GND Media

If you've taken a walk in England chances are you've seen a sign that says "private property" or "trespassers will be persecuted". Turns out over 90% of the land in England is in private hands and our access to the green and pleasant lands are minimal.  So how do we get it back?

This week on the show we are joined by Right to Roam campaigners Nadia Shaikh and Harry Jenkins. We discuss the history of Right to Roam campaign and the trespassing laws, why the language of trespass is framed against the working class, the hypocrisies of  government ministers on access rights and why connecting back to the land is so important in building the climate coalition.


LINKS
The New Enclosure by Brett Christophers

The Twitter thread on mass trespass that inspired this episode 

https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/

Shout outs
indigenous peoples stewarding 85% of all biodiversity in the world.
and Evie Muir(@xeviemuir)  from Peaks of Colour (@PeaksOfColour)

Lilly Hill - save rybanks fields
Lilly's article on the rybanks fields campaign.

Ruth Sullivan - GRT activist

Our very own Dan Weegmann @DanLdnMcr for his cracking design work.
 

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It's safe to say last week was political hell in the UK. So let's take a break and check out what happening on the other side of the pond. Texas, the second largest state in the USA, has one of the most deregulated energy sectors in the country and after biting cold snaps, intense heat and rocketing energy prices something has to change.

To discuss with us the forces at work in Texas and the challenges for Socialists,  Trade Unionists and Progressives, we are joined by David Griscom (@DavidGriscom). David is a born and bred Texan and political commentator known from the Micheal Brooks Show and Left Reckoning.

We discuss the current state of Texas' energy sector, the union busting taking place at oil and gas companies, why the renewable sector isn't a just transition for workers yet and if the Inflation Reduction Act is all it's cracked up to be?


Links
David's piece on liberal climate politics
Alex's article on retrofit in the Guardian.
Texas Climate Jobs Project
Matt Huber's piece on the Inflation Reduction Act

Shout out

Texas Climate Jobs Project
@TXClimateJobs

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For the last three years we've been discussing how climate breakdown needs to be drawn into all areas of life if we are to stand a chance of surviving it. This weeks guests have picked up the gauntlet and are intertwining there workplace fights and the climate.

We are delighted to be joined by two organisers from UCU, Marianne Quick Bargaining and Negotiations Official (Prisons and Sustainability) and Ben Crawford a green rep at the University of Liverpool to discuss UCU's Green New Deal pay claim.

We discuss how UCU brought climate into their bargaining agenda, the green pay claim at University of Liverpool, the tensions of traditional trade unionism and climate protection, and how trade unions can keep institutions honest when it comes to their Net Zero commitments. 
 
Links

UCU- Green New Deal

The German Union Marianne mentions is DGB, here's a link to their just transition paper

Students organising for Sustainability

Shout out

Save Rimrose Valley  https://twitter.com/saverimrose

Students organsing for Sustainability
All UCU members at the ballot or the picket at the moment. 

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This episode was recorded on the 28th of July 2022

It could be argued that the climate movement is split into two camps.  Those studying and discussing the affects of climate change and those that are drawing the new worlds we could live in when the catastrophe is finally  over.  So the question we should really be asking is

 "How do we get from here, to there?"

This week on the show we are joined by GND Media stalwart Kai Heron and his co-author on a new piece about transition for the climate movement Jodi Dean.

We discuss  how the Leninist tradition of  anti-imperialism should be a key component in the political battles that will take place to stop climate breakdown, why institutions are key battle grounds for the climate movement and how the establishment is already adapting to climate breakdown. 


Links
Jodi and Kai's article "Climate Leninism and Revolutionary Transition"

Shout outs
Tina Landis and there book climate solutions beyond capitalism 

Party of Socialism and Liberation

Mick Lynch - General sec of the RMT

Thea Riofrancos review of Andreas Malms work at the Nation "Should the climate movement embrace sabotage?"

Rank and file union workers on strike

Dont Pay UK 

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This year on the show we have taken a closer look at class as a dimension of environmentalism and climate change. With our series Working Class Voices,  we heard real stories and attitudes when it comes to the working class and climate. 

Today's show is moving the conversation to look at the dynamics between classes and how that plays out in the struggle for a just, green world.

This week we are  joined by Matthew T. Huber.  Matthew  is a Professor of Geography at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and the author of the new book, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet.

We discuss how focusing on consumption can blind class analysis of climate change and why individualistic "carbon guilt" stops real action occurring. We also dig into Matthew's critiques of the politics of degrowth and why trade unions need to shape a Green New Deal. 

This interview was recorded on 15th of July 2022

Shout Outs

War on Want appeal to support those affected by the horrendous floods in Pakistan.
https://secure.waronwant.org/page/112424/donate/1

Labour Notes
@labornotes

Links

Matthews book  "Climate Change as Class War" can be bought at Verso.

The grueling working  conditions of the US Solar sector workers

Kim Moody: On New Terrain

Nico Poulantzas 

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The U.K. is on the brink of a multitude of crises. With soaring energy bills, rampant inflation the highest we've seen in 40 years and don't forget the hottest days since records began. Mix that in with sewage being pumped into our rivers and seas, and a prime ministerial race which is based on who can be the cruelest to the most deprived. Well, Enough is Enough.

