Updates from South Africa & Australia • ITF Calls for
"Massive Expansion of Public Transport" •
Frontline Communities at the Global Climate Action Summit
• Next System Project Sees "Public Power as a Vehicle
Towards Energy Democracy" • Canada's NUPGE Joins
TUED
Struggles around energy are proliferating globally. Working people,
trade unions, communities and even some elected governments
increasingly understand that the impacts of decisions about energy
affect us all, and that there is an urgent need for bold, informed
action to reclaim democratic control of energy resources,
infrastructure and options.
In this TUED Bulletin, we highlight several recent developments that
show a bit of the range of things that are happening:
- South Africa: Unions,
Allies Prepare for Power Struggle
- Australia: National
Union of Workers Launches “Cooperative Power”
- Australia: Queensland
Labor Government Announces New Public Renewable Energy Company:
“CleanCo”
- Transport: ITF Calls
for “Massively Expanding Public Transport Now”
- Frontline
Communities: “It Takes Roots: Solutions to Solidarity” (Sol2Sol)
Week
- Next System Project
Issues Bold Call for Public Ownership of Energy
- Canadian Public
Sector Union NUPGE Joins TUED
South Africa: Unions, Allies Prepare for
Power Struggle
 TUED
Coordinator Sean Sweeney recently participated the international
conference on “The Role of Public Utilities in Transforming the
Energy Sector,” a jointly convened by the Alternative
Information and Development Center, (AIDC), Transnational
Institute (TNI) and TUED. The meeting took place in
Johannesburg, September 3-5, 2018.
The 40-person gathering included key unions including the National
Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), the National Union of
Mineworkers (NUM) and the new federation, South African Federation of
Trade Unions (SAFTU), led by Zwelinzima Vavi.
Discussions were animated by the fact that struggles around energy in
South Africa have grown in intensity in recent months. The
coal-dependent public power utility, Eskom, is engaged in a
high-stakes and high-profile public battle with private renewable
energy interests, including “Independent Power Producers” (IPPs). In
its efforts to address ongoing capacity-balancing and financing
challenges, Eskom has threatened to close coal-fired power stations,
leaving tens of thousands of union members without employment.
NUMSA and SAFTU have formulated a clear and strong response, calling
for the radical restructuring of Eskom, and social ownership of the
renewables sector. That approach was reaffirmed earlier this year in
an OpEd
authored by NUMSA’s Deputy General Secretary Karl Cloete and
published by South Africa’s Daily Maverick. Making reference to TUED,
Cloete explained the union’s firm opposition to “capitalist capture
of renewable energy,” and its support for a “socially owned and
democratic alternative.” The piece takes forward a position NUMSA has
been advocating
since at least 2011, and which was also described in TUED
Bulletin #66: Should Unions Strike for a Just Transition?
More information on the conference, including the full program and
video recordings of key sessions, is available here.
In the coming months TUED will be working with TNI and AIDC in
developing a clear energy vision for South Africa that is consistent
with NUMSA’s and SAFTU’s programmatic commitments.
Australia: National Union of Workers
Launches “Cooperative Power”
 In
Australia, trade unions and allies recently launched Cooperative
Power, a new, democratically structured energy retailer,
in an effort to help build an energy system that is clean,
sustainable, affordable and democratic. The initiative aims to “take
the power back from huge energy corporations for the benefit of
people and our planet.”
Cooperative Power is structured as an “enterprise cooperative,”
bringing together trade unions, community groups, NGOs, and other
cooperatives to democratize decision-making over how electric power
is generated for its members, and how much it costs. Founding members
include:
Profits that
accrue from sales will be used to empower workers and their
communities throughout Australia to establish similar worker- and
community-owned renewable energy generation efforts, and to support
wider efforts for climate justice—including the work of Union Aid
Abroad-APHEDA and NUW, both valued participants in TUED.
In its initial phase, Cooperative Power will offer services to
members in South-East Queensland and New South Wales. The new
retailer’s services will be available to the rank-and-file members of
its participating associations—currently 75,000 rank-and-file members
across its participating organizations. In the coming weeks, the
project anticipates being able to announce expansion of its service
area into South Australia and Victoria.
