This system is fucked, politics is failing us, we need a revolution or we really do face rule by ‘the mob’. As we pass through 1.5C of heating to 2C and then the predicted 3C in the lifetime of many alive today, we will lose all we cherish and value. Our treasured landscapes, the rule of law, education, healthcare, pensions – and yes the people we love. We will not be able to feed ourselves and those who rule us do not care. Look at Gaza, this is what they are prepared to let happen. Genocide is now acceptable.
In response, nonviolent civil resistance to a harmful state will continue, with coordinated, radical actions that reach out to new people and capture the attention of the world. Alongside this, a new political project will be set up. This will run local assemblies and will support and stand candidates to shape the electoral debate. A coordinating structure known as Umbrella, will support these projects and this will be the heart of our community of resistance.
Just Stop Oil will continue to be the major focus until we win, but we have a new three part demand: No New Oil, Revoke Tory Licences and Just Stop Oil by 2030. In addition to disrupting high-profile cultural events and continuing our Stop Tory Oil campaign, focussing on MP’s and those in power, this summer Just Stop Oil will commence a campaign of high-level actions at sites of key importance to the fossil fuel industry – airports.
In addition to Just Stop Oil, young people and students will be taking action in a new campaign that will demand an end to genocide – both in Palestine, and globally, from the continued drilling and burning of oil and gas.
Umbrella will launch Assemble, a democracy project that will mobilise hundreds of people by running local assemblies on issues of concern to communities across the country and giving them pathways to action. The goal is to create a “People’s House” to parallel the House of Commons as the first step towards having permanent legally binding citizens assemblies- a democratic revolution.
Umbrella will be the hub for fundraising, mobilisation and directing resources to a range of new campaigns and groups, including Robin Hood, a major new campaign based around a demand to properly fund our public services by taxing the richest in society.
Each of these campaigns will share the values of nonviolence and accountability.
The system is fucked. You know it, everyone knows it. Don’t just sit around and watch everything collapse. Build what comes next: a revolution in politics, economics – our entire way of life.
Displaced Palestinians wait for food at Al-Shaboura camp, in Rafah. Photo: WHO via UN Photo
A new report found that that over 15% of children under the age of 2 in northern Gaza are acutely malnourished, with 3% of them suffering from wasting. The World Food Programme has warned that without a ceasefire, a famine may ravage Gaza by May
Nutrition indicators among children in Gaza have been declining at an unprecedented rate since the beginning of Israeli attacks on October 7, 2023. Without a ceasefire, there will be a famine ravaging through the region by May, warned the World Food Programme (WFP).
In a new report based on data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the Global Nutrition Cluster found that over 15% of children under the age of 2 in northern Gaza are acutely malnourished, with 3% of them suffering from wasting.
The numbers in the southern regions, including Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has been displaced to, are somewhat lower, yet still represent a massive increase compared to the situation before October 7. The report indicates that by January, 5% of under-2-year-olds in Rafah were acutely malnourished. Previously, less than 1% of children younger than 5 experienced such circumstances across the entire Strip.
The extent of malnourishment is creating the perfect conditions for the spread of communicable diseases, which could drive the devastating number of children killed by Israeli attacks even higher. As most children can only consume food of low variety, their bodies become more vulnerable to the effects of otherwise treatable conditions, like diarrhea. Additionally, the lack of clean potable water, affecting all households in Gaza, further decreases the chances of treating these conditions.
Children are not the only group affected by the lack of food. Their parents, including pregnant mothers, are choosing to forgo meals to feed their children. Approximately 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza are not getting enough to eat. If they have access to food, it is of low nutritional value, adding to the pre-existing burden of anemia and undermining maternal health.
The WFP has documented much of this situation but stopped delivering aid to northern Gaza as the occupying forces did not ensure conditions for safe delivery. The aid entering southern regions of Gaza remains only a small fraction of what is needed, and the effects of malnutrition are exacerbated by the destruction of the health infrastructure.