On today's show we are joined by Jake Johnson from Acorn (@ACORNunion) to discuss the new campaign Enough is Enough. Sprouting from the back of strikes from the RMT and CWU, Enough is Enough is a trade union labour movement campaign to demand a better future for the country. In the immortal words of Mick Lynch, "We refuse to be poor anymore."

On the show we discuss the campaign's five key demands, the struggles of organising in already difficult work conditions and how climate change is wrapped up in all of these demands.

Links

Tickets for the Manchester rally can be found HERE it's free!

Join the Enough is Enough campaign HERE.

Got a crappy landlord? Sign up to Acorn now

Shout out
0161 community
@0161community

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The global economy is fundamentally intertwined with the environment and with that climate breakdown. Fastidious bankers, hedge fund managers and capitalists are on the case trying to tackle the end of the world with the only tools they know how to use, finance and profit.

So what happens when models of extraction are used to fix models of extraction?

This week on the show we are delighted to be joined again by Adrienne Buller to discuss her new book "The Value of a Whale". In the book Adrienne critiques the methods of green capitalism as it attempts to save the planet through profit.

We discuss why offsetting encourages damage to ecology, what green economic ideas are the most dangerous, why market approaches to fighting climate change increase injustice and why Adrienne wrote this book to radicalise her mum.

LINKS
Steve Keen on Nordhaus' misleading economics

A history of the world is seven cheap things by Raj Patel

kate sopher on hedonism


Shout outs
Adrienne's editor Tom at Manchester University Press

Jon Moses for the Bristol botanist mass trespass 

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It's time to shirk off that waged labour, for at least a couple of days, and dive head first into a cool pool of climate fiction.

On this first foray into a Summer Book Club our  Lucy Burke and friend of the pod Sam Knights , discuss their favourite climate reads of the summer and the political power that fantastic fiction can have on the world.  You'll find  all the books mentioned below and we hope you find at least a weekend to imagine what a better would could look like.

links

Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003) @ViragoBooks 

Ghassan Kanafani, Men in the Sun (1962) Lynne Rienner Publishers, second edition,1998 (not currently in print but available second hand)

Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams (1990), @HarperCollins

Richard Lanchester, The Wall (2019) @FaberBooks https://www.faber.co.uk/journal/the-wall-by-john-lanchester-read-the-first-chapter/

Imbola Mbue, How Beautiful We Were (2021), Penguin Random House @penguinrandom

William Morris, News from Nowhere (1890) Penguin Classics @PenguinClassics

Ruth Ozeki, All Over Creation (2002), Canongate Canons @canongatebooks

Richard Powers, The Overstory (2018) @Vintagebooks

Kim Stanley Robinson Ministry For the Future (2020), Orbit, @orbitbooks
check out our episode with Stanley here

Neil Zink, The Wallcreeper (2014) @HarperCollins


These are the books that we mentioned in passing:

Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975) Penguin Modern Classics @PenguinBooks

Amitav Ghosh, The Great Derangement (2016), University of Chicago Press @UChicagoPress

Sahar Khalifeh, Wild Thorns (1976), Simon and Schuster  @simonschuster https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Wild-Thorns/Sahar-Khalifeh/9781623710798

Ian McKewan, Solar (2010), Vintage Classics @Vintagebooks

Jenny Offill, Weather (2020), Granta Books @GrantaBooks

Jules Verne, The Purchase of the North Pole (1889) CreateSpace Independent Publishing

Isobel Wohl, Cold New Climate (2021), Weatherglass Books, @WeatherglassBks

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This week on our centenary! 100 episodes! We can't thank you all enough for supporting the show and listening to four Northerners (Alex is honorary) discuss and discover how we can make a Green New deal that could save humanity from fossil capitalism.  Onwards and upwards. This weeks episode is a corker.

Cuba like all countries has to deal with the climate crisis . To add to that immense task, Cuba has had deal with  crushing economic sanctions from the US. After the fall of the soviet union Cuba lost access to oil and had to reshape its economy away from fossil fuels.  So how did they do it?

This week are delighted to be  joined by Dr Helen Yaffe. Helen is a Visiting Fellow at the Latin America and Caribbean Centre and a Lecturer in Economic and Social History in the University of Glasgow. Helen is a specialist in the economic development of Cuba, and the economic ideas of Che Guevara.

We discussed how protection of the natural world was enshrined in the Cuban constitution, what collective acts were taken during the special period to move away from fossil fuels and how Cuba worked with it's citizens to transform the economy. 

Links

Helen's Documentary :Tarea Vida de Cuba. Cuba's life task

Helens Book Che Guevara: The Economics of Revolution

Castro's  speech from the  1992 UN earth Summit


Shout out
Cuban environmentalists 
Full GND Media team for making it to episode 100!

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It's been bloody hot,  so Andrew and Alex wanted to whinge about it and discuss the political ramifications of the heat wave. Could this be the turning point we need for zero carbon?

Links

Tory candidates make u-turn and back net zero
Ads' article, 'Don't sing to your enemies', on our website

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