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Build the Village, Break the Empire

While the US and Israel relentlessly drop bombs on Iran, Lebanon, and Palestine with our tax dollars and living costs skyrocket as a result, regenerative economies, collective healing, and liberation can feel like pipe dreams to many of our families, neighbors, and fellow workers. We are faced with the Herculean task of just surviving the constant physical and psychic attacks—let alone needing to build something that requires our wildest imaginations and all of our labor.

The truth is, everyday people have already been building the villages that we need to survive this crumbling empire; sometimes prompted when crisis hits their communities, but sometimes just because they see each other, understand the collective needs, and act intuitively. Neighbors do it whenever they lend tools or kitchen ingredients. Families and friends do it whenever they bring meals to a sick loved one. These informal practices could be a foundation for viable economic infrastructure—aka organized ways we care for home.

In this newsletter, we explore some of the ways we and our homies are building power by building the village. Flip through these pages to learn more.

{Cover IMAGE ID: Cover image by Amir Khadar. Movement Generation’s June 2026 Newsletter. The theme is titled Build the Village, Break the Empire. The illustration features a large ancient tree. In the bottom portion, the roots underground are crushing and breaking institutional buildings representing the United States, as well a military tank and police car. The top portion shows people farming and living in community beneath the tree canopy in the sunrise.}

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CLOC-LVC rejects Rodrigo Paz's divisive and polarizing actions criminalizing protest and failing Bolivia's peasant, Indigenous, and working-class organizations.

The post Bolivia: CLOC – La Vía Campesina Rejects the Divisive and Polarizing Actions Promoted by Rodrigo Paz appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

To come.

Statement from the National Confederation of Indigenous Native Peasant Women of Bolivia “Bartolina Sisa" - alerting about persecution, illegal detentions, and acts of torture.

The post Bolivia: The “Bartolina Sisa” Organization Reaffirms Unity. Denounces Government Attempts at Division and Co-optation appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The country is currently facing a runoff election to choose its new president. National organizations representing Indigenous Peoples and peasants have outlined a critical agenda to ensure full respect for their rights.

The post Peru: Indigenous Peoples and Peasants Mobilize Against the Threat of a Setback for Democracy appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

Listen to the audio version >>

As we saw in the previous commentary, Donald Trump is conducting a full spectrum counter-revolution against the Greentech revolution that is transforming energy production and consumption worldwide. This commentary shows that he has managed to significantly impede the onward march of Greentech in the US, but that Greentech is marching on nonetheless.

Collage featuring a photo of Donald Trump (Trump’s second presidential portrait, taken in June 2025 by Daniel Torok, The White House, Public Domain) and an aerial view of broken solar panels on a rooftop (Envato, Bilanol)

In the aftermath of Trump’s assault, the Greentech revolution in America is churning – both stopped in its tracks and driving forward.

Climate journalist and musician Jael Holzman recently took a “cross-country rock n’ roll tour” with her band Ekko Astral. Shee observed:

“Driving across the country with my band, I saw solar and wind projects in Wisconsin, Kansas, Arizona, and Idaho. One drive from Austin, Texas to Rozwell, New Mexico, sent me through a dizzying maze of wind farms in a western portion of the Lone Star State that surrounded my vehicle on all sides with spinning blades and transmission lines — and fracking rigs, because it was Texas. It felt like some sort of twisted, magnificent energy wonk video game.”

But she also noted:

“I drove through open fields and farmland in the Midwest and the Great Plains, including places where building solar or wind is banned outright. I drove straight through the part of central Idaho where Lava Ridge, once the largest wind farm in the country, would have been built this year if not for Donald Trump.”

First, the bad news

President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBBA) into law on July 4, 2025. The law rolls back many parts of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act by ending tax credits for wind and solar energy, removing incentives for electric vehicles and home energy efficiency, and increasing support for fossil fuels, nuclear energy, and traditional agriculture. Photo credit: The White House, Public Domain

Trump’s Greentech counter-revolution has succeeded in making many corporations and governments cut back or abandon climate goals and policies. The consequences are catastrophic for the climate – and for the future of the American people.

