Image: Courtesy of The ULiners
LNS President Joe Uehlein has just published an article in the environmental publication Earth Island Journal titled “Pitfalls & Possibilities: The US labor movement needs to expand worker solidarity to human solidarity.” Here’s a brief excerpt:
Labor, in my opinion, has a moral duty not only to watch out for worker interests today, but also to guard the future of our movement. On this, it has failed. Global warming represents a dagger pointed at the very heart of this great movement of working people. What do we have to do to turn this around?
I’d say, we have to build a bottom-up movement for climate protection within the labor movement that fights to end the use of fossil fuels and other petrochemical products as well as dubious climate solutions.
To do this we have to disassemble the construct that divides us. Worker solidarity is the bedrock principle of the labor movement. Naomi Klein wrote that climate change changes everything. Building off her phrase, I like to say that climate change changes everything, including how we see our role in society as trade unionists. We need to expand worker solidarity to human solidarity.
At LNS we’ve developed talking points about how climate change is the real job killer, not the efforts to address climate chaos. We need to refrain from beating around the bush about this. We have to demand more accountability from our international and national institutions, which so far have failed us. Above all, we have to build a powerful labor-climate movement that will be a relentless force for urgent, science-based climate action, and create visions of a future that will actually work for not only working people, but for all people and the planet.
For Joe’s full article: https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/magazine/entry/in-a-just-transition-no-worker-should-be-left-behind