[This article is drawn from the review essay “Labor, Sustainability, and Justice” [] by the Labor Network for Sustainability. The review essay discusses the report Exiting from the Crisis: A Model for More Equitable and Sustainable Growth, prepared by a group of labor-allied economists from around the world and released this April by the AFL-CIO.  Unless otherwise linked, all references are to essays in Exiting from the Crisis; full references are provided in “Labor, Sustainability, and Justice.”]

What’s wrong with the world economy?  What needs to be done to fix it?  We are told that we are facing the lingering effects of the “Great Recession,” (more…)

[The following petition, initiated by Tar Sands Action, calls on the labor movement to oppose the Keystone XL Pipeline.]

Dear sisters and brothers:

Recently we signed this on-line petition “Labor Movement Against the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline”  and we would like to encourage others in labor to do the same (in personal capacity).

You can sign here: Tar Sand Labor Petition

This is not just about a pipeline. If approved and constructed, Keystone XL will have a huge impact on First Nation communities, on global greenhouse gas emissions, and risks major contamination of the largest freshwater aquifer
in North America.  Labor can add its voice to the rising opposition to this horrendous project. (more…)

[Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith]

Climate change has arrived in America. What will it mean for your job?

Climate change affecting my job? Many people have never even considered the possibility. They have been misled by false assurances like the testimony of Douglas W. Elmendorf, the director of the supposedly objective Congressional Budget Office, who told Congress, “Most of the economy involves activities that are not likely to be directly affected by changes in climate.” (more…)

[by Brendan Smith and Jeremy Brecher]

The Keystone XL pipeline, recently approved by the US State Department and awaiting President Obama’s declaration that it is in the “national interest,” will carry oil that is too dirty for the US government to buy — under legislation signed by George W. Bush!

In 2007, President Bush signed into law Section 526 of the Energy Independence and National Security Act of 2007. It prohibits the US government, which is the largest single fuel purchaser in the U.S., (more…)