Read more about the project here.
Australia: Queensland
Labor Government Announces New Public Renewable Energy Company:
“CleanCo”
 Also
in Australia, the Queensland Labor Government led by Premier
Annastacia Palaszczuk has launched
its own new publicly owned, renewable energy power generation
company, called CleanCo. The new company, wholly owned by the
provincial government, is expected to add downward pressure on retail
electricity prices, and is projected to save households roughly AU$70
(~US$50) each year.
At the launch, the provincial premier said, "We have already
made great progress on keeping power prices low, due in large part to
our commitment to keep our assets in public hands. CleanCo will go
even further to help deliver cheaper and more reliable energy for all
Queenslanders - from mum and dad consumers right up to large
industrial users.”
The company will have “a strategic portfolio of low and no emission
power generation assets, and will build, construct, own and maintain
renewable energy generation,” according to Deputy Premier Jackie
Trad. “This will continue supporting jobs in our renewable energy
industry, starting with 1000MW of new renewables like solar, wind and
hydro.”
The company will be Queensland's third government-owned energy
generator. The provincial government is putting AU$250 million
(US$180 million) into new, publicly owned, renewable energy
generation assets for the company, which is expected to be
operational and trading on the country’s national electricity market
by mid-2019.
In support of the project, the provincial government will also
establish a “Just Transition Group” to “ensure that the energy
transition in Queensland was just and equitable for affected workers
and communities.” An Advisory Committee will also be established to
help develop a “Just Transition Policy Framework,” with participation
from the province’s publicly owned energy companies, relevant unions,
stakeholder groups, Jobs Queensland, the Department of Natural
Resources, Mines and Energy, Queensland Treasury and the Office of
Industrial Relations.
Read more about the launch here.
“It Takes Roots:
Solutions to Solidarity” (Sol2Sol) Week
TUED’s
Outreach Coordinator, Irene HongPing Shen, participated in the It Takes
Roots Alliance “Solutions to Solidarity” (Sol2Sol) Week,
held September 8-14, in San Francisco, California. Activities ranged
from workshops on community-based issues and solutions  related to
climate change, to protests demanding an end to false market-based
solutions to climate change.
The week was organized in response to California Governor Jerry
Brown’s Global
Climate Action Summit (GCAS), which took place September
12-14, 2018. GCAS brought together Mayor’s from around the world, big
NGOs, US labor leaders and multinational corporations with the goal
of building a stronger “green growth” plan to challenge Trump’s
pulling out of the Paris Agreement and his climate change denialism.
The week was kicked off by a march on September 8th where
approximately 30,000 marchers gathered. Martha Hawthorne of SEIU
Local 1021, a TUED union, played a major role in coordinating the
labor contingent and helped bring together 700 union members marching
for better climate solutions.
The Energy
Democracy National Tour hosted an event at Sol2Sol with organizations
which had events on their tour, of which TUED was one, along with
other U.S. based organizations working on local community energy
democracy solutions. Together, we discussed our respective work
and explored topics, including the possibility of two-pronged
solutions of nationalization of the energy sector and local ownership
of energy grids, a joint effort toward addressing oppression and
democratized control of energy.
 On September
12, the University of California Berkeley Labor Center hosted a Labor
Conference. TUED unions NUMSA and the International
Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) presented and spoke on public
ownership. Sharon Modiba, Senior Researcher at NUMSA, explained
that socially owned power is a necessary measure to advance agendas
of the working class, to have continued uninterrupted work, and to
effectively transition into and control a new renewable energy
sector.
Alana Dave, Education Officer of ITF, explained how ITF’s Our
Public Transport campaign challenges the current model of
public transport to address climate goals, increase accessibility of
public transport to millions of workers (many whom are informal), and
reclaims the meaning of “public,” to emphasize that this doesn’t need
merely to refer to public services, but that values and helps advance
a broad, pro-public agenda. (See also the following item on ITF’s
announced support for a massive expansion of public transport.)
