Trade Deals Are About Increasing Protectionist Barriers, by Dean Baker- Counterpunch

Trade Deals Are About Increasing Protectionist Barriers

The impact of trade was devastating for large segments of the U.S. workforce. It cost 3.4 million manufacturing jobs (20 percent of the total) between the years 2000 and 2007. (It cost almost 40 percent of all unionized manufacturing jobs.) Note, that this was before the Great Recession, which began in December of 2007.

... deals like the TPP are largely about locking in rules on items like intellectual property protections and preserving Mark Zuckerberg’s dominance of the Internet. The TPP, like other recent trade deals, calls for longer and stronger patent and copyright monopolies.

These protections are 180 degrees at odds with free trade. They are about shifting more income from the bulk of the population to people who benefit from rents on patents and copyrights, by making them pay more for drugs, medical equipment, software and a wide variety of other items.

...

Biosphere Collapse? by ROBERT HUNZIKER

BiosphereCollapse? (Counterpunch)

(...) global governments plan to increase fossil fuels by 120% by 2030, including the US, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, Canada, and Australia.

Additionally, over that past 18 months China has added enough new coal-based power generation (43GW) to power 31 million new homes. China plans on adding another 148GW of coal-based power, which will equal the total current coal generating capacity of the EU.
India increased coal-fired power capacity by 74% over the past 7 years. The country expects to further increase coal-generated capacity by another 22% over the next 3 years.

China is financing 25% of all new worldwide coal plant construction outside of its borders, e.g., South Africa, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Meantime, China, kissing goodbye to its commitment to cut emissions, cuts renewable power subsidies by 30%.

Mining and water pollution

Water. Water-pollution problems caused by mining include acid mine drainage, metal contamination, and increased sediment levels in streams. Sources can include active or abandoned surface and underground mines, processing plants, waste-disposal areas, haulage roads, or tailings ponds. Sediments, typically from increased soil erosion, cause siltation or the smothering of streambeds. This siltation affects fisheries, swimming, domestic water supply, irrigation, and other uses of streams.

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a potentially severe pollution hazard that can contaminate surrounding soil, groundwater, and surface water. The formation of acid mine drainage is a function of the geology, hydrology, and mining technology employed at a mine site. The primary sources for acid generation are sulfide minerals, such as pyrite (iron sulfide), which decompose in air and water. Many of these sulfide minerals originate from waste rock removed from the mine or from tailings. If water infiltrates pyrite-laden rock in the presence of air, it can become acidified, often at a pH level of two or three. This increased acidity in the water can destroy living organisms, and corrode culverts, piers, boat hulls, pumps, and other metal equipment in contact with the acid waters and render the water unacceptable for drinking or recreational use. A summary chemical reaction that represents the chemistry of pyrite weathering to form AMD is as follows:

"Yellowboy" is the name for iron and aluminum compounds that stain streambeds. AMD can enter the environment in a number of ways, such as free-draining piles of waste rock that are exposed to intense rainstorms, transporting large amounts of acid into nearby rivers; groundwaters that enter underground workings which become acidic and exit via surface openings or are pumped to the surface; and acidic tailings containment ponds that may leach into surrounding land.

Read more: http://www.pollutionissues.com/Li-Na/Mining.html#ixzz5ypIXITXK

SindUte MG, subsede Lafaiete, na Tribuna Popular na Câmara

Olá, tudo bem?
Nessa quinta feira, 27/06, durante sessão na Câmara de Vereadores de Lafaiete, que começa às 19:30,  o SindUTE-MG, subsede Lafaiete, ocupará a "Tribuna Popular".
A fala será relativa à educação e à reforma da Previdência.
Contamos com sua presença.

30M paralisaçao da Educação

Ocorreu uma manifestação pela educação, e contra os cortes no orçamento da educação superior, ensino médio, básico, fundamental e pós-graduação, nesta  Quinta-feira, 30 de Maio de 2019, em Congonhas, a partir das 15.

O ato, também por investimentos em educação pública,  gratuita, de qualidade e inclusiva, ocorreu na Praça JK, com uma caminhada pelas ruas do centro de Congonhas.

Líderes sindicais, de partidos, de movimentos sociais, de estudantes secundaristas e outras pessoas  presentes falaram contra  os cortes na educação. Alguns também convocaram   o público para nova manifestação no dia 14 de Junho, chamando Greve Geral.

A principal pauta foi contra os contingenciamentos em torno de 30% no orçamento de custeio na educação

Estes cortes atingem todos os níveis  da educação:
- Universidades e Institutos Federais (Verbas para custeio, que pagam água, luz, manutenção, terceirizados, bolsas permanência para estudantes de baixa renda, etc);
- FNDE ( financia, entre outros, o FIES e o FUNDEB - Fundo nacional de desenvolvimento do Ensino Básico; Pronatec - Programa Nacional do Ensino Técnico, etc.)
- MEC
- CAPES (financia grande parte das pesquisas e de Bolsas  de Mestrado e Doutodo, na pós graduação brasileira).

O ato nacional foi convocado por entidades Estudantis, como a UNE (União Nacional dos Estudantes), a Ubes (União Brasileira dos Estudantes Secundaristas) e a ANPG (Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduandos).

Em Congonhas foi organizado por representantes do SINASEFE (Sind. Nac. dos Servidores Federais da Educação), que representa servidores do IFMG Congonhas, do Sindicato Metabase Congonhas, que representa trabalhadores da Mineração,  e teve o apoio de movimentos sociais e entidades, entre outros e representantes do Sind-UTE (Sindicato Unificado dos trabalhadores da Educação de Minas Gerais), da Subsede Lafaiete.

Você apoiou ou foi contra o ato?

Vander Resende, Prof., Diretor de Formação Sindi-Ute Mg, subsede Lafaiete.