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José T. Bravo is a veteran environmental justice organizer and executive director of the Just Transition Alliance where for more than 25 years, he has led a coalition of environmental justice and labor organizations to work with frontline workers and fenceline community members who live next to polluting industries in creating healthy workplaces and communities.

Many unions have passed resolutions on climate change, but you may wonder how to make them more than “feel good” statements that have no effect on the struggle to protect the climate. The convention of the American Federation of Teachers just passed an action agenda, promoted by its Climate and Environmental Justice Caucus, to implement the strong climate resolutions the union has passed in the past.

The public is invited to join young organizers and Asian Americans United for a solidarity rally on Sep. 7, 2024 at Noon EST at Philadelphia City Hall to protect Chinatown against unwelcome development.

According to NASA, on July 22, 2024, the earth experienced the hottest day in recorded history.

A recent article “Rising danger: Urgency grows for Washington to protect the most vulnerable from extreme heat features” features an interview with LNS Board Member Edgar Franks. Franks is political director of Familias Unidas por la Justicia, a union that represents hundreds of Indigenous Mexican migrant farmworkers in Skagit County, WA.

In late August airport, fast food, retail, and farm workers in 13 cities from Atlanta to Los Angeles joined to demand on-the-job heat protections from employers and the federal government. Dubbed “Heat Week,” their action included rallies, town halls, and delegations. They called for immediate action from employers to ensure their safety in the workplace, including adequate breaks and access to drinking water during periods of extreme heat.

Sometimes, the most civil act is to be disobedient. We are living in those times now. Non-Violent Civil Disobedience (NVCD) is central to our country and retaining our freedoms, and to our movements to reverse global warming, restore a livable future, and build a better world.

Excerpts from address by LNS board member April Sims, President, Washington State Labor Council to the Council’s August Convention in Wenatchee WA.

On a summer drive our family stopped at Red Square in New London, CT to visit with internationally acclaimed muralist Mike Alewitz.

Isaac Myers, was born in 1835, was a pioneering Black trade unionist, a cooperative organizer, and a caulker. Since the state of Maryland did not offer public education for Black youth, Myers had to acquire his early education from a private day school run by Rev. John Fortie. At 16, he began work as a caulker, sealing seams in ships.

On a summer drive our family stopped at Red Square in New London, CT to visit with internationally acclaimed muralist Mike Alewitz. We toured his Red Square labor art museum. In the photo is (L-R): Joe Uehlein, Anna Grace Uehlein, Mike Alewitz, Lane Windham. We are standing in front of his mural of Joe Hill.

Sometimes, the most civil act is to be disobedient. We are living in those times now. Non-Violent Civil Disobedience (NVCD) is central to our country and retaining our freedoms, and to our movements to reverse global warming, restore a livable future, and build a better world.