GND Media

It's shaping up to be a hot strike summer with multiple trade unions looking to ballot their members on strikes in the coming months.  Thousands of people will be out on the street with their trade unions or with or social movements raising their voices against the litany of stupidity that is the UK government.   When it comes to getting out on the streets it's important to measure the effectiveness of actions and how they push the fight against climate breakdown forward.

This week on the show we are joined by  Dr  Oscar Berglund (@berglund_oscar) from Bristol University. Oscar's research focuses on social movements  and explores climate change activism  particularly Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the use of civil disobedience.  Oscar  studies the strategies and discourses of civil disobedience in contemporary climate change activism.  

We discuss where XR is now as a movement, how actions by the Tyre Extinguishers and Insulate Britain affect wider climate activism discourse, whether the media is pushing climate into the culture war, how car ownership has developed as an identify and the curious case of F1 driver Sebastian Vettel.

Links

Seeing like an activist by Erin Pineda

Matthew Patersons piece on Cars from I Peel

a piece Oscar wrote on protest for  Bristol  247 back in 2021

Shout out

Gunilla Berglund (Oscars Mum!) who on retiring became a full time climate activist  and his daughter at the age of 9 has been to several climate protests already.

Conrad bower from the Meteor

Kai Heron and Jodie Dean and their piece on "Climate Leninism" in Spectre

Support the show

This week we are joined by Momentum co-chair Gaya Sriskanthan (@gayasktn).  We discuss the importance of joining class struggle with climate action,  what British environmentalists can learn from communities on the front line of climate breakdown and Momentum's new climate justice education program.

Links

Momentum Climate Justice education program

First session from the program

Momentum RMT picket tool

Sean's New Statesman piece


Shout outs

Sarah Woolley from the Bakers Union
@sarahwoolley01

Mick Lynch and RMT

Ellie Radcliffe
@ellieradcliffe9

Oldham Energy futures

Support the show

There's a heatwave happening in Europe so let's cool down this week by getting into some polar research and  understand how we know the climate is changing from one of the most inhospitable places on earth. 

This week on the show we are joined by Dr. Peter Neff,(@icy_pete) assistant research professor at the University of Minnesota.  Peter is  a glaciologist and climate scientist working primarily to develop glacier ice core records of past climate, environmental conditions, and atmospheric chemistry.  We discuss the significance of Ice core data for understanding the changing climate, how ice cores are collected, the geo-politics of the antarctic and the military begins of polar research.  Peter also discusses his ethos when it comes to communicating scientific ideas and dealing with social media doomerism.
 

Links

Peter's video on ice core drilling

Peter's publications and work

Peters Website

Joe Hansons Youtube channel

shout outs
Polar impact- supporting ethnic and racial minorities working in Polar research
@PolarImpact

Prem Gill founder of Polar Impact
@PolarPrem


Progressive Economic Forum 
@PEF_online
James Meadway for organsing it 
@meadwa

Councillor Linda Foley - @LindaFLabour
Manchester Schools, Teachers and Governors who are stepping forward for climate education 

Support the show

This episode was recorded the week before the Government's U-turn on a windfall tax.

We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis, the war in Ukraine rages on and as ever climate breakdown is in full swing. Wet bulb events in India and south Asia pull into stark relief the potential future for the rest of the world. At the same time, our current minister for industrial policy and energy, Kwasi Kwarteng, is tweeting at young climate activists telling them to “shout and scream all they want… Britain is gonna be on oil and gas for years to come”. 

It’s pretty safe to say that we need a change of government. As the official opposition the Labour Party is best placed to be that change so let's check in with Labour and discuss how they would respond to the climate crisis if they had the reins of the country.

This week we are joined by MP for Sheffield and Hallam Olivia Blake (@_OliviaBlake). Olivia is in the Shadow department for Climate change and previously at shadow DEFRA. We discuss the absolute mess that is the water and waste system in the UK, the importance of peatlands and the politics of burning peat, Labour's commitments on climate change and their "green sprint" policy. Then finally we discuss how activists should react to restrictions on protest. 


Links 
TUC rally in London June 18th. 
https://www.tuc.org.uk/DemandBetter


Shout outs

UCU Bury College 
@UCUBuryCollege

Deliveroo drivers on strike in Sheffield
@IWGBunion

Ed Milliband (come on the show Ed!) 
@Ed_Miliband

Support the show

It comes around quicker every year, it's only International Biodiversity Day!

To celebrate our United Nations mandated holiday we are throwing off our slippers, getting out the trowels from the shed and heading out into the garden with the tour de force that is botanist Josh Styles (@joshual95).  Josh is a long time friend of the show and founder of the North West Rare Plants initiative. A project to help reintroduce extinct or rare plant species to the North West. 
 
