Community Versus Commodity

Community Versus Commodity

by C.A. Matthews

The more you study a problem, the more facets of it you see.

We come into this world assuming that we’ll be able to breathe. If we’re fortunate, we take that first big gulp of air and let out a long, piercing wail much to the relief of our parents. If we need a little help, we are fortunate someone is there to help us take that first breath, changing our skin tone from bluish to pinkish. The same with water and food. We open our mouths to latch on to a nipple and find liquid nourishment right away, or we will at some point even if we have to spend our early days in an incubator connected to an IV.

Sad to say, these natural instincts are all based on a false assumption. 

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the former chairman and CEO of Nestlé Corporation, the world’s biggest bottler of water, once called the idea that water is a human right "extreme."  People like him see a basic necessity such as water as a commodity. Water, air, food, land—none of these belong to us, to be shared and used for the good of all. These commodities belong only to those who can afford to pay for them—or take them by force from others.

We erroneously assume we have  the “right” to live, grow and thrive. Alas, we do not, particularly if we're unable to purchase these basic necessities under our current system of capitalism. We’ve been told that the right to exist, evolve and flourish can't be extended to other living and growing things such as ecosystems, forests, islands, lakes, rivers and streams, either.

Some brave souls do not agree with this narrow-minded view and have begun to fight back. They're boldly asserting their right to democracy, voicing their opinions and placing citizens' initiatives on the ballot. Unfortunately, the status quo won't take this lying down.

I think of this struggle as "The community versus those who label the basic necessities of life as commodity." Others call it standing up for Rights of Nature.

Stories about communities fighting for their right not to have their clean air, land and water sold off to the highest bidder have made it into the mainstream media recently. Of course, the mainstream media exists for the sole purpose to commoditize things in order to generate profits for their owners. So, it’s no surprise that mainstream reportage tends to be slanted in the direction of, “Look at these eccentric/dangerous/weird people who say they want their water supply/air/land to be clean and free of toxic chemicals. How bizarre/terrorist-like/funny is that?"

But these eccentric/dangerous/weird communities aren’t giving up. They assert they have the right to exist and not be poisoned by outsiders who barge into their community to take resources and pollute it in order to make profits. These communities insist that the local ecosystem also has rights, because one cannot divorce the community from the natural world in which the members of that community live. Perhaps the most dangerous idea is that these communities actually believe they have the right to not to be turned into paupers by those who believe their fat offshore bank accounts matter more than others' rights.

The following story links give examples of communities taking on the uncaring commodity-driven capitalist system. Note how members of these communities are fighting for the very basic necessities of life that we all assume at birth are our rights as human beings—clean, non-toxic air, land and water. They're confronting very powerful forces in both international commerce and government, and risking their health, finances and reputations in the process. 

But what other choice do they have if they wish to survive?

The Second Battle of Lake Erie 

http://www.lakeerieaction.org  
Main page for Toledoans for Safe Water. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights, the first Rights of Nature law passed in the US, is still in the courts. Both Big Ag and Big Oil interests can't do enough to thwart it--with the aid of the State of Ohio. You can read about TSW activities here at the TRC blog by doing a search using the hashtag "LEBOR." The following piece demonstrates who these bold environmental activists are really up against: https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2019/04/revealing-real-out-of-town-extremists.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/environment/great-lakes/ct-lake-erie-climate-change-algae-blooms-20191114-bjkteorf5vg2hfu3cgqxe2ncru-story.html
This piece by the Chicago Tribune on Lake Erie has excellent photography and graphs which explains the science behind the toxic algal blooms.

https://youtu.be/58a5rs319_g 
Ohio organizers speak about their recent experiences to inspire a Florida community fighting to protect its water from toxic algae blooms.

https://www.toledoblade.com/local/environment/2019/11/08/lebor-debate-highlights-great-lakes-water-law-conference/stories/20191108124

"Although two of Toledo’s better-known attorneys expressed sharp differences over the legal merits of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights on Friday, they found common ground on the notion that the controversial document has inspired more people to protect the world’s 11th largest body of fresh surface water."

David Takes On Goliath--and Is Forced to Pay the Frackers $75,000

https://celdf.org/2019/11/media-statement-settlement-announced-with-oil-and-gas-industry-seeking-monetary-award-ban-against-injection-wells-continues/
Settlement Announced with Oil and Gas Seeking Monetary Award:  Ban Against Injection Wells Continue in Grant Township, PA. 

