The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has urged members to support student climate strikers on 20 September as Amnesty International called on head teachers worldwide to back their global protests. At the their annual conference in Brighton, a proposal by the University and College Union (UCU) originally asked the TUC to call for millions of workers to stop work for half an hour, aimed at shifting government complacency over the climate crisis. However, an amendment put forward by the rail union Aslef means the TUC will call for “workday campaign action” instead. The UCU is urging workers to join the action alongside students at lunchtimes and before and after work, and to ask employers to jointly declare a climate emergency with staff unions and student unions.
Guardian 10th Sept 2019 read more »
Extinction Rebellion has blocked the entrance to the UK’s only active fracking site in a demonstration against what it called the “burgeoning catastrophe” of global warming. Protesters from the environmental group gathered outside the shale gas site on Preston New Road, near Blackpool, on Tuesday morning alongside a yellow boat bearing the words: “Planet before profit”. The energy firm Cuadrilla said its operations were not affected by the protest. The action comes 15 days after the UK’s biggest fracking-related earthquake to date was triggered at the site, causing houses to shake for miles around. A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said its latest action was to highlight “the conscious, cynical inaction of the government in response to a climate and ecological emergency”.
Guardian 10th Sept 2019 read more »