No hospital or health center is spared in this process, and attacks have also been noted against civilian infrastructure where health workers and their families are seeking shelter. In one of the most recent attacks of this kind, the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) targeted a house where 64 Doctors Without Borders (MSF) staff members and their families were staying. The building was clearly marked with an MSF flag, and the IOF were informed of their presence, yet they attacked the house, killing several people inside.
According to MSF, the IOF’s action “shows a complete disregard for human life and a lack of respect for the medical mission. This makes it almost impossible to sustain medical humanitarian activities in Gaza.”
As the IOF persists in its attacks on hospitals, not only the shelling but also the evacuation orders and sieges further jeopardize the health of people who are already sick or wounded. Commenting on recent cases of hospital evacuation in Gaza, Guillemette Thomas from MSF pointed out that patients were forced to leave on foot, in wheelchairs, or even rolled in hospital beds, despite being in no condition to be moved.
Their treatment increases the risk of infection and lowers the chances of recovery, Thomas stated. “This can be extremely dangerous for them. When someone with a severely fractured leg starts to walk, it compromises their possibility to regain mobility and can have life-threatening consequences.”
Even after most patients, medical staff, and forcibly displaced people are evacuated from the hospitals, Israeli forces continue to besiege them. On February 22, after a full month of besieging and targeting Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, the IOF damaged the hospital’s communication devices, which are used by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) for locating and dispatching teams. This is only one in a series of IOF attacks that hit the PRCS, following the kidnapping of several staff members, destroying ambulance vehicles dispatched to rescue children, and raids on Al-Amal, which left behind damaged medical equipment and vehicles.
The situation is far from better in Nasser Hospital. While the WHO and other organizations were finally able to reach the complex to evacuate one part of the patients who had stayed behind following a violent incursion into the buildings by the IOF, over 100 patients who cannot move and about a dozen medical staff providing them care still remain behind.
The UN health agency was granted permission to enter Nasser Hospital only earlier this week, after several attempts were blocked by the Israeli forces. “Prior to the missions, WHO received two consecutive denials to access the hospital for medical assessment, causing delays in urgently needed patient referral. Reportedly, at least five patients died in the Intensive Care Unit before any missions or transfers were possible,” the organization said in a statement.
Upon their return from Nasser, WHO staff said the destruction was indescribable. “Gaza has become a death zone,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Scaling back subsidies would reduce air pollution, generate revenue, and make a major contribution to slowing climate change
Coal loader P4393. Part of the coal loading facility at Kooragang Island, NSW Australia. Image by eyeweed, Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Fossil-fuel subsidies surged to a record $7 trillion last year as governments supported consumers and businesses during the global spike in energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the economic recovery from the pandemic.
As the world struggles to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and parts of Asia, Europe and the United States swelter in extreme heat, subsidies for oil, coal and natural gas are costing the equivalent of 7.1 percent of global gross domestic product. That’s more than governments spend annually on education (4.3 percent of global income) and about two thirds of what they spend on healthcare (10.9 percent).
Our findings come as the World Meteorological Organization says July was the hottest month on record, underscoring the urgent need to curb human-induced climate change.
As the Chart of the Week shows, fossil-fuel subsidies rose by $2 trillion over the past two years as explicit subsidies (undercharging for supply costs) more than doubled to $1.3 trillion. That’s according to our new paper, which provides updated estimates across 170 countries of explicit and implicit subsidies (undercharging for environmental costs and forgone consumption taxes). Download detailed data for different countries and fuels here.
…
If governments removed explicit subsidies and imposed corrective taxes, fuel prices would increase. This would lead firms and households to consider environmental costs when making consumption and investment decisions. The result would be cutting global carbon-dioxide emissions significantly, cleaner air, less lung and heart disease, and more fiscal space for governments.
We estimate that scrapping explicit and implicit fossil-fuel subsidies would prevent 1.6 million premature deaths annually, raise government revenues by $4.4 trillion, and put emissions on track toward reaching global warming targets. It would also redistribute income as fuel subsidies benefit rich households more than poor ones.
…
With global energy prices receding and emissions rising, it’s the right time to phase out explicit and implicit fossil-fuel subsidies, for a healthier and more sustainable planet.
