I’m involved in a journal called City, and we have just published a really good series of conference papers from a conference in Berlin last November called ‘Right to the City’

It is part of a special double issue of our journal and you can view it here

This special issue of City (volume 13, issues 2-3) explores the theme ‘Cities for people, not profit’ through wide-ranging contributions by a diverse group of European and North American urban theorists, sociologists, planners and activists. The issue is guest edited by Neil Brenner, Peter Marcuse and Margit Mayer. If you don’t know their work you shuold check it out, especially Peter’s.

You can view the Editorial, Introduction and Tom Slater’s paper on ‘Missing Marcuse: On gentrification and displacement’ for FREE online here.

You can purchase the issue at a one-off rate from the journal homepage here.

Happy reading…

The image below is from the cover of the journal.

I have found myself commenting a fair bit recently on the links between climate change, class and coal. This is both a painful and essential task, made all the more personally challenging and confusing given that my grandad was a coal miner (at Hatfield main colliery in Yorkshire).

I talked at a conference last November in Newcastle at the Bridge Inn organised by the Newcastle Branch of the International Workers of the World (the wobblies). It was an amazing day (it was also my 36th birthday) and the panel of speakers included Arthur Scargill (who I assume needs no introduction), Dave Douglass  (ex miner and more recently trade union activist whom i deeply admire), Paul Morrozzo (from GreenPeace and Climate Camp),  and Ian Lavery (current President of the National Union of Mineworkers).

I made a brief 10 minute speech, the jist of which can be read here:

http://www.paulchatterton.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/pdf-anti-coal-article-cat.pdf

This is also on my publications page (The emerging anti-coal debate).

Mute magazine has just published a fairly comprehensive write up of the day which can be found at:

http://www.metamute.org/en/content/a_climatic_disorder_class_and_climate_change_in_newcastle

This is a crucial area of debate given that new and old coal fired power stations are still firmly on the agenda, and one which i imagine will be revisited at this year’s Camp for Climate Action.

Tues June 30th 2009. Yorkshire Evening Post

Weds 1st July 2009. Guardian

Thurs 2nd July 2009 Guardian

Friday 3rd July 2009 Guardian

Sat 4th July 2009 Guardian

Sat 4th July 2009 Yorkshire Post

Sat 4th July 2oo9 Yorkshire Post (Part II)

Sorry for the absence - I have been in court as one of the defendants in the Drax trial at Leeds crown court. I’ll write more details next week, but just to give you the bare facts - the trial lasted five days and last Friday, the last day of the trial, it took the jury around an hour to find us guilty.

We lost, but as one of the defendants said,

‘while the law has to apply to everyone, so too do the effects of climate change. The trial has ended, but the death and destruction caused by Drax and other powerstations like it will continue’

In a nutshell, what we outlined was that Drax burns 13 million tonnes of coal a year, and that this coal produces 22 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year. Our defence was that this makes Drax the single biggest point source of Carbon in the UK and using UN and other government statistics it can be calculated that it is responsible for around 180 deaths a year, £3M cost to society EVERY DAY, and a loss of around 1200 species over its lifetime. By enhancing climate chaos, the effects that these carbon emissions are having on the Yorkshire region, as well as throughout the globe, are life threatening and terrifying.

You can follow the coverage of the trial here:

Defendants arrive at court on Monday:

https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/06/433437.html

Prosecution evidence:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/30/drax-train-trial-protest

Our evidence:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/01/drax-climate-change-protest-court

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/8129468.stm

Final summing up:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/02/drax-protester-trial-jury-retires

Final speech by defendant Jonathan Stevenson

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/02/drax-protesters-defence-sum-up

The verdict:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/03/drax-coal-train-trial-guilty