Climate Change | Social Change

A conference to strengthen radical social action to stop climate change
April 11-13, 2008, Sydney, Australia
Redfern Community Centre,
29 Hugo St, Redfern, day sessions Friday April 11
Sydney Girls High School,
Anzac Pde, Surry Hills, Friday night, April 11 ­ Sunday April 13


AGENDA


Friday April 11 Redfern Community Centre
10­10.30am Registration

10.30­12 noon

Major workshop:

• Indigenous communities, climate change and thestruggle for country --

• Sam Watson, Biri Gubba, Munnejarl man from the Brisbane Murri community; activist since high school
  

• Pat Eatock, Kairie community elder, Aboriginal Rights Coalition, Sydney, secretary NationalAboriginal Alliance
  

12noon ­ 1pm Lunch

1­ 2.30pm
Major workshop

• Nuclear is still not the answer

Jim Green, Friends of the Earth anti-nuclear campaigner
Wenny Theresia, Australian Student Environment Network
Genevieve Kelly, anti-Lucas Heights reactor campaigner, lecturer University of Western Sydney

2.45­4.15pm
Concurrent workshops

• Chiapas media project, Alexandra Halkin
• Elite co-option of the environment movement, Mike Barker ­ doctoral candidate, Australian School of Environmental Studies
• Griffith UniversityCamp for Climate Action, Wenny Theresia
  

Sydney Girls High School

6 for 6.30pm:
Public meeting:

• Climate change and its social roots

John Bellamy Foster, editor of Monthly Review; author of Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature
Patrick Bond, University of KwaZulu-Natal; editor of Climate Change, Carbon Trading and Civil Society
David Spratt, Carbon Equity, co-author Climate Code Red
James Goodman, social researcher, University of Technology in Sydney

Saturday April 12 Sydney Girls High School
8.30­9.15am Registration
9.15am
Welcome to country & conference opening
9.30­11am
Plenary

• Climate change solutions: what role for the market?

Patrick Bond
Sylvia Hale, Greens NSW MLC
Stuart Rosewarne, co-editor Journal of Australian Political Economy and Capitalism, Nature, Socialism
Renfrey Clarke, Green Left Weekly

11.15am ­ 12.45 pm
Major workshop

• The Cuban experience: the challenge of fossil fuels and climate change

Roberto Perez, Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and
Humanity, Cuban NGO

Concurrent workshops

• Equity in energy consumption: Getting the prices right for people and the environment, Patrick Bond Critical anthropology of global warming, Hans Baer ­ Anthropology lecturer, Melbourne University

• On the precipice: why climate is an emergency, David Spratt

• Protecting jobs and the environment, Tim Gooden ­ Secretary Geelong Trades and Labour Council; Ben Courtice ­ AMWU Victorian branch environment activist; Cam Walker ­ Friends of the Earth Melbourne; Steve Phillips ­ Rising Tide; Chris Cain ­ Maritime Union of Australia (tbc)

12.45­1.45 pm Lunch
1.45­3.15 pm
Plenary

• Ecology, capitalism and socialism --John Bellamy Foster
  

3.30 ­ 5pm
Major workshop

• Power privatization and the environment

Matt Thistlethwaite, Unions NSW deputy assistant secretary John Kaye, Greens NSW MLC
Dick Nichols, author Environment, Capitalism, Socialism, Socialist Alliance national coordinator

Concurrent workshops

• Marxism and the environment, John Bellamy Foster
• Are liveable cities just a dream? Dave Holmes, Green Left Weekly and managing editor Resistance Books; Peter Droege ­ professor, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, University of Newcastle, author, Urban Energy Transition: from fossil fuels to renewable power Climate change and the global South ­ beyond Third Worldism, James Goodman, IanMacGregor, University of Technology, Sydney
  
• Biomass, biofuels and meat production: shifting to sustainable, low emission agriculture, Zane Alcorn and Trent Hawkins ­ Resistance; Katrina Byrne ­ Animal Liberation
  

6pm
Conference dinner

• Roberto Perez: Cuba ­ from economic collapse to sustainability

Roberto is a Cuban biologist and permaculturalist, Antonio Núñez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity, Cuban NGO

Sunday April 13 Sydney Girls High School

9­10.30 am
Plenary

• Transitions to sustainability

Mark Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, University of NSW
Adrian Whitehead, Zero Emission Network
Stephanie Long, Friends of the Earth Australia's international climate justice spokesperson
Roberto Perez

10.30­10.45 am
Conference Greetings

Minister Counsellor Nelson Dávila Lameda,
Venezuelan Chargé d'Affaires in Australia

10.45am ­ 12.15pm
Major workshop

• Sustainable energy solutions

Mark Diesendorf

Concurrent workshops

• Why we must ration the future, Damien Lawson
• Climate refugees, adaptation issues in the global south, Stephanie Long
• Individual and collective solutions: getting the balance right, Terry Townsend ­ Democratic
• Socialist Perspective and editor of Links; Lauren Carroll-Harris ­ Resistance
• Cutting emissions, ditching coal, Graham Brown ­ former coal miner; Angela Nagle ­ RisingTide
• Food security, eating oil and the future of agriculture: permaculture solutions, Robyn Francis­ international permaculture design and sustainability consultant, educator and facilitator
  

12.15­1.15 pm Lunch
1.15­ 2.45pm
Major workshop:

• Radicalising the Australian climate change movement
  

Simon Cunich, Resistance
Vanessa Bowden, Climate camp
Mel Barnes, Students Against the Pulp Mill
Ben Courtice, World Environment Day, Melbourne

Concurrent workshops

• Adelaide ecosocialist network, John Rice
• Securing water in a warmer Australia, Renfrey Clark ­ Green Left Weekly
• Drought-resistant plants and fart-free pastures: can GM crops save us? Adam Breasley ­former researcher, Australian Gene Ethics Network; Frances Murrell ­ Mothers Against Genetic Engineering (MAdGE); Louise Sales ­ Greenpeace
• Energy revolution: Cuba and Venezuela, Tim Anderson ­ political science lecturer, Sydney Uni,Marlene Obeid ­ solidarity activist
  

3 ­ 4.45 pm Plenary & resolutions

• Strategies for winning

Dick Nichols
John Rice, Adelaide Ecosocialist Network
Patrick Bond

4.45 ­ 5pm
Conference close