Undercover policing and the spectre of ‘domestic extremism’: the covert surveillance of environmental activism in Britain

The spectre of environmental ‘domestic extremism’ has long been postulated by police leaders and security analysts in Britain. It is a narrative that has justified the commitment of enormous amounts of government resources towards police intelligence work directed at non-violent direct action campaigns. Most controversially, this has included the long-term infiltration of environmental (and other) activist groups by undercover police. This article provides a critical analysis of the justifications put forward in support of the covert surveillance of environmental activists in Britain. The paper proceeds by way of a single case study – a high profile, environmental direct action protest in the north of England – in order to reveal the levels of abuse, manipulation and deception at the basis of undercover protest policing. Through their court case, the activists involved with this action were able to obtain rare insights into the police authorisation documents for the undercover operation that had led to their arrests. An analysis of these documents provides us with a glimpse of the contradictory justifications given by senior police officers for infiltration – now under scrutiny by a public inquiry.     

Working-class ecology and union politics: a conceptual topology

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that Environmental Labour Studies may benefit from incorporating the perspective of environmental justice. We offer a theorization of working-class ecology as the place where working-class communities live and work, being typically affected by environmental injustice, and of working-class environmentalism as those forms of activism that link labour and environmental struggles around the primacy of reproduction. The paper’s theoretical section draws on a social ethnography of working-class ecology in the case of Taranto, a mono-industrial town in southern Italy, which is experiencing a severe environmental and public-health crisis. We show how environmental justice activism since the early 2000s has allowed the re-framing of union politics along new ways of politicizing the local economy. We conclude by offering a conceptual topology of working-class ecology, which situates different labour organizations (confederal, social/community, and rank-and-file unions) according to their positioning in respect to environmental justice.     

Using institutional ethnography's ideological circle to portray how textually mediated disability discourse paralysed a Supreme Court of Canada ruling

Persons with disabilities created through texts as damaged goods are being ‘cured’ by workplace accommodation, a textually mediated work process. Prior to 1999, workplace accommodation in the Canadian federal public service signified the adjustments necessary to enable a disabled worker to fit into a workplace designed for able-bodied workers. In 1999, a Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruling known as Meiorin turned this accommodation provision on its head. Instead of being focused on individual-level fixes so that a disabled worker could be accommodated in an existing workplace, this legislation required employers to transform their workplaces so as to make them ready to receive as many different types of workers as reasonably possible from the outset. Using Dorothy E. Smith's institutional ethnography, I use my experiences as a disability rights activist employed in the Canadian federal public service to explicate how textually mediated disability discourse paralysed this groundbreaking SCC ruling.     

环境法执法机制研究

随着我国环境法立法体系的日益完善,加强环境执法已成为当前环境保护领域的焦点和难点问题。本文在分析了环境行政执法存在的问题及完善对策后,提出环境刑事执法的健全应以程序机制的完善为中心,并认为应从扩张民事诉讼主体资格和建立中立环境损害鉴定机构两个角度去完善当前的环境民事执法机制。     

我国环境公益诉讼制度之构建

在现代社会环境问题日益突出的情况下,为适应保护环境公益的迫切需要,我国有必要构建环境公益诉讼制度。论述了环境公益诉讼的概念、特征及其法理基础,并对构建我国环境公益诉讼制度的范围、原告、举证责任配置和诉讼费用负担等方面提出构想。     

刍议环境权的界定

环境权的合理界定是环境权在法律上创设的前提,目前,学界对环境权的理解存在分歧,这主要体现在环境权的主体、客体和内容三个构成要素上。受现有的社会历史条件限制,环境权的主体只能是人和人的拟制体(即法人、其他组织、社团、国家);环境权的客体可以是物、行为、精神财富和其他权益;环境权的内容则由生态性权利和经济性权利组成。     

Engagement with sustainability at the International Labour Organization and wider implications for collective worker voice

Sustainability objectives have been recognized by the ILO primarily in terms of the impact of environmental protection in the form of “just transition” and “green job” initiatives. Arguably, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) now offer richer scope for ILO engagement with social sustainability. This can be attributed to the prominent recognition of “decent work” in SDG 8 and the need for “responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels” in SDG target 16.7. This article examines how the ILO could further promote collective worker voice in the context of debates over a sustainable “future of work”, particularly considering to whom voice is given and how it is exercised.     

解决跨国劳动力养老保险权益可携性问题的国际经验借鉴

随着经济全球化不断深入,劳动力跨国流动将越来越频繁,反过来它将有助于全球经济合作和一体化。对跨国劳动力进行社会保护的重要性由此也更加突出,其中解决好养老保险权益可携性问题将可以实现劳动力输出国、输入国和劳动者之间的三赢。全球不同国家已经对跨国劳动力的养老保险问题做出规定,并在多边或双边层次上展开合作,已经取得了一些较好的经验。我国作为一个劳动力资源大国和经济大国,劳动力跨国流动的规模将不断扩大,也需要高度重视跨国养老权益的保护。     

论检察机关在环境公益诉讼中的法律地位

环境的公共性和检察权的公益性决定了检察机关有义务介入环境公益诉讼。关于检察机关在环境公益诉讼中的法律地位问题,学者们提出了不同的主张。在环境公益诉讼中检察机关只以一种身份出现的观点是片面的,环境公益诉讼的多样性决定了检察机关介入环境公益诉讼法律地位的多样性。在环境公益诉讼中检察机关的恰当角色是,根据案件的类型不同,分别以支持起诉人身份、准原告人身份、公益代表人身份出现,角色混乱将会造成事与愿违的效果。     

基于社区视角下的农村环境管理探讨

市场机制对农村环境管理具有灵活性、低成本性,但是由于环境问题的外部性,市场失灵容易发生.运用政府管制手段可以加强环境管理的公平性,但是由于环境治理的政府主导型特征,政府失灵容易发生.社区作为介于政府与市场之间的第三部门,可以运用其独特的社会资本参与环境管理,以其自身所具有的灵活性、低成本性、信息优势和高效性,克服市场失灵和政府失灵现象.