On this Labor Day

September 2, 2024September 2, 2024 / Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

Labor Day is dedicated to workers uniting, using their collective strength to demand changes in work policy to include respect, safety, health care, livable wages, shorter hours, sick time, etc. Sadly, the fierce and strategic labor organizer, Jane McAlevey, died at age 59 in July. Jane had an incredible impact on organized labor and you can read some tributes here. She published a number of books and this is what I wrote in my reading log after finishing A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy (2020):

“This book fired me up! There’s so much we can accomplish if we stand together. I wish I had a job where I could organize a union. Biggest takeaway: even in states w all GOP elected (WV), the teachers & school workers won huge demands via strike!” No matter if you’re in the work place or not, I highly recommend reading this inspirational book because Jane makes it clear that people power is the way forward in every single challenge we face. People standing shoulder-to-shoulder as we demand better for people and planet.

I believe Jane would be thrilled by some of the powerful collective actions happening right now:

10,000 hotel workers with Unite Here (union for workers in the hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, transportation, and airport industries. Membership is diverse, predominantly women and people of color, hailing from all corners of the planet) are on strike across the country right now! You can pledge your solidarity to the workers at Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt here.
17,000 CWA workers are on strike at AT&T Southeast. You can pledge your support here. Note: I’m a former Communication Workers of America union member!
Per Washington Square News: A group of faculty and staff at NYU will withhold administrative tasks for the fall semester starting Labor Day until senior leadership removes police from campus and pardons those facing disciplinary action for their participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, a recent pledge signed by Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine reads. This was a welcome development as universities crack down on free speech and weaponize antisemitism to include the use of “Zionism.”
Hundreds of thousands of people in Tel Aviv took to the streets last night to call out Netanyahu for undermining all efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza (including the assassination of Hamas’s lead negotiator). The government responded by spraying protestors with skunk water, a tactic the IDF has used on Palestinians for many years and that former IDF soldiers used on student protestors at Columbia University last spring. This morning, Histadrut (Israel’s largest trade union), led a general strike that “closed government and municipal offices as well as schools and many private businesses. Israel’s international airport, Ben Gurion, was reported to have shut down at 8am local time (6am BST) for two hours. The Tel Aviv labour court ordered an end to the strike on Monday, ruling that it was politically motivated and had not been called for economic reasons.” Can’t help but note the irony of the “only democracy in the Middle East” shutting down a general strike. Also want to note that we in the U.S. are highly propagandized in regards to our government’s role in propping up the far-right Netanyahu, and that Israeli media is openly reporting the facts about Netanyahu’s disregard for making a deal to release the hostages. Here, here, here, and here are pertinent headlines from Israel. We aren’t seeing anything like that in U.S. media.

Lastly, PLEASE take 2 minutes to personalize comments in support of United Farm Workers who labor in the fields to bring food to our tables. They work in all sorts of extreme weather, including in dangerously high temperatures. The comment period is now open for Federal Heat Safety Regulations and I hope you’ll join me in advocating for training, shade, cool water, and paid rest breaks for the workers. You can do that HERE.

I’ll close this Labor Day post with some wise words from Mother Jones:

“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”
“The first thing is to raise hell,” says I. “That’s always the first thing to do when you’re faced with an injustice and you feel powerless. That’s what I do in my fight for the working class.”
“Our present civilization is one of brute force. We hope to make it a civilization of justice and love.”

Thank you for reading this far. Happy Labor Day!
Solidarity! ✊🏽

Climate Movement Monday: power plant rules + March to End Fossil Fuels

August 7, 2023 / Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays! I hope wherever you are, the weather is moderate. I’m grateful for cooler temperatures and some rainfall yesterday in this part of Colorado, although I’d like to share that bounty with other regions not faring so well (for instance, southwest Colorado where my son who is a server keeps dropping his daytime patio shifts because the heat is too much for him). Climate change is accelerating even more rapidly than predicted, but there’s so much we can do right now to avert the worst. In that spirit, today I’m asking for you to personalize a BRIEF LETTER to the EPA and Biden regarding power plant rules. Comments are due tomorrow (August 8) and we need the people’s voices so that the utility companies don’t dominate the conversation.

Image by Peter H from Pixabay

Per 198methods.org: President Biden’s EPA has proposed new rules to limit global warming pollution from power plants, and if done right, they could eliminate up to 90% of global warming pollution from the electric sector!

President Biden promised to cut global warming pollution 50% by 2030, and to eliminate all global warming pollution from the electricity sector by 2035. But because of a prior Supreme Court ruling, the EPA can’t tell utilities what fuel to use (like solar instead of fossil fuels) in order to provide that electricity. So, instead, the draft rules from the EPA focus on how much air pollution, including global warming pollution, that power plants can emit.

The draft rules are a big step in the right direction, requiring 90-100% reductions in emissions. But there are three big loopholes that the EPA needs to fix:

1. The new rules need to start immediately and require full compliance with the rule by 2030, not 2035.

2. The EPA must make sure the rule applies to plants that produce 85-100MW, down from 300MW, so that smaller gas plants are covered.

