Films For Action will be teaming up with Karlin Family Farms to bring Lawrence a special event. At 7pm we will be screening the inspiring documentary "The Next Industrial Revolution," exploring the ecological design concepts of revolutionary thinker William McDonough.
Then, following the film, guest speaker Warren Brush will be giving a presentation titled "Sustainable Vocations and Emerging Green Economies." Warren Brush lives in California and is the co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm and the founder of True Nature Design, a Permaculture consultation firm that works extensively in North America, Africa and other countries worldwide.
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Corporate Capitalism As a State-Guaranteed System of PrivilegeManorialism, commonly, is recognized to have been founded by robbery and usurpation; a ruling class established itself by force, and then compelled the peasantry to work for the profit of their lords. But no system of exploitation,including capitalism, has ever been created by the action of a free market. Capitalism was founded on an act of robbery as massive as feudalism. It has been sustained to the present by continual state intervention to protect its system of privilege, without which its survival is unimaginable.
The current structure of capital ownership and organization of production in our so-called "market" economy, reflects coercive state intervention prior to and extraneous to the market. From the outset of the industrial revolution, what is nostalgically called "laissez-faire" was in fact a system of continuing state intervention to subsidize accumulation, guarantee privilege, and maintain work discipline.
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HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself "The world's local bank." Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched an ad campaign under the tagline "Local flavor since 1956." The International Council of Shopping Centers, a global consortium of mall owners and developers, is pouring millions of dollars into television ads urging people to "Shop Local"—at their nearest mall. Even Wal-Mart is getting in on the act, hanging bright green banners over its produce aisles that simply say, "Local."
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Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority.
Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill.
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When Green For All founder and green jobs advocate Van Jones started writing The Green Collar Economy, it was a book about how to get green solutions to poor people. But by the time he was done and the book was released this fall, its scope had grown: Global warming had become common parlance, and the economy was on everyone's mind, regardless of class. His new book looks at how we can fix our environmental and economic crisis with a program that will create jobs, lower pollution and return some dignity to working Americans. It sounds great, but what's in the fine print? AlterNet's staff writer Joshua Holland and managing editor Tara Lohan sat down with Jones and talked about whether green jobs are actually legal under our international free trade agreements, what happens if we get an Obama White House, and how the progressive movement must go from "opposition to proposition, from protest to governance" in order to lead our country out of crisis.
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Democracy Now takes a look at the current $700 billion bailout proposal, with comments from Ralph Nader among others.
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This August, Mayor Newsom signed San Francisco's groundbreaking green building ordinance that imposes strict new green building requirements on newly constructed residential and commercial buildings, and renovations to existing buildings. The ordinance specifically requires newly constructed commercial buildings over 5,000 sq ft, residential buildings over 75 feet in height, and renovations on buildings over 25,000 sq ft to be subject to an unprecedented level of LEED and green building certifications, which makes San Francisco the city with the most stringent green building requirements in the nation.
"If we want to get serious about addressing the root causes of global warming, then let's draw down the empty rhetoric and start taking concrete actions," said Mayor Newsom. "A lot of people don't realize that their homes and businesses create a significant portion of our carbon footprint, so today, by signing these strict green building standards into law, we're saying enough is enough. Let's end the stale promises, emphasize conservation, and tackle climate change on all fronts."
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Two cups of McDonald’s iced coffee (BUY!) sit on a Fox TV news desk, a punch-you-in-the-face product placement (BUY!) to chase down your morning news. The funny thing is, the coffee is not actually real. The Las Vegas Sun comments on a growing trend in news stations across the country.
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In James Howard Kunstler's view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about. Reengineering our cities will involve more radical change than we are prepared for, Kunstler believes, but our hand will be forced by earth crises stemming from our national lifestyle. "Life in the mid-21st century," Kunstler says, "is going to be about living locally."
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For those of us who are a part of the movement for "green-collar jobs," Sunday's Democratic presidential debate was a real watershed moment. Clinton, Edwards and Obama were in the debate of their lives. And all three of them passionately championed the importance of creating good jobs in the clean energy sector. They presented "green-collar jobs" as a way to simultaneously boost the economy and beat global warming.
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Adbusters: Once the preserve almost exclusively of environmentalists and scientists, 2007 was the year when climate change went big business. After years of being public enemy number one to green campaigners, business seems to have decided that it too needs to work within a habitable climate. But this volte-face raises some serious problems. In recognition of the global emergency that is climate change should we accept the corporate overture or steer clear of what might be industry greenwashing?
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