Can workers influence business decisions through their pension funds? 20 Andy Richards • Increasing use of tar sands are one of the new factors - along with palm oil production - responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and threatening efforts to tackle climate change. Tar sands make up the world's second largest oil reserves (173 billion barrels) and cause even worse damage to the climate than conventional oil. The greenhouse gas emissions of converting tar sands into fuel is three times higher than for conventional oil and roughly three barrels of natural gas are consumed to create one barrel of oil. The extraction process is also disastrous: the production of toxic waste, deforestation, water pollution and wildlife disturbance associated with tar sands extraction threatens the ecosystems on which many indigenous communities depend and undermines their human rights. The campaign 'Fair Pensions', which is supported by many Photo: Terry Conway environmental groups and several major unions is lobbying for responsible investment of pension funds and has taken up this issue as one of its major campaigns. They have been making a noise at the Annual General Meetings of the companies chieflv involved - Roval Dutch Shell and BP. Public sector union UNISON has used the fact its own staff fund has investments in these companies to co-file resolutions on the topic. It is also asking Unison members to raise this through their own pension schemes. The Fair Pensions website enables people to search for and then email their pension scheme with their concerns. The Local Government Pension Fund alone has billions invested in BP and Shell. Unison has already attended the BP AGM and plans to attend Shell's on May 18 to try to force greater disclosure of the social and environmental consequences of tar sands e sufficient to role back his major attack on the environment remains to be seen - but disinvestment campaigning was for example a useful part of the AntiApartheid campaign so the left should certainly support these initiatives. To find and email your own pension fund go to http:// fairpensions.org.uk/unison/ tarsands Even if you are not in pension scheme you can still email the company from here. To find out more about Unison's activities go to http://www.unison.org.uk/ capitalstewards/tarsands.asp
Ecosocialist Campaigners against Canada's Tar Sands on their way to the international demonstrations in Copenhagen in December 2009
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Obama at War: An interview with Tariq Ali
What do you make of General Stanley McChrystal's recent observation that an 'amazing' number of innocent Afghan civilians have been killed by US forces? That fact is not surprising—but shouldn't such highlevel acknowledgment of it provoke real opposition to the war? Tariq Ali: It should but it won't because North American and European citizens (the latter in large majorities) who oppose the war feel disempowered. In the US, of course, Obama promised to escalate the war, an election pledge he has carried out with a vengeance and unless directly affected—as in the days of the draft—liberal Americans don't care that much if foreigners are being killed. McChrystal's remarks were designed largely for consumption in Afghanistan: he was simultaneously appealing to Afghans and warning the killer squads to Do you think that Obama's personal popularity is the main reason why there's no visible(US) antiwar movement? Tariq Ali: Partially. He speaks of the war in terms of good and evil and gets the benefit of the doubt since his supporters are sure he's good and even his opponents think the Afghan resistance is evil. As I mentioned above the main reason for the lack of an effective antiwar movement is that most Americans barely realise they're at war since they don't have to fight. The use of mercenaries represents a big shift compared to the US wars of the last Why do you believe that Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan? Are there important material interests there or is it merely a matter of politics and American "credibility"? Tariq Ali: I think he believes in it, just like he said when he was running for the Senate that he would support Bush if he decided to bomb Iran. The fact that Obama is undoubtedly intelligent doesn't automatically make him an enlightened liberal as we have seen domestically and In the past you have cast Hamid Karzai as nothing but a US puppet. What do you think is going on with him now? Tariq Ali: He still is a puppet in the sense that if NATO withdrew he would have to accompany them. Obviously even puppets get angry when they are badly treated. Peter Galbraith's and Richard Holbrooke's crude attempts to dump Karzai backfired. In the old days in South Vietnam recalcitrant puppet leaders were bumped off by the CIA. The problem now is that the US has nobody to replace Karzai. He's their most credible puppet and he has now become enormously rich thanks to his brother's trading 'skills' (heroin and gun running are lucrative) which enables him to buy some local support. The fact that the US tried to remove him and failed has improved his standing a tiny bit but all this attention has also gone to his head and it's when puppets begin to fantasize that they're not what they are that things sometimes get out of control. McChrystal and Eikenberry (Karl W Eikenberry, US ambassador to Afghanistan) are only too aware of this and for that reason have been trying to smooth ruffled feathers. What is the relationship between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan Tariq Ali: The Afghan Taliban consists now of several factions. The Mullah Omar faction has recently denounced the Pakistan Taliban for targeting the Pakistani security forces rather than NATO. As for the rest it is difficult to know. Some of the factions have been in contact with the US for some years engaged in informal negotiations but no agreement has been reached. So when Karzai, too, speaks of bringing the Taliban into the government one shouldn't be too surprised. Washington would also like the 'good' Taliban to do the same. Attempts to divide the 21