Stopping Climate Change in its Tracks

pictures have been taken and will be posted later today...

The tree-sitter is hanging from a tree 30m up, with the rope across the tree and attached at the tracks. The police can't remove the rope from the tracks (and thus let the trains go by) without the tree-sitter falling (and dying).

Wicked! great action chch.. making me excited about being back to help soon...

xx

Lastest news is that Solid Energy are planning to sue us for costs of two hundred thousand dollars. We plan to fight this all the way. Send more soon.

Dan

I can see it now, CLimate Polluter makes community group pay for stopping climate pollution. that will get some discussion going!

Two hundred thousand! What a laff.
Great work turning the heat on the climate destroyers, guys.

Good luck all in saving Happy Valley and all!

Why does a state-owned company want to sue 3 activists for $200,000?

Solid Energy causes massive environmental damage, breaks laws concerning the protection of endangered species, and extracts coal that will wreck havoc on the climate everyday; this cost to the environment is huge. Despite this, they are now threatening costs to the 3 people who blockaded the tracks for 5 hours on Saturday.

Condemn this intimidation by Solid Energy + condemn the Happy Valley mine: PROTEST THURSDAY 18th AUGUST at the activists’ first court appearance.
Outside the District Court, Durham St, CHRISTCHURCH, 9am. (Frances and Dan's court is at 10am). See you there!

**Please let your CHCH contacts know **

I've read the press releases and the whole correspondance.
Ok, we want kiwis running around in nice native bush without too much global warming and we also want miners to have jobs and we need a reliable source of some sort of energy, if only to drive our laptops.
What's the plan?

HI, Thanks for the imput. I, like many others before me know there are lots of other sources of clean energy that can be used on this planet, and that many, many, alternative forms of energy and ideas have been squashed or bought out by the petroleum industry. There is no profit to be made from clean renewable energy in the long run - fossil fuels have filled the pockets of many and left a terrible legacy behind.So please be positive about others efforts to clean up the wrongdoings of the greed of others and the system that allows it - in fact encourages it.

Don,

Your remarks seem deliberately provocative, and I know from your Marxist-Lenninist background that you're probably going to see this as greenie bollocks. Well it's also a class issue...

As you know, capitalism, with its unsatiable apetite for growth and its ultimate control by a small elite, is not compatitable with the environment. It pits jobs against the environment and it's not a matter of picking one or the other, its about overthrowing the whole fucking thing.

Climate change isn't just going to destroy much of the planet and upset delicate ecosystems, but is going to have catastrophic consequences for humans too. Off the top of my head, I think it is by 2050 that more than 1 billion people will be without fresh water due to climate change alone (I have a feeling its more), large parts of the globe will undergo desertification and many others will be pounded by storms etc. - and you know who will bear the brunt of this? It'll be the poor the world over, once again, taking the rap for the actions of the rich. They'll be the ones doing the starving in ever greater numbers, doing the dying from the storms in ever greater numbers and who will be relegated to the most infertile areas of the globe.

It's hard to choose when the options are destroying the environment or making people unemployed (and I totally disagree with Duncan about the small-scale capitalism he seems to be suggesting as a solution). I'm part of this campaign because I believe the rammifications of climate change are worse than a few jobs being lost, but at the same time I really believe that the whole capitalist system has got to go and I think it's fucked we have to make a choice (hence the banner "Kill Capitalism Not Kiwis").

I also think this campaign could potentially be really politicising and make people aware of the contradictions within capitalism.

In terms of energy, well I reckon we'd all get along just fine with a little bit less (and a whole lot more of the pie). Energy use has to be reduced dramatically and I'm afraid the Marxist conception of technological progress is totally outmoded - it'll hardly be liberating if there's no one alive to enjoy it!

Revolutionary greetings,
Errico.

Don, I'm sure you probably know that Renewable Energies produce 70% more jobs than coal and over 120% for nuclear energy. You will also know that the majority of people who are, and will be ,most effected by climate change/climate chaos are the poorest countries and the poorest people - those who a) did not create the problem in the first place and b) who have the least resources to deal with it.

whats the solution? an immediate shift to non-renewable energies, a decent public transport system, climate justice - decent housing with decent heating, smashing capitalism, etc etc... if society was run for the needs of people, rather than profit, i'm sure we would be well on our way...