Yes, you read that right. Big Oil forced citizens of a poor rural area of Pennsylvania to pay the frackers off for the right to protect their own drinking water supply from fracking wastes.  They ended up settling out of court because Big Oil demanded over $600,000 at the start of the case. Threatening lawsuits are common tactics used by big corporations to bully communities into submission.

From the "Never Keep a Treaty with an Indigenous People" Files 

It's not only the US government that doesn't recognize the rights of indigenous people to live unmolested on their native soil. The Australian state of Queensland has given Aboriginal lands to a coal mining corporation to mine without any public announcement. The community is not taking this action lying down.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/31/queensland-extinguishes-native-title-over-indigenous-land-to-make-way-for-adani-coalmine?

"The Tomb" (photo by ABC Australia)

Radiation Continues Long After the Cold War on the Marshall Islands

https://www.latimes.com/projects/marshall-islands-nuclear-testing-sea-level-rise/  

This LA Times article features poignant photography and good reporting. You will be shocked at the callousness of the US government's treatment of the Marshallese over the past seven decades. And it's far from over with the coming of rising ocean levels. The islanders will have to fight hard to receive the help they deserve and recompense for their radiated homeland.

https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/59721-climate-change-is-breaking-open-americas-nuclear-tomb

“The Marshall Islands say that plutonium is leaking into the Pacific Ocean from the concrete dome the U.S. built to dispose of nuclear waste.

During the Cold War, the United States nuked the Marshall Islands 67 times. After it finished nuking the islands, the Pentagon dropped biological weapons on the islands. Once the U.S. was finished, it scooped the irradiated and ruined soil from the islands, poured it into a crater left behind from a nuclear detonation, mixed it all with concrete, and covered the whole thing in a concrete dome. They called it “The Tomb.” According to a report from The Los Angeles Times, climate change is breaking that dome open. Rising sea levels and temperatures are cracking open The Tomb, threatening to spill nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean.

The Marshall Islands is a collection of 29 atolls across 1,156 islands. More than 50,000 people live on the islands. From 1946 to 1958, it was a proving ground for America’s nuclear arsenal. On March 1, 1954, the Pentagon conducted Castle Bravo and detonated a 15 megaton thermonuclear warhead over the Bikini Atoll. It was the largest nuclear weapon the U.S. ever detonated. The fallout from the explosion rained down on the people of the Marshall Islands. 

 

“It was only a matter of two or three years before women on the island started to give birth to things less than human,” a Marshall Islands woman told diplomats on a fact finding mission decades later. Birth defects are so common on the islands that the people have a number of words to describe them, among them marlins, devils, jellyfish children, and grape babies.

The U.S. has largely dismissed its responsibility to the Marshall Islands. It relocated many of its people and claims the cost of relocation and installation of The Tomb at the Enewetak Atoll covers its liability. As sea levels and temperatures rise, however, the Tomb is cracking. As it cracks, water rushes over it, leaching out plutonium and dumping it into the sea. 

 

The U.S. has said The Tomb is now the Marshall Islands’ responsibility.”

In each of these instances, the community has been wronged by powerful entities condoned by the government (or in the case of the Marshall Islands harmed by the government directly). This demonstrates how easily democracy is ignored whenever ecosystems are treated as commodities. Worst yet, the rights of the community members to exist and thrive are considered less important than private corporations' profits or the military-industrial complex's insatiable desires.

Communities can't hesitate. They must claim their right to take on all who see their home as a commodity.  After all, what other home do they have?

To understand more what is meant by "Rights of Nature," watch the following excellent TEDx talk. https://youtu.be/nItsO4vKb2Q

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Tell Congress: "We need Medicare for All NOW. By taking the extremely efficient administration of traditional Medicare, and improving it by eliminating copays and deductibles, and adding dental, vision, and long-term care insurance, we can build a health care system that doesn’t drive people into bankruptcy when they get sick." ADD YOUR NAME

As momentum has built for a Medicare for All system in America, so have the attacks. Now, a new report shows where these attacks are coming from: Investor-owned, for profit hospitals.¹

It’s no surprise that investor-owned hospitals are afraid of Medicare for All. Every plan is designed to lower the outrageous profit-seeking billing practices that have made American health care the most expensive in the world. 

Here’s the truth: If your business model is based on denying care, or overcharging sick people for lifesaving services and medicine, you won’t like Medicare for All.
 
But if you’re like most people, who want high quality care without going bankrupt, Medicare for All is going to be a godsend. By taking the extremely efficient administration of traditional Medicare, and improving it by eliminating copays and deductibles, and adding dental, vision, and long-term care insurance, we can build a health care system that doesn’t drive people into bankruptcy when they get sick. 