On this most green of days we discuss if symbolic events are useful for causes? The success of the Lesser Bladderwort, How we can make our gardens and lawns more bio-diverse and rare plant friendly, why Hoylake Beach needs protecting and of course... plant STDs.

Links

Sign the petition to save the SSSI that Josh talked about here

Here's  a collection of botany and wildlife apps to help you out in the wild.

iNaturalist
https://www.inaturalist.org/

Plant snap
https://www.plantsnap.com/

Save hoylake beack

shout out
Lancashire Wildlife Trust 

@Lancswildlife

Support the show

Our Ads is on a mission to understand why the working class is so hesitant to get involved in the climate movement in its current form. Each week he'll be talking to climate-conscious people who identify as working class to discover their thoughts on how working class people can become a force in the fight for our very survival.

This week Ads is joined by Níall Glynn, founder of Working Class Economist Group(@TheWCEG).

They discuss why he setup WCEG, Growing up in Manchester and Belfast,  how the working class became individualized, why having the opportunity to travel can help develop class and environmental consciousness and how and why the two need blending together. 


Links

Get involved in the Working Class Economist Group here

Books mentioned in the show;

Joseph Stiglitz - Globalization and Its Discontents

Kate Raworth - Donut Economics

Ha- Joon Chang - 23 things they don't tell you about Capitalism. 

Support the show

Our Ads is on a mission to understand why the working class is so hesitant to get involved in the climate movement in its current form. Each week he'll be talking to climate-conscious people who identify as working class to discover their thoughts on how working class people can become a force in the fight for our very survival.

This week Ads is joined by friend and hip hop artist Dan Marsden to discuss the aesthetics of the climate movement and how working class people may view them. In this episode Ads and Dan try to have an honest discussion about what does and does not resonate with the working class in regards to art, music and performance to try to understand better some of the reasons why people are not getting involved in the fight of lives.

Dan  goes by the  stage name "Cheech" and is a part of the Hip Hop acts'Mothership Connection' and "Bluntskins". They kindly provided the tune "Hush One" for our outro music.  Check out links to their music below.

Check out Dans music here

Support the show

It's gonna take some big ideas and even bigger actions for humanity to swerve the 2°C warming climate catastrophe coming down the road. So this week we're taking half the world away.

Joining us on the podcast are Drew Pendergrass (@pendergrassdrew) and Troy Vettese (@TroyVettese) the authors of "Half Earth Socialism: A Plan to Save the Future from Extinction, Climate Change, and Pandemics".  Their book combines half earth re-wilding and the rich history of Utopian Socialism to illustrate a way of saving the earth from humanity and combating our hubris and domination of nature itself.

We discuss the works of Otto Neurath, Leonid Kantorovich and Stafford Beer; using neoliberal thinking against neoliberalism, how and why Malthusian ideas on over-population are embedded into society and the problems that arise from it, and how to  create more efficient food chains through global veganism.


Links
Pick up a copy of half earth socialism from Verso books Here

Check out Drew and Troy's website for more info:
https://www.half.earth/

Play the Half Earth Socialism the game
https://play.half.earth/

Shout outs
UAWD - United All Workers for  Democracy
@UAWD_Reform

Troy's girlfriend Xinyue

Minesh Parekh - congrats on being elected for Crookes and Crosspool in Sheffield
@min_esh

Fianna Hornby GND Councillor elected for Gorse Hill in Trafford
@fiannahornby

Angela Brown GND Councillor elected in Heywood
@Angel4brown598

Support the show

Our Ads is on a mission to understand why the working class is so hesitant to get involved in the climate movement in its current form.

So, each week he'll be talking to climate-conscious people who identify as working class to discover their thoughts on how working class people can become a force in the fight for our very survival.

This week Ads is joined by youth worker and community activist, Zara Manoehoetoe (@indigenousmanc). They discuss the relationships between working class people and the police compared with the relationship that the climate movement has with the police. They also discuss abolitionism, the importance of imaging what comes after revolution,  how working class protests need to up their game, and what happens if protests become outlawed (spoiler) you protest harder.

Support the show

Our Ads is on a mission to understand why the working class is so hesitant to get involved in the climate movement in its current form.

Each week he'll be talking to climate-conscious people who identify as working class to discover their thoughts on how working class people can become a force in the fight for our very survival.

This week Ads is joined by Khushi  Himatal who has recently joined the climate youth movement after becoming disillusioned with the revolutionary left. We discuss Marxism, working class heroes, what the climate movement can learn from the working class and the working class of the global south. 

Support the show