Climate Strikes
Traveling for Labor and Climate Justice
This past December, I had the privilege of traveling to four incredible cities across the globe to discuss how we can build the power necessary to challenge the fossil fuel industry, strengthen worker power, and protect our planet. Each stop underscored the urgency of our mission and the shared struggles we face in this fight.
AFL-CIO Says, “Working people know that our fellow workers aren’t the problem—the real threat is billionaires”
The day after newly inaugurated President Donald Trump signed executive orders promoting mass deportations and the rolling back of immigrants’ rights, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler issued a statement that said in part…
Unions Mobilize to Protect Immigrant Workers
Many unions and labor councils have been creating emergency response programs and trainings to counter imminent immigrant raids.
In Case You Haven’t Heard…
A new report from risk management experts at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries finds that the global economy could face 50% loss in gross domestic product (GDP) between 2070 and 2090 from the catastrophic shocks of climate change unless immediate action by political leaders is taken to decarbonize and restore nature.
Snowflakes That Start an Avalanche
A review by Anjali Vaidya of The Green New Deal from Below by LNS newsletter editor Jeremy Brecher was just published in the Los Angeles Review of Books. Vaidaya writes in part…
The Labor Network for Sustainability mourns the catastrophic loss of life and homes in California.
Unions such as The Los Angeles Federation of Labor and The California Teachers Association are providing resources to impacted communities. We applaud UTLA’s leadership in the unified response from united unions in the LA Unified School District to protect children and their families during this ongoing tragedy.
A “Constructive Program” for Social Self-Defense Against MAGA Tyranny
A future shaped by Donald Trump, MAGA, and Project 2025 is a threat not just to one or another group, but to our society as a whole – to the things that make our lives together something other than nasty, brutish, and short. To resist and eventually overcome such forces, we need to create bastions of what the Polish activists who overthrew their country’s authoritarian regime in 1989 called “social self-defense.” That will involve many methods, including mutual aid, on-the-ground protection of those under attack, combating lies and slanders, protests, electoral strategies, direct action, and many others. Constructive programs carried out from below can be a crucial part of that struggle.
Inequality and the Polycrisis
Notwithstanding its many downsides, the era of neoliberal globalization had one significant claim to success: the growing wealth of once-poor countries, based largely on their ability to export into the global market. The era of polycrisis appears to be reversing that dynamic. The presidency of Donald Trump is likely to further aggravate global inequality and poverty.
LNS Spotlight: Mijin Cha
Mijin Cha is a co-author of the Labor Network for Sustainability Report “Workers and Communities in Transition: Report of the Just Transition Listening Project” a leading writer on just transition to a climate-safe economy, and an active member of the LNS network.
Transit Equity Day
It’s that time of the year again – Transit Equity Day 2025! This time public transportation is at a dire turning point. With federal transit funding on the line by our now Republican-controlled government, states may be on their own to decide the fate of systems locally or otherwise.