• A week before the 2024 election, Idaho’s largest electric utility struck a 35-year deal to buy power from the Jackalope Wind project that would span an area the size of Chicago, with hundreds of wind turbines generating clean electricity by 2027. But President Trump’s Interior Department quickly stalled Jackalope’s environmental review. In September, the Idaho utility finally canceled its contracts with Jackalope Wind, citing “uncertainties related to the federal permitting process.” Jackalope is only one of more than 60 large wind and solar farms that are being blocked on federal lands. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, 73,000 megawatts of solar projects on land are currently at risk from political interference due to the Trump administration’s “blockade.”
• After the tax credit for buying an EV was allowed to expire at the end of September, sales of EVs plummeted by about 46 percent. In 2025 as a whole, American businesses and households invested $91 billion in zero emission vehicles, a 5% decrease from the previous year. Ford took a $19.5 billion loss from abandoning a planned battery factory and canceled its F-150 EV. In the face of the global shift to EVs, Big Three’s share of the global auto market has fallen from nearly 30 percent in 2000 to about 12 percent today, while China’s share has risen from 2 percent to 42 percent.
• According to the Rhodium Group’s Clean Investment Monitor, the pipeline of new clean energy and transportation manufacturing investment—measured by new announcements in manufacturing projects—totaled $44 billion over the past two years, down by 70% compared to $149 billion during the previous two years. In the first quarter of 2026, clean energy and transportation investment in the United States totaled $61 billion, a 3% decline from Q4 2025.
• The impacts of Trump’s cuts can be felt in the smallest and most impoverished communities. Solar Holler, a solar developer and installation company with 105 employees across Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Virginia, had been growing 20 to 30% annually. Solar provided 70% of the company’s business. But residential solar tax incentives were cut off under Trump’s big, beautiful budget. The company’s growth forecast for 2026 is down from 30% to “roughly flat.” Appalachian Voices, a non-profit working with local communities, was awarded a half-million-dollar EPA grant to help five former coal communities in Virginia. The grant was summarily terminated by Elon Musk’s Doge.

While the impact of Trump’s policies is just beginning to be felt, they are already pushing back the forward march of the Greentech revolution. For example, late in 2025 the International Energy Agency (IEA) nearly halved its forecast of renewable energy growth in the United States, citing the end of tax incentives, new import restrictions, the suspension of new offshore wind leasing, and restricting the permitting of onshore wind and solar PV projects on federal land.

Tens of billions of dollars of manufacturing projects to build solar panels, batteries, charging stations and other clean technologies have already been canceled, with hundreds of billions of dollars of additional announced investments imperiled. According to the Princeton University-led REPEAT Project, the rollback of Biden-era climate regulations will cause an estimated 7.6 billion tons of additional greenhouse gas emissions to be released in the coming decade, as much as 150 million gas-powered cars would emit in that same time.

The Greentech Revolution: Bloodied but Unbowed

Data source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook, January 2026

Despite Trump’s efforts to gut fossil free energy, during his first year in office, solar generation rose by 83 TWh (+27%), meeting 61% of the 135 TWh rise in electricity demand. By mid-year, renewables generated more than half of US electricity for the first month on record. Even without subsidies, renewables remain the most cost-competitive form of new power generation.

In a report posted on January 16, the US Energy Information Agency said, “We expect the combined share of generation from solar power and wind power to rise from about 18% in 2025 to about 21% in 2027.” Utility-scale solar is the fastest-growing source of electricity generation in the United States, increasing from 290 BkWh in 2025 to 424 BkWh by 2027.” Almost 70 gigawatts (GW) of new solar generating capacity projects are scheduled to come online in 2026 and 2027, “a 49% increase in U.S. solar operating capacity compared with the end of 2025.” “The three main dispatchable sources of electricity generation (natural gas, coal, and nuclear) accounted for 75% of total generation in 2025, but we expect the share of generation from these sources will fall to about 72% in 2027.”

In 2025, $278 billion was invested across the U.S. in the manufacture and deployment of clean energy, clean vehicles, building electrification, and carbon management technology – up 5% from 2024. This despite an 11% decrease in the fourth quarter relative to the same period in 2024. Investment to decarbonize energy and industrial production over 2024-5 was up 35% compared to the prior two years. Investment in emerging climate technologies in 2024-25 —clean hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, carbon management and new approaches to decarbonizing the production of cement, iron and steel, and pulp and paper— was 53% higher than in the previous two years. In the past two years, companies have announced a total of $347 billion in new investments in clean energy production and industrial decarbonization projects, a 16% increase compared to the previous two-year period.

Worldwide, the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz and the subsequent crisis in the cost and availability of fossil fuel energy has radically accelerated the Greentech revolution, with countries around the world scrambling to expand their fossil free energy production. Ironically, Trump’s petro-war on Iran is radically accelerating the very Greentech revolution he is attempting to destroy.

The Greentech Revolution is proceeding over, under, around, and through Trump’s counterrevolution. Greentech is an irresistible force; it may not immediately overcome the immovable object of Trump’s obstruction, but it is already circumventing and eroding it.
Subsequent commentaries in this series will show how.

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The post Irresistible Greentech Revolution Meets Immovable Trump Counter-Revolution first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

For the construction of the technical and political foundations, a team of agroecology experts from the movements, representing all regions of Brazil, has been established.