Holes were dug days before, and filled with concrete and long-arm lock-boxes, and then covered. They just had to come back and stick their arms in them and lock-on once the concrete had set.

wow!!! far out you guys are great! it is so fantastic to know stuff is kicking off back home, this was a wicked action, I'm so proud of you guys!! (wiping a tear from her eye) Goodluck for court I am with you all the way in spirit, loads and loads of support and aroha from the UK xxx
STOP SOLID ENERGY - direct action all the way

yeah, its true that consumers need to use non-polluting energy generation - not coal. This arguement though is often targetted at residential use. Industry and commercial businesses use way more energy than the general public. Tiwai alunimium smetler in Invercargill is the largest energy consumer in the country. If you really want to conserve power, perhaps people could start a campaign aimed at safer, warmer, affordable housing, and retail outlets. i dunno, just an idea that may or may not be of any use.

Before people start talking about how we should get nuclear power plants; they are still extremely expensive and inefficient, and still produce toxic waste. Its isn't even an option for NZ.

Don - as far as i'm aware, there will be no new jobs created for the Cypress mine and I have no idea what will happen to the other jobs when it doesn't go ahead.

Wicked action guys! Direct action and community support is the only way.

not that i like work or anything, (i hate it!) but there won't *be* any jobs on a dead planet

given that we're killing the planet really fast and really badly, the whole jobs vs. environment conflict is kinda ridiculous.....

I agree in general with the argument against continuing dependence on fossil fuels, and I agree of course that the ultimate solution to both environmental degradation and unemployment is a restructuring of society along post-capitalist lines, but I think that it has to be remembered that the vast majority of New Zealanders and (I strongly suspect) Coasters are not as clued up about this stuff as most of the people participating in this thread. If they say 'what are we going to do for jobs and power?' and we say 'get rid of capitalism', their eyes are likely to glaze over.

I think then that we need a set of practical alternatives to the new coal mine, which address the needs of the Coasters for jobs, and the need of all New Zealanders for power, as well as the needs of the environment. It sounds like bobo and others already have some good ideas - it'd be interesting to see them in more detail.

I think that eco-tourism is problematic for three reasons.

In the first place, there is a great danger that it will pay poor wages and in many cases provide only casual work. Who wants to dig out latrines for American tourists for the minimum wage during the summer months, when they can earn relatively good money the year round in the quite safe conditions of an open-cast mine?

There's a related problem of attitudes to the new work on offer in regions like the Coast. Many New Zealanders who remember the old industries that provided jobs in the regions feel miffed by suggestions that they ought to work in the tourist sector: they see the work that this new 'industry' provides as much less dignified and meaningful than labour in the freezing works or the mines or the timber mill. There is a strong resentment of the middle class urban liberals - from Auckland and Wellington, as well as California - who keep the tourist industry afloat.

There is also the problem that, by its very nature, the tourist industry only reinforces the dependence of the New Zealand economy on its big brothers, the United States and Europe. New Zealand has remained basically a primary producer economy dependent on exports for its survival - the destruction of much industry and sale of assets under the neo-liberal 'reforms' of the 80s and 90s only reinforced this fact.

The only way to improve the lives of ordinary New Zealanders, particularly those living in the regions, is to take control of resources back from overseas capitalists and actually do something with the primary produce of this country. (The classic example is the forestry industry: New Zealand has vast tracts of exotic forest, yet they are owned by multinational companies who have been content to close down mills, paper plants, and other knock-on industries, and send the 'raw' timber overseas for processing, from whence it is imported back to New Zealand. Meanwhile timber towns like Tokoroa, Kawerau, and Moerewa suffer massive unemployment!)

Of course, the people who dominate the Green Party and parts of the environental movement represent a section of the New Zealand middle class/petty bourgeoisie which benefits from eco-tourism and from other economic activities that draw on New Zealand's 'clean, green' trademark. They are in most cases either oblivious or actively antipathetic to the traditional working class communities in the regions, and would run a mile before they endorsed a programme which called for the setting up of real (though clean) industries in places like the Coast. The liberal petty bourgeois vision that these people push has generally dominated radical politics in New Zealand, marginalising other political tendencies like Marxism, but the West Coast was one of the places where it did not enjoy hegemony. The Coast was the birthplace of the Red Feds, the Communist Party, and (less gloriously) the Labour Party, and arguably the only place in New Zealand where the working class has seized political power, albeit briefly (during the general strike of 1913 soviet-style workers' organisations took control of several West Coast towns for several days).

