Low-paid porters at Gatwick stay solid

By Mick Duncan

About 70 porters at the second biggest airport in the UK staged a solid two-day strike over Christmas. Action is now on hold while uncertainty rains over who will be holding the contract beyond the next few weeks.

WCA engages with Grimshaw workers

Grimshaw Architects is the prestigious architecture firm who brought you Waterloo’s Eurostar Terminal and the Eden Project. However, Grimshaw also has a long history with BAA and is now designing the Third Runway at Heathrow. Grimshaw also has other BAA contracts on the go, which are rapidly undermining the company’s green credentials.

Class struggle, trade unions and rank-and-file organising: a briefing for activists

By Stuart Jordan

Workers’ Climate Action seeks to build a working-class movement to fight for a “just transition” to an ecologically sustainable society. We see the rule of the boss in the workplace as the key obstacle to building this society.

Under capitalism, the majority of people are excluded from economic decision-making. At best, through fighting trade unionism, workers have managed to secure some partial victories over how things are produced (in terms of health and safety regulations, shorter working week etc.). But we are very far from making mass democratic decisions about what we produce and having complete control over how we produce it.

BWTUC nuclear power debate

Nadine Houghton, organiser for Battersea & Wandsworth Trade Union Council and supporter of WCA reports on a recent debate on nuclear power, organised by BWTUC’s Red/Green Alliance.

Sheffield WCA meeting, Monday 8 February: solidarity with bus workers’ struggles!

For WCA, “green jobs” does not just mean jobs in renewable energy or other “green” industries. It means any job organised on the basis of putting human and environmental needs before the needs of profit; all jobs should become “green jobs”. Public transport is one sector which working-class environmental campaigners advocate is massively expanded; a key part of that is making solidarity with the current struggles of transport workers.

Challenging Vestas at home

Daniel Rawnsley, a WCA activist centrally involved in the Vestas campaign over the summer, reports from the recent climate protests in Copenhagen.

Workers Climate Action activists at the Copenhagen climate summit (7-18 December) marched in to the entrance hall of the 18th-century Odd Fellow palace, where the multinational wind turbine manufacturer Vestas was holding a drinks party, with banners and a megaphone. We remained there for around half an hour, chanting slogans and handing out leaflets to partygoers.

WCA bulletin for Copenhagen

Several Workers’ Climate Action supporters are currently in Denmark, making trouble for capitalist politicians and bosses (including Vestas bosses) through actions like this.

Read on for the text of a bulletin distributed at the actions in Copenhagen, and throughout Denmark, by WCA supporters.

Job Cuts in the Arms Industry – Workers organise for socially useful production!

As we were preparing for today’s eviction of our campaign centre for green job creation, we heard about BAE’s announcement that it intends to lay off another 642 workers across the country, including 125 from the 385 at Cowes: that’s 2,300 announced job losses this year. And, of course, a further unacceptable cull to the numbers of skilled, unionised, and relatively well-paid jobs on the island. It has been leaked to us that this number will rise to 250.

Where next for Climate Camp? A contribution

Read a new contribution to the debate ‘Where next for Climate Camp?’ here.

WCA Conference

ON 10-11 OCTOBER activists gathered at University College London to discuss the politics and direction of Workers’ Climate Action. Some had been involved in the network since the beginning, but many were new to WCA.