3. Biden needs to stop supporting false solutions like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage.

Those three key points are already laid out in the comment template, so all you need to do is personalize with a line or two about the air quality or extreme weather you experience. If you want to learn more, Drew from 198methods put together a more detailed explanation & video about this EPA process (which goes back to 2015 and Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” that was one of his major goals for the Paris Climate Agreement.) Spoiler alert: the Supreme Court’s dirty hands are all over this.

Thank you in advance for taking three minutes to submit your comment to the EPA and Biden!
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One last note: I want to put September 17th on your radar. The March to End Fossil Fuels will be held in New York City from 1p – 4pm that day. The march will coincide with the UN Climate Action Summit and is being organized by a coalition of local and national organizations. There’s tons of info here, including links to volunteer (including making phone calls & sending texts) and/or donate in support of the march. The GET INVOLVED page has more info, including “hubs” (both by interest AND region) that you can join. This is a massive and exciting effort that has huge potential to shift climate policy.

Thank you for reading this far! Remember, there’s so much worth fighting for and together we can create a livable future. Solidarity! ✊🏽

Climate Movement Monday: celebrating NY’s Green New Deal

May 15, 2023 / Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

Welcome back to Movement Mondays! The morning after putting up last week’s post, I went camping. But not where intended. We had reservations at Penitente Canyon and Great Sand Dunes National Park, but there were Red Flag Warnings for the area and we didn’t want to risk 50 mph wind gusts and heightened wildfire risk. So we cancelled those reservations and pivoted to Vega State Park where we had a lovely time. Yes, there was some wind and it rained all day Thursday, but we escaped the truly severe weather experienced around the rest of Colorado: tornadoes, 4-inch hailstones, flooding, heavy snows in the Rockies, damaging winds, etc. Unfortunately, Colorado was just one part of the country experiencing extreme weather events (I hope you all remained safe).

This is a climate crisis.

As I searched for today’s blog topic, I became overwhelmed by what’s happening as a result of our addiction to fossil fuels, especially after reading this mother-daughter op-ed “Cancer Alley: Pollution is Making Louisianans Sick” which describes how the ten-year-old girl’s skin is peeling due to pollution along the Gulf Coast. But rather than curling up in the fetal position, I’m taking Zippy’s advice to write about some good news on the climate front: New York passed a publicly funded renewable energy program!

Per independent journalists at The Lever: Last week, New York State took a major step toward realizing publicly-owned 100 percent renewable energy, passing the Build Public Renewables Act in the annual budget. The first-of-its-kind initiative requires the New York Power Authority — the largest state-owned power organization in the country — to provide solely renewable energy by 2030 and transitions all state-owned and municipal properties to renewables by 2035.

Photo by Gabriele Holtermann, AMNY

This victory provides not only a much-needed morale boost, but also provides a road map for winning similar victories around the country. This article from The Nation explains how New York’s Green New Deal was won. Organizing started around a proposed rate hike from private utility company ConEd. The Public Power campaign did research, learning that while ConEd was making $1 billion profit per year, the private utility had threatened to shut off power for 2 million low-income people. ConEd also failed to upgrade the grid which resulted in power outages and blackouts. The Public Power campaign organized around the state, holding town halls in affected areas. The movement grew! And four years later? Victory!

And other good news? As I write this, hundreds of Atlanta citizens have shown up to testify in front of the City Council in opposition to Cop City. As I wrote before, it’s vital we #StopCopCity especially in the face of the escalating climate crisis. It’s a very, very good sign that hundreds have shown up on a Monday to say NO to Cop City.

So while I didn’t include an action this week, I’d still love to hear from you whether it’s to share an action you want me to amplify or to describe extreme/nonextreme weather in your area or to shout-out an environmental victory or to express your feelings after reading the linked articles. Or maybe you have a great camping spot to recommend. 🙂 Whatever it is, I’m here for all of it! Until next Monday, solidarity! ✊🏽

Barnraisers Project

January 19, 2023January 19, 2023 / Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

This is last-minute, but I wanted to share this here. I’ve signed up with Barnraisers Project and thought maybe someone reading this might want to join in.

From their site: “The Barnraisers Project coaches and trains white people to organize their friends, neighbors and colleagues for racial justice and the collective good. We’re nobody’s saviors, but we’re committed to doing our part to help build a better, more just world.”

Registration for the Winter/Spring Cohort closes tomorrow. Click here for information and participant commitments. In summary, there are five 90-minute virtual sessions, beginning the week of January 30th (so, one 90 minute class each on the weeks of January 30th, February 13th, February 27th, March 13th and March 27th).

Image by giografiche from Pixabay

There’s so much going wrong in the world (I just read that North Dakota is considering legislation that would imprison librarians up to 30 days if they don’t remove certain books from their libraries!) and it’s truly an all-hands-on-deck moment. I hope you can join the effort. Solidarity!

Update on yesterday’s STOP the Dirty Deal post

September 27, 2022September 27, 2022 / Tracy Abell / 5 Comments

Happy news, people! The organizing power of 600+ environmental organizations and frontline community groups has won the day. Because of our calls and emails in opposition to the dirty side deal that would have gutted bedrock environmental laws, eliminate public input, and fast-track fossil fuel projects, Senator Joe Manchin asked Senator Schumer to delete the permitting language from the Continuing Resolution (which is the funding to keep government running) that will be voted on this evening.

Why did he do this? Because his dirty deal did NOT have the votes to pass.

People power for the win!!!!!