ADD YOUR NAME: It’s time for Medicare for All, now!
Thanks,
Medicare for All NOW Team 

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From Fight for the Future:

We're now less than a year away from one of the most important elections of our lives, and you'll never guess who is running the digital election infrastructure for states across the country.
Amazon.
 
Amazon software will provide live election-night results.¹ Amazon will maintain voter-registration data and voter lists. Even the federal agency in charge of enforcing election laws is using Amazon products.
Amazon has an awful track record on data security and civil liberties. We simply can't trust them to run our elections as well.
 
Will you donate to help launch our urgent campaign to demand that Congress investigate Amazon?


There are so many reasons why it's a bad idea to let Amazon run our elections: 

1. Amazon has a terrible track record for respecting privacy. Amazon's Alexa has been caught listening to our conversations and collecting data on us. 

Amazon Ring is partnering with local police departments to build a nationwide digital dragnet. Their racially biased facial-recognition technology threatens to create a 24-hour, 50-state, automated system of racial profiling. Can you imagine what they might do with a gold mine of data about our political views? 

2. Amazon is actively working to elect more pro-Amazon candidates. Last month, Amazon dumped $1.5 million into municipal elections in Seattle. In 2018, Amazon spent $13 million on campaign contributions to influence the outcome of the midterm elections. Now, at the same time that they are actively trying to influence the outcome of elections, they want us to trust them to run the election itself. 

3. Amazon is vulnerable to hackers. One of the reasons U.S. elections are hard to hack is because they are so decentralized, with each city and state running their own election process. Centralizing voter data and election results in one system means that hackers could upend our entire democracy by cracking into that single system. Capital One's database stored on Amazon's cloud service was hacked by a former Amazon employee, and voter information stored on Amazon's cloud has been repeatedly compromised.²
 
Amazon is already a threat to our economy, our homes, and our civil rights. We can't let them threaten our elections as well. 

Will you donate to help call on Congress to investigate Amazon before it's too late?
 
We will not be co-opted into the United States of Amazon. Give what you can to stop Amazon's interference in our democracy. 

Together,
Ayele at Fight for the Future

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Footnotes:
1. Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-elections-amazon-com-insight/how-amazon-com-moved-into-the-business-of-u-s-elections-idUSKBN1WU173
2. Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-elections-amazon-com-insight/how-amazon-com-moved-into-the-business-of-u-s-elections-idUSKBN1WU173

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From the Coalition for Human Needs:

Trump’s attack on LGBTQ+ community rights is now threatening to deprive children in need of a loving home. A proposed rule would remove language protecting LGBTQ+ people and others from discrimination in foster care and adoption programs funded by grants from the Department of Health and Human Services. 

That means foster care and adoption agencies could continue getting taxpayer funding even if they exclude LGBTQ+ families and others from their services based on religious beliefs. This would block children from access to qualified, loving homes. 

And this won’t only hurt the more than 400,000 children in the US foster care system. According to the ACLU, Meals on Wheels and other HHS-funded community meal programs designed to support older adults could refuse to deliver food to older Americans who are Jewish, Muslim, or LGBTQ+. Additionally, Head Start grant recipients and other federally funded child care facilities could refuse to serve transgender youth and children with LGBTQ+ parents. 

This is an attack not only on the LGBTQ+ community, but on human needs. So join the Coalition on Human Needs and our partners to demand Congress block Trump’s anti-LGBTQ+ HHS rule. 

Sign the petition: Trump’s LGBTQ+ discrimination is costing foster children safe homes

 

The Attack of the Corporate-Owned Government!

