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Madeleine Race, Communications Officer, Friends of the Earth International (in Madrid 4 to 13 December)
madeleine@foei.org / @foeint
As the international climate talks open this week in Madrid, Spain, the world faces the re-emergence of a threat that could derail urgent action on the climate crisis: Carbon Markets are back on the table as a proposed 'solution' to reduce emissions.
Dipti Bhatnagar, Climate Justice and Energy Programme Coordinator for Friends of the Earth International, from Mozambique, said:
"Big polluters must be rubbing their hands in glee that carbon market mechanisms, which further dilute the already weak and inadequate Paris emissions targets, are back on the agenda. We will fight them tooth and nail. The climate crisis is already devastating lives. Emissions are still rising. Now is not the time to offer an escape route to polluting Northern country governments and big oil."
Tackling the climate crisis requires a total, radical and immediate shift away from fossil fuels and a huge flow of finance from the global North to the global South. This is needed to repay the ecological debt, for a just transition and for loss and damage. We need an economic and political system which serves the needs of people, not profit - nothing less than radical system change.
Bhatnagar continued:
"Carbon markets fail to deliver emissions reductions or adequate climate action and impact horrifically on Indigenous Peoples and local communities. They only serve to strengthen corporate power and impunity, deflect responsibility from rich historical polluters and prevent urgent and equitable action on climate change."
With an abrupt change of location a month ago, COP25 becomes the third of four consecutive UN climate conferences to be held in Europe. As a result, Southern participation continues to be undermined. Northern governments and corporations will be hoping for less scrutiny from communities in the South so they can try and push through dangerous false solutions. Friends of the Earth International and our allies in the climate justice movement will be watching.
Meanwhile, the world's attention will likely focus on European concerns and not on the repression experienced in Chile and across Latin America. While talks are underway in Madrid, civil society movements are meeting in Chile to march against neoliberal policies and climate injustice - their concerns must not be forgotten.
Karin Nansen, Chair of Friends of the Earth International, from Uruguay, commented:
"We stand in solidarity with the people of Chile in their struggle against neoliberalism, inequality and violent repression. This COP must not allow President Pinera's government to build a positive reputation abroad while oppressing his people at home. Chile should not be the COP Presidency."
COP25 talks come hard on the heels of massive global mobilisations on 29 November. Greater numbers are expected on 6 December in Madrid as well as Chile.
Blanca Ruibal from Friends of the Earth Spain said:
"Peoples are rising up across the world, from Spain to Chile and beyond. We say to governments and political decision makers: ignore this wave of people power at your peril. The future of our planet is at stake. We will continue fighting for it and stand with the peoples who are most affected."
Friends of the Earth International is the world's largest grassroots environmental network, uniting 74 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With over 2 million members and supporters around the world, FOEI campaigns on today's most urgent environmental and social issues.
"We're in a situation of injustice," one protester said. "Workers can no longer feed themselves, students no longer have future prospects."
Echoing demonstrations against French President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms two years ago, hundreds of thousands of people joined protests across France on Thursday, outraged by the government's proposed austerity measures.
While the CGT trade union—one of several labor groups that pushed for the mass mobilization—put the count at over 1 million, French authorities, whose figures are usually much lower than unions, said more than 500,000 demonstrated nationwide, including 55,000 in Paris.
Thursday's demonstrations followed last week's "Block Everything" protests, which coincided with French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's first full day in office. Macron picked Lecornu, his ally and a former defense minister, for the post after François Bayrou lost a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly over the budget plan.
Although "Lecornu quickly scrapped one of the most unpopular proposals—eliminating two public holidays—he has not ruled out the rest," Euronews noted Thursday. "These include an overhaul of unemployment benefits, delinking pensions from inflation, and raising out-of-pocket medical costs."
A protester named Alexandre told Euronews that "right now, we have a government that doesn't listen to us and is even the opposite of what the population needs. A government that robs fellow citizens, and it's important for everyone to mobilise, for the people of France who want to be dignified and who also want to give others their dignity throughout the world."
"We're in a situation of injustice," he added. "Workers can no longer feed themselves, students no longer have future prospects."