Transport: ITF Calls for “Massively
Expanding Public Transport Now”
 At an
event during the San Francisco Global Climate Action Summit
(described above), the International Transport Worker’s Federation
(ITF) announced
its support for a declaration to create zero-emissions
cities by 2030.
According to the ITF’s General Secretary Stephen Cotton, “The ITF and
its affiliates are ready to support the declaration in real and
tangible ways. We recognise that if we act now and act together,
dangerous climate change can be averted. That’s why the ITF is here
at GCAS making the case for massively expanding public transport
now.”
The ITF is a global union federation representing over 20 million
transport workers in 145 countries. The announcement was made in the
context of the Global Climate Action Summit, in San Francisco, USA.
The statement is in support of the Green and
Healthy Streets Declaration by the C40 cities, which was
announced in Paris in October 2017.
In its statement
the ITF and its affiliates commit to supporting the Declaration by:
- Working in
partnerships with mayors and cities to ensure that the
transition to fossil-fuel-free streets is a just transition that
creates decent jobs, reduces inequality, and drives inclusion
and improvements in the lives of working class and low-income
people.
- Building partnerships
with mayors and city authorities to develop and integrate just
transition plans that drive decent work and social action,
including labour impact assessments, safeguards and job targets
for men and women workers.
- Mobilising workers
knowledge and skills to shape and enhance the supportive actions
needed to meet the commitments in the Declaration.
- Working in
partnerships with mayors and city authorities to deliver a just
transition to zero emission buses, including developing plans
for relevant worker training.
Read the
full statement here.
Next
System Project Issues Bold Call for Public Ownership of Energy
 The U.S.-based Next
System Project—an initiative of The
Democracy Collaborative—has published a bold analysis, “Public
Ownership for Energy Democracy,” making the case for
urgently reclaiming energy systems to public ownership, and
restructuring them for democratic control. Drawing on the experience
and expertise of a broad group of researchers, theorists and
activists, the project is working to “promote visions, models and
pathways that point to a ‘next system’ radically different in
fundamental ways from the failed systems of the past and present and
capable of delivering superior social, economic and ecological
outcomes.”
In the piece—published in early September as part of a series of
papers aimed at “taking climate action to the next
level”—author Johanna Bozuwa writes:
"Energy
democracy… seeks to take on the political and economic change needed
to tackle the energy transition holistically. A democratic energy
system powered by renewables (and free of fossil fuels) would
distribute wealth, power, and decision-making equitably….
"Public
ownership of utilities can accelerate the renewable energy transition
at the scale needed to meet our closing climate deadline for action.
It’s simply too late to provide piecemeal incentives and then wait
expectantly for a market controlled by fossil fuel interests to
voluntarily deploy more renewables. Energy utilities’ control over so
much of the energy supply chain make these entities a strategic
platform for bringing energy democracy tactics to scale. Harnessing
energy utilities for the people could fuel projects from expansive
low-income housing efficiency projects (such as PUSH Buffalo),2 to
community solar programs (such as the solar gardens of Cooperative
Energy Futures in Minnesota),3 to stopping gas pipelines (such as the
resistance to Dominion Power’s Mountain Valley Pipeline in
Virginia)."
Read the full piece here.
National Union of
Public and General Employees (NUPGE) Joins TUED
 TUED is pleased to welcome Canada's National
Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) as the
latest participating union. NUPGE represents some 390,000 members,
mostly in the provincial public service sector.
On presenting the union’s decision to join, Larry Brown, President of
NUPGE, said:
"Our
members live in a world being damaged by climate change, and our
members are on the front lines in dealing with the effects of climate
change. Our members fight the forest fires, provide Emergency
Medical Services when floods and fires happen, provide healthcare to
the wounded, provide resources to those driven from their homes and
communities. We are the collective arm of the state, in
operation on the ground where it matters.
"We have
joined TUED because we agree with the slogan, “Solidarity for
Survival.” We agree that trade unions, organizations of working
people, must lead the way. And we agree that democratic control
over energy, turning control over energy and its uses to the public,
is crucial to our future.
"We are
thrilled to join with thoughtful and dedicated trade unionists around
the world to fight for a better, safer world."
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