Len Richardson's classic book 'Coal, Class, and Community' tells the story of the Coast's revolutionary history, and should be required reading for everyone who opposes Kiwi mine. Opening new mines may not be the way forward today, but nevertheless it's the West Coast tradition of class struggle politics that environmentalists have to draw on today, if they want to formulate an alternative to Kiwi that appeals to more than eco-tourism operators.

Mining, logging etc create short term, dirty, dangerous, low-paid jobs for a relatively small number of people considering the amount of money being invested and the value of the resources involved. The job creation argument is pure corporate propoganda - a smokescreen that obscures the way the Coast is being treated like the 'developing economies' overseas - its resources appropriated for negligable return to the local communities.

What should Coasters do for a living? Surely that question is ultimately up to Coasters to answer. But I don't think it hurts for us to help out with suggestions. To be realistic these suggestions need to understand the culture and infrastructure of the Coast.

What about growing organic hemp, flax and other fibre, food and biofuel crops and setting up clean processing industries locally? Trial crops of hemp have already been grown in some parts of the country but a conservative community showing support would help overcome the perception that it's only mad greenies who see the benefits.

I think Scott's comments on eco-tourism are mostly fair but the same sorts of jobs that tourism creates in hospitality, entertainment etc are also created by communities with more disposable income from a strengthened local economy.

Is there a LETS exchange on the Coast? Surely there are heaps of people there who would sell surplus stuff or provide services for green dollars if they understood the way this helps circulate resources in their communities.

In my experience many younger Coasters do care about environmental issues but they are nervous of sticking their necks out and copping flack from the older generation who are willfully ignorant about energy depletion, climate change and sustainability. In order to defeat the mine the campaign needs to connect with these people and help them find the confidence to speak up and act.

On the subject of alternatives, here is an excerpt from something I wrote for the last International Women's Day. It's probably more relevant to the timber towns than the Coast, but you get the drift:

'How many times have Kiwi workers heard the words 'there is no alternative', when excuses are made for the decline in their living standards and quality of life over the past twenty years? In the 1980s and 90s successive governments used 'there is no alternative' to justify the privatisation of state assets, mass layoffs of workers, cutbacks in welfare and the decay of health and education services. The ‘law of the market’ and ‘the global economy’ had to take precedence over ordinary people’s needs – it was as simple as that, as far as National and Labour governments were concerned.

Today's Labour government uses 'there is no alternative' to justify its support for George Bush's War of Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, and its pursuit of a 'free' trade deal that will give US multinationals even more power over Kiwis' lives. Apparently US hyper power is, like dog eat dog free market capitalism, an unalterable fact of life, at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Many Kiwi workers have, for the time being at least, accepted the 'there is no alternative' mantra. A lot of us don't like the influence that unelected corporate executives have over our everyday lives, or the lies and bullying of the US government and its allies, but what other choices are there?

Who needs the boss?

But over the last year, a group of workers in a small town in Venezuela have shown that the bullies are wrong, and that there is an alternative to the chaos and brutality of both ‘the invisible hand of the market’ and the all-too-visible fist of US imperialism . The 1,400 workers at Venepal, a mill in the Venezuelan town of Moron, came to work one day last year to be told that their jobs were gone. Venepal had suddenly become 'uneconomic' for the multinational company that owned it, and 1,400 jobs were going to vanish offshore. It’s a story that Kiwis have heard again and again, in milling towns like Tokoroa and Kawerau. But the workers of Moron didn’t like the idea of redundancy – they occupied their mill, and appealed for support to the workers of the rest of Venezuela and the world.

Last month, after a huge campaign, President Hugo Chavez signed a decree nationalising Venepal under the control of its workers. Under a plan drawn up by those workers in consultation with the government, the mill is now producing paper for Venezuelan schoolbooks. Tokoroa and Kawerau may be in decline, but Moron is once again thriving.'

Amazing what you can do when you have a strong labour movement. Control of work was one of the major aims of the West Coast miners when they had a strong and militant union.

where can i subscribe to this great magazine? i can only get nz women's day at my local supermarket.

yay heaps more people have been talking bout save happy valley around these parts
snowballs dudes:)

Just thought I'd like to remind people that west coast forests being logged by Timberlands weren't saved by direct action at all, they were saved by a political lobbying campaign in an election year. The direct action was really just part of 'advertising'.

Hey Bro, well done, proud to be your brother!!

Love A