Hospital staff, railway workers, students, and teachers were among those who poured into the streets across France—including major actions in cities such as Lyon, Marseille, and Paris—rallying behind the message: "Strikes, Blockades, Macron Get Out!"
The Public Service Ministry said that nearly 11% of France's 2.5 million state employees were on strike. According to Le Monde, "Around 1 in 6 teachers walked out of primary and secondary schools, 9 out of 10 pharmacies were shuttered, and severe disruption occurred on the Paris metro network, where only the three driverless automated lines are working normally."
Protesters want the government to not only kill the proposed austerity measures but also spend more on public services and impose higher taxes on the wealthy. Sophie Binet, the head of the CGT union, said that "the anger is huge, and so is the determination. My message to Mr. Lecornu today is this: It's the streets that must decide the budget."
Multiple elected officials with La France Insoumise (LFI), a party founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon that is now part of the Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, shared social media posts about them joining the protests.
"The mobilization of youth continues," said Claire Lejeune, an LFI member of the National Assembly, after speaking with secondary school students in Essonne who "no longer want this policy that is wrecking their future."
Citing "the dismantling of public education," "war policy," and "ecological inaction," Lejeune said: "They are absolutely right; in the country, no one wants Lecornu or Macron anymore. I was in support of this peaceful mobilization, alongside the unions and teachers, and faced with a completely disproportionate police setup."
Approximately 80,000 police and gendarmes were deployed for the protests. Early Thursday, LFI's Clémence Guetté, a vice president in the National Assembly, shared footage of officers kicking and shoving a woman.
"Everywhere this morning, the repression strikes and hits without distinction or restraint," she wrote. "The images reaching us are shameful. Here in Marseille. To everyone, be careful. France no longer has a government: Macron is the only one responsible."
After the 1 million estimate began circulating, Guetté called the mass action "immense, everywhere, impressive," and declared: "The people are in the streets! We are going to win."
As Al Jazeera reported: "Across the country, Palestinian flags were visible as some protesters also stood in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza during Israel's war on the strip. Protesters blocked the Eurolinks arms factory in Marseille, which is believed to supply equipment to Israel, while holding a large banner that read: 'Shut down the genocidal factory.'"
Noting the solidarity with the Palestinian people on Thursday, LFI's Sarah Legrain called for sanctions, an arms embargo, and lifting Israel's blockade of Gaza, where civilians are starving to death.
Later Thursday, Legrain celebrated the massive turnout and pledged that "we will keep the pressure up until Macron leaves!"
“Across the country, insurance companies are buying up doctors’ offices, driving up costs, and putting insurance company profits over patients."
A group of Democratic lawmakers on Thursday unveiled new legislation aimed at cracking down on for-profit insurance companies that are buying up local health clinics across the US.
The Patients Over Profits Act—which is being introduced by Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), alongside Reps. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Pat Ryan (D-NY), and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.)—seeks to end mass consolidation in the healthcare industry by barring large insurance companies and subsidiaries such as UnitedHealth Group and Optum from purchasing independently run health clinics.
Specifically, the proposed legislation would bar insurance companies and their subsidiaries from owning Medicare Part B or Part C providers; would mandate insurance companies that already own these providers to divest of them under penalty of civil action by the Federal Trade Commission and other law enforcement entities; and would bar the Health and Human Services department from contracting with Medicare Advantage organizations that also own Medicare Part B or Part C providers.
The legislators behind the bill said that it is necessary to stop large conglomerates from further price-gouging patients while limiting their access to healthcare.
“Across the country, insurance companies are buying up doctors’ offices, driving up costs, and putting insurance company profits over patients," said Merkley. "Our bill cracks down on greedy insurance companies’ attempts to control doctors and squeeze patients for every cent."
While it's a nationwide issue, the impacts are felt locally, Merkeley added, citing one Oregon clinic "reportedly losing dozens of physicians and subsequently kicking out thousands of patients after it was purchased by Optum."
The new legislation, he said, "reins in these out-of-control consolidations, which are great for corporate greed and a bad deal for patients.”