The Attack of the Corporate-Owned Government! by Coast Watcher It's more horrific than a 1950s monster movie. Due process is supposed to protect citizens from the arbitrary imposition of laws upon their lives. It provides a clear set of guidelines by which government is supposed to operate—but what happens when government chooses to ignore due process, or change the laws so it doesn’t operate any more? There was a referendum in the English counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire on the subject of fracking, and it passed by a decisive 99.2% vote against allowing fracking in their counties. However, the British government chose to ignore the result and allow fracking to go ahead anyway. Another example is the Lake Erie Bill of Rights, introduced in Toledo, Ohio. After years of campaigning the initiative finally got on a special ballot and was passed by a sizable majority. Someone in the Ohio Chamber of Commerce made a phone call to a friend in the state legislature, who wrote a clause into an unrelated bill effectively banning citizens from suing on behalf of nature. Thousands of voters’ opinions were overturned by the action of just two men.     In Pennsylvania, the state "Department of Environmental Protection" is suing Grant Township for voting in a Community Water Protection Law to protect their people from the danger of hazardous fracking wastes. Yes, the state is suing its own citizens for the "crime" of trying to protect their environment against the moneyed-interests of the fracking industry. Again, in the UK the ongoing Extinction Rebellion movement has caused the already beleaguered government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson more headaches than he can handle—so it arbitrarily banned all Extinction Rebellion protests throughout London. In Washington, DC, Extinction Rebellion protesters have been arrested and held without charge for hours, sometimes days. As if this weren’t bad enough, bystanders including journalists have also been arrested and jailed just for being in the area. The British government also has a lot to answer for over its treatment of Julian Assange. Assange is being held in prison awaiting extradition to the United States on trumped-up espionage charges. The conditions of his imprisonment are onerous and debilitating, all of which violates the UK Human Rights Act and various laws governing the treatment of inmates in UK jails. In France the Gillet Jaune or Yellow Vests protests have drawn the ire of French President Macron. The police are firing baton rounds and tear gas directly into crowds of protesters, causing serious injuries. So, governments across the Western world are turning against their citizens. This oppression is driven by Big Business working behind the scenes to control bought and paid for politicians. Even the case of Assange’s imprisonment is down to Capitalism punishing those who dare to expose the failings of its system and those same politicians who are but puppets in the great goal of making the billionaires even more money.  But people across the world are gathering their forces and pushing back against oppression. Concessions are being won by grim determination, persistence and resourcefulness. Hopefully, for the sake of democracy and the environment, it won’t be too late to overthrow the oligarchy and restore the true government of the people instead of the rich. This Halloween, the men in the rubber monster suits aren't the ones to be afraid of--it's the rich men in suits and ties. BIO: Coast Watcher is keeping track of all the times the oligarchs have taken away our democratic right to due process. If the three strikes rule ever applied to these criminals, they'd be spending the rest of their lives in jail. Don't let them ever forget it, either!  *** The following is an excellent comment that was made on Facebook recently by a frequent blog guest. I just had to share it with a wider audience. We get  caught up at times with what all is "wrong" that we forget what all is "right." Are you connecting with others and seeing the good in them and the world-at-large? Why or why not? Listen to what Sean has to say. Connecting by Sean Nestor Many people I know actively celebrate and promote a culture of isolation and misanthropy. Count me out. I want to be more connected with people, not less.  I think the solution to toxic social structures lies in the work (and I mean work) of developing healthier social structures, not the indulgence of our society's inclination toward abandonment and alienation. The reality is that we will always depend on each other to survive and to thrive and pretending otherwise is a vain and delusional fantasy. I dread a future made up of a bunch of unhappy, atomized people wailing at each other from behind digital appliances, rarely stopping to break bread and bond with each other over the sharing of their life experiences. I want a future of strong families, strong neighborhoods, and strong communities -- a future where the vulnerable among us are supported and cared for and where nobody who is different fears for their safety. We can all cite countless atrocities committed by human beings against one another and against other life on this planet. But I really believe all of that is eclipsed by the volume of honest decent people who commit acts of love and justice every day. We don't pay as much attention to them -- but they are out there, and they deserve to be seen. I know lots of them, and I bet you do, too. People are beautiful, if you take the time to see them. Humanity is redeemable. Don't give up the ship. Fight for something better. BIO: Sean Nestor is an activist who has worked on many social justice and environmental issues, including the passing of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights. ***

In case you missed it: there’s a bird emergency

Last week, Audubon released its new, groundbreaking report, Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink, the most detailed look at the impact of climate change on birds using the latest climate models and bird data available. Here’s what people are saying about our science: “[The report] illustrates how thoroughly the avian world as we know it may be remapped if humans continue pumping greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.” - The New York Times "The existential threat to birds also impacts humanity. As canaries warned coalminers of invisible death in the industrial era, now birds of every shape and size can be life-or-death alerts in the age of global warming.” - CNN “There may still be hope in bird conservation, and in the broader climate crisis, but only if urgent, difficult actions are taken to address rising greenhouse gas emissions.” - TIME Yes, the news is troubling, but the call to action is clear: We must act now to protect the birds we love from climate change. See for yourself. Explore the report and learn what climate change will mean for the birds in your community and exactly what you can do to stop it.

