[Time Magazine declared the Person of the Year for 2011 to be “The Protester.”  The piece below reminds us of why.  It’s a sort of romp through one swath of the protests of 2011.  It emphasizes the unexpected emergence of grassroots uprisings, the solidarity expressed by protesters in different lands, and the too-rarely recognized role of workers in those upheavals. The piece was written by Jeremy Brecher, LNS staff member and historian of labor and other social movements.  It is adapted from the Prologue to his new book SAVE THE HUMANS? COMMON PRESERVATION IN ACTION.  The book recounts scores of social movements Brecher has studied and participated in and indicates how they might foreshadow a “human survival movement” to set the world on a sustainable basis. Note: This Prologue was completed shortly before the outbreak of Occupy Wall Street.] (more…)

[by Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith]

What does the future hold for the relationship between environmentalism and organized labor? Judging from the highly-publicized controversy over the Keystone XL pipeline, America might appear to be entering a new era of conflict over environmental protection versus jobs. But in a recent speech to the UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka opens the way for expanded labor-environment cooperation around climate protection. Trumka argues that addressing the climate crisis is the way to address the jobs crisis. He calls for a new dialogue between labor and environmental movements based on that frame. Yet he also repeats some of the arguments and allegations that have fuelled labor-environmental conflict in the past. How should labor activists who care about climate and environmental advocates who care about workers respond? (more…)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Labor Network For Sustainability is deeply encouraged by the Obama Administration’s decision to oppose the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

According to LNS Executive Director Joe Uehlein, “It’s an encouraging development. Oil companies and other pipeline advocates argued that the nation must choose between jobs and the environment. But in an era of climate crisis, this is a false choice: there will be no jobs on a dead planet. Building the Keystone pipeline will throw open the spigot to the Tar Sands in Canada, considered the dirtiest oil on the planet, and drive us ever closer to climate catastrophe.” (more…)

[Original published in the Atlantic]

For decades environmentalists have fought to save our oceans from the perils of overfishing, climate change, and pollution. All noble efforts — but what if environmentalists have it backwards? What if the question is not how to save the oceans, but how the oceans can save us?

That is what a growing network of scientists, ocean farmers, and environmentalists around the world is trying to figure out. With nearly 90 percent of large fish stocks threatened by over-fishing and 3.5 billion people dependent on the seas as their primary food source, these ocean farming advocates have concluded that aquaculture is here to stay. (more…)