Ryan told a similar story about how healthcare industry consolidation had harmed his district in New York.
"UnitedHealth has gobbled up our local healthcare practices, creating a monopoly that directly hurts everyone in our community," he said. "In their greedy pursuit of profits, they now own the insurance company, they own your doctor, they own the pharmacy and they own the software that processes all of your information—and they use it all to keep prices high and drive quality down. Enough—it’s time to break up UnitedHealth and put you back in control of your own healthcare."
The proposed legislation has also won the support of advocacy organizations American Economic Liberties Project, Center for Health and Democracy, Health Care for America Now, Just Care, Labor Campaign for Single Payer, MoveOn, Physicians for a National Health Program, Public Citizen, Social Security Works, and Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action.
Rachel Madley, the director of policy and advocacy at the Center for Health and Democracy, described the bill as "vital legislation that will protect patients" while reining in large insurers.
"Big Insurance is rapidly consolidating and creating monopolistic companies that control virtually every part of our health care system," she added. "It is a system now rigged to ensure their profits, not our care."
"I hope he can first define what antifa is, because there is no antifa organization," said one congressman.
After US President Donald Trump absurdly announced late Wednesday night that he planned to designate the amorphous "antifa" movement as a "major terrorist organization," a Democratic congressman had one request.
"I hope he can first define what antifa is, because there is no antifa organization," said Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) on CNN.
Goldman added that Trump is using the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last week "as a pretext to go after people he disagrees with."
"He on the very night of Kirk's murder, you will remember, accused the left of committing the murder when the murderer had not even been caught or identified," he said.
"Antifa" is a portmanteau meaning "anti-fascist," and the term encompasses autonomous individuals and loosely-affiliated groups of people who say they oppose fascism—but with no organizational structure or leaders, it was not clear on Wednesday how the White House would seek to designate the idea of anti-fascist protest "a major terrorist organization."
As The Guardian noted, since antifa is a US-based movement, it cannot be included on the State Department's list of foreign terror organizations as ISIS and al-Qaeda are, allowing the Department of Justice to prosecute those who give material support to those organizations.
"There is no domestic equivalent to that list in part because of broad First Amendment protections enjoyed by organizations operating within the United States," the outlet added.
Trump's former FBI director, Christopher Wray, also testified in 2020—during nationwide racial justice protests that Trump also linked to antifa—that there is no organization to designate as a terrorist group.
Mark Bray, a historian and author of Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook, suggested Trump's threat was akin to a statement claiming that the White House could designate other social justice movements as terrorist groups.
“Antifa is a kind of politics, not a specific group,” Bray told Al Jazeera. “In the same way that there are feminist groups but feminism is not, itself, a group. Any group that calls itself antifa and promotes the basic principles of militant anti-fascism is an antifa group. There is no general headquarters or leader to get official recognition from.”
The number of members of the anti-fascist movement and their identities are not public, and though Trump called for the "funders" of antifa to be investigated, Al Jazeera noted that there is "no way of identifying and collating a list of financiers of the movement"—which mainly raises small amounts of money "for bail," according to Bray.
“He is trying to promote the common right-wing conspiracy theory that there are shadowy financiers like George Soros playing puppet master behind everything the left does," Bray told Al Jazeera.
With its stated plan to designate antifa a terrorist group, said left-wing commentator Hasan Piker, "they're openly admitting they're fascist."
Veteran union organizer Charles Idelson added that "surely what Trump and his puppets repeating the lie really want is to ban is anti-fascist thought and speech, and imprison individuals who express it."
Since Kirk's killing last week, Trump and others on the right have asserted that left-wing groups and commentators were responsible for the assassination because some had tied Kirk to fascism and racism.
Trump's claim that he will designate antifa as a terrorist group came soon after ABC, under explicit pressure from the Federal Communications Commission, announced it was taking “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air indefinitely after he remarked on the far-right MAGA movement’s reaction to the killing—a clear-cut violation of the First Amendment, said rights advocates.
Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project, told The Washington Post that Trump's plan for antifa's designation would "raise significant First Amendment, due process, and equal protection concerns."