http://www.transportdirect.info
• Facebook Events – click on 'Attending', then 'Invite people to come' and invite your friends to join in:
» PEOPLE'S COURT at Southwark Crown Court – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=367632691983
» Peoples' Court Picnic – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=401282973973

“The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it.” ~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French philosopher and writer whose novels inspired the leaders of the French Revolution, 1712-1778)

• May Day Carnival & People's Assembly
• Saturday 01 – Thursday 06 May 2010
• Facebook Events:
» 1. May Day Carnival & People's Assembly – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=335415173924 – click on 'Attending', then 'Invite people to come' and invite your friends to join in, and finally choose a Horsefolk-of-the-Apocalypse-led Carnival Parade, and do the same:
» 2a. Red Horse Carnival Parade – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=338167061775
» 2b. Silver Horse Carnival Parade – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=315494162167
» 2c. Green Horse Carnival Parade – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=363481372782
» 2d. Black Horse Carnival Parade – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=340247816939
» 'A Mayday Tatlin Tower Hometree in Parliament Square (Banshees Remix)' – 3D animated visualisation of a space hijacking icon for a directly democratic People's Assembly; video, 1:20 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5_qZvQm1-Y

“Real change comes about not because we vote for it, but because we fight for it, shout for it, work for it. Placing hopes and fears on who holds power, or who will gain power through voting, is wasting time which might be spent in creating alternatives, both for ourselves and for our communities.” ~ Chumbawamba, 1987

• Election Meltdown on t'InterWebs
» Election Meltdown website – http://meltdown.uk.net/election
» Election Meltdown on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=288264051071 – click on the [Join] button
» Election Meltdown – Activists Group – http://groups.google.com/group/election-meltdown-activists-group – click on the 'Join this group' link in the LHS column
» Election Meltdown – Free Forums – http://electionmeltdown.freeforums.org – click on the [Register] button


Up the Revolution,

Tim Dalinian Jones


Footnotes

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This means you are free to copy and distribute any of my photos and videos you find here, under the following license:
• Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
» http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
» Accreditation: tim.dalinian.jones@gmail.com

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