The Just Transition, Economic Democracy, and the Green New Deal

By Evan Casper-Futterman, Jason Spicer, Cooperation Jackson

Two recent books takeup the challenges of radical social and institutional transformation to make a GND maximally effective. One outlines the requirements for a maximally participatory democracy, but raises questions about its ideological valences; the other outlines a multilayered effort in one US city, leaving us with questions about organizational capacity to pull off the GND. Inasmuch as these works draw mainly on non-US examples, they magnify the challenges that remain here.

Blue Collar Workers: Let’s Support the Green New Deal

By Steve Morse, System Change not Climate Change

To win the GND, it’s going to take a broad, deep and diverse political alliance.  Workers need a strong voice in this alliance, and by being a part of that, we can speak up for our issues. 

“Batshit Jobs” – No-one Should Have to Destroy the Planet to Make a Living

By Bue Rübner Hansen, Open Democracy

For too long, we have related to climate change mainly as consumers and voters. We have been responsibilised as meat eaters and airplane travellers, we have been urged to vote for the party with the most green agenda, but we have never been addressed as workers.

The Green New Deal— Be-labored?

By Joel Stronberg, Civil Notion

The lesson here is straightforward. Building coalitions outside more narrow identity groups is essential to winning elections and later in the halls of legislatures and the offices of chief executives to enacting legislation. 

Climáximo: Climate Jobs Campaign

By Kevin Buckland, Transition Network

The goal of these jobs will not be [just] the jobs in themselves – or the wages, but rather what these jobs produce. So we decided to put up the idea of jobs where the main objective is to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

10 Stories of Transition in the US: Justice and Diversity in Transition

By Steve McAllister, Transition US

Instead, we must learn to check our privilege, reach out beyond the usual suspects, and build more diverse coalitions, based on trust, mutual benefit, and common cause. In this way, our Transition Movement will become, more and more, a “just transition.”

Just Transition – Part Four: the Highlands of Hydro

By Chris Silver, DeSmog UK

The achievements of the Hydro Board rank among the most successful and concentrated single instances of energy transitions. As the Scottish Government prepares to convene its commission on a Just Transition — a project to end reliance on fossil fuels in a socially equitable manner — a clear precedent does exist.

Just Transition — Part Three: Centuries of Shale

By Chris Silver, DeSmog UK

In a Scotland straining towards a two-thirds cut in emissions by 2030, the behemoth of Grangemouth represents by far the greatest single obstacle. In addition to the practical questions surrounding its future, it has become totemic for capital, unions, and the Scottish National Party.

Just Transition — Part Two: City of Oil

By Chris Silver, DeSmog UK

For those looking for answers as to how the Scottish economy can move away, as it must, from hydrocarbons, the harbour seems to offer hope for a just transition. The jobs and trades of tomorrow are jumbled up with the older hydrocarbon sector as it gradually reaches the end of its productive lifespan.

Just Transition — Part One: The Kingdom of Coal

By Chris Silver, DeSmog UK

In this first of our new series 'Just Transition, from Fossil Fuels to Environmental Justice', we look at the history of energy in Fife, and begin to mine the prospects for a more sustainable future to meet our climate crisis.