Read the Report

Amazon is more than a store. Amazon Web Services provides data storage for roughly 40% of the internet (including Netflix, Slack, Pinterest, and even the site that hosts this petition!), and it takes a LOT of energy to power.Competitors like Apple and Google have set up data centers with 100% renewable energy, but Amazon still sucks down fossil fuels.

The coming climate catastrophe is going to require action from all of us―even the world’s richest man.

TELL JEFF BEZOS: Get Amazon’s data centers off fossil fuels!   

Jeff Bezos says the changing climate is the reason he’s investing so heavily in space travel. But he can make a much bigger impact by protecting the planet we already have―putting his money into renewables!

Thanks,
John Sellers
Other 98%

Tell Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon and Amazon Web Services: "Take constructive action to address climate change. Given the dire global implications, I believe it is urgent that every corporation do all it can to measure and reduce its carbon footprint." ADD YOUR NAME

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From March for Our Lives

Have you read our Peace Plan yet? Let's start with some background. During the September 12th debate, Congressman Beto O'Rourke expressed his support of mandatory buy-backs. Other candidates started to comment on the issue -- and it became a major topic during Tuesday’s debate.  To be clear, we fully support a mandatory buy-back program. There are an estimated 256-393 million civilian-owned firearms in the United States, which means there are more guns than people in this country. As we lay out in our Peace Plan, a federal mandatory buy-back of assault weapons and an optional, but encouraged, buy-back program for other firearms would save lives. Australia's national buy-back program was associated with as much as a 57% reduction in firearms deaths.

Show your support for a national buy-backs program by signing onto our Peace Plan

That being said, boiling down the gun violence epidemic to a debate on one policy point misses the big picture. Although these solo plans would definitely help, we need a comprehensive plan. We need candidates around the country, from city hall to Capitol Hill, to introduce audacious, bold, and comprehensive plans as big as the problem they're trying to solve (or endorse ours). We need candidates who are unafraid to take on the NRA in their words *AND* their actions. We need candidates to step up and tell us their specific policies and plans to cut gun deaths by 50% in ten years, like our Peace Plan does. Or tell us how their proposed legislation and programs will end the epidemic altogether.

Share the Peace Plan with your favorite candidates and ask them about their plans to end gun violence

The time for flowery metaphors and vague promises is over. The time to end gun violence is now.

Let's do this,
March For Our Lives

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 From Friends of the Earth:

This summer, the Amazon was burning. Hurricanes ravaged the east coast. Californians experienced days without power as a way to prevent the next major fire. These extreme weather events show that climate change is already here.

But on August 29th, Trump’s EPA decided to roll back regulations on methane -- one of the most dangerous greenhouse gases that’s driving the climate crisis.

The good news: These disastrous rollbacks aren’t finalized. If engaged environmentalists like you show a groundswell of opposition to this plan, the EPA will have to change course. But we must act fast! 

Take action now: Demand the EPA uphold strong methane protections!

How dangerous is methane? It’s a significant driver of climate change that is 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. And it’s a threat to local communities and the air we breathe. But for the third time, Trump’s EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler is trying to gut methane regulations.

Methane pollution standards are basic safeguards that help keep our planet livable. Even Shell Oil and other industry producers think they’re common sense. Regardless, Donald Trump and Wheeler are trying to create loopholes to benefit their polluter friends at the expense of our climate by recklessly rolling back these protections. The proposed rollbacks would save the oil and gas industry between $17 million to $19 million a year.

If we’re serious about addressing climate change, we need to significantly cut methane from the oil and gas industry -- it’s one of the leading sources of this pollution. This rollback is the latest part of a scheme by Wheeler and Trump to do the opposite. Together, we can ensure the EPA protects our health and the environment, not Big Oil profits. 

Tell the EPA to protect people and our planet, not Big Oil industry profits.

Make no mistake: This is a blatant attempt to create loopholes that hinder federal oversight on the oil and gas industry. And fossil fuel executives will surely reap the profits of climate pollution for years to come. 

Maintaining strong methane pollution safeguards is crucial to protecting our communities as sea levels rise and extreme weather events become more common. Rather than selling our children and families out to the worst actors in the oil and gas industry, the EPA should be focused on enacting and strengthening regulations like the Methane Rule to fight the worsening impacts of the climate crisis. 

With your help, C.A., we’ve fought back Trump’s plans to slash our bedrock environmental protections before. But we need your help again to fight Trump’s latest giveaway to Big Oil polluters.

Help send 30,000 comments: Tell Wheeler and Trump that our climate must come before corporate polluters!

Standing with you,
Nicole Ghio,
Senior fossil fuel program manager,
Friends of the Earth