The post Brazil: The MST and Allies are Building a Social Movement-led AI Tool (IARAA) for Agroecology appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

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The post Latest Newsletter first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

On June 2, PM Press will publish Three Roads: Labor Music Ecology by Joe Uehlein, founder of the Labor Network for Sustainability. Here’s a description of the book:

“After decades organizing from within the labor establishment, Joe Uehlein realized that winning real climate and economic justice meant moving beyond the limits of traditional labor and environmentalism.

As former secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Division and director of the AFL-CIO’s Center for Strategic Campaigns, Joe fought from the inside. But in 2005, he stepped away from the AFL-CIO to found the Labor Network for Sustainability, forging deep alliances between labor, climate, and environmental movements. His vision: transform the labor movement to embrace ecological responsibility—and environmentalism to uplift working-class solidarity.

But Joe’s work has never been confined to boardrooms or picket lines. With a guitar in hand, he’s shared stages with Pete Seeger and Tom Morello, turning songs into rallying cries and stories into tools for resistance.

Three Roads weaves strategy, memoir, and music into a powerful call to action. Through compelling personal narrative and frontline insight, Joe offers an urgently needed blueprint for bridging movements and pushing boundaries. This is a book for anyone who dreams of a world where working people and the planet thrive together.

Because the road to justice has to walk in more than one direction—and we need all of them.”

Here are some early comments on the book:

“The story of an extraordinary life spent making change, from one of the greatest labor organizers of our era. Anyone who has ever asked ‘what can I do’ should read this book—part memoir of compassion and grace; part manifesto for the world we need.”

—Annie Leonard, Author of The Story of Stuff, cofounder, Jane Fonda Climate PAC

“There is no one who has so seamlessly combined idealism, activism and music as Joe Uehlein has. He is a once in a generation heir to Woody Guthrie and Phil Ochs and he is also a helluva writer.”

—Saket Soni, Author of The Great Escape, Founder of Resilience Force

“Joe Uehlein is one of our great movement troubadours, organizers and good troublemakers. He brings the vision and commitment and joy with his music to add life and power to our struggles for a better world. This book tells his story, and it should inspire us all to take the action we need to take in these times.”

—Jeff Johnson, Former President, Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO

“Joe is an unwavering warrior-troubadour for working folks everywhere. If you can listen to his song ‘Sweet Lorain’ without choking up, then you’ll never understand working for a living. Woody Guthrie; Ella Mae Wiggins; Pete Seeger; Rev. Fred Kirkpatrick; AND their heir: JOE UEHLEIN. He is the living symbiosis of labor and environmental—and he doesn’t just sing it: he has lived it in the trenches. I have been a fan forever!”

—Heather Booth, Organizer Extraordinaire, Democratic Party Consultant

“Joe Uehlein has lived enough for not just one, but three extraordinary lives. As a labor activist, he has been a tireless advocate for union democracy and progressive politics. When he understood the perils to our earth represented by climate change, he walked away from a big AFL-CIO job to devote himself to sounding the alarm about climate to a hesitant labor movement. Through it all he has used music to convey what speeches alone cannot. In the process Joe has emerged as ‘labor’s troubadour,’ a worthy successor to Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, keeping political folk music alive and teaching upcoming musicians the richness and appeal of this music. If you are seeking inspiration on how to live your life in a meaningful way—start with this book.”

—John Harrity, President Emeritus of the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs

Order Three Roads: Labor Music Ecology here.

The post LNS President Uehlein Tells His Story in New Three Roads Book first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

LNS president Joe Uehlein will kick off a tour for his new book, Three Roads: Labor Music Ecology June 11 in Dearborn, MI to celebrate the release of Three Roads: Labor, Music, Ecology. The book is the powerful autobiography of longtime labor leader and Labor Network for Sustainability Founder Joe Uehlein. This special event for the national Book & Music Tour will bring together movement leaders, organizers, and music lovers for an evening of stories and songs from a lifetime spent fighting for workers, the environment, and a better world. Blending live music with reflections from the frontlines of labor and climate activism, Uehlein will share how the “three roads” of labor, music, and ecology have shaped his journey- and the movements he helped build. Come celebrate the launch and join us for a powerful evening of music and solidarity!

When: 5-8 pm June 11

Where: UAW Local 600 Union Hall, 10550 Dix Ave., Dearborn, MI

MORE INFO
RSVP NOW

If you are at the Labor Notes conference in Chicago you can catch Joe at the “meet the authors” event June13, 4:00-6:30 pm in the Hyatt Grand Ballroom C.

If you are near Denver, join us for Joe’s third tour event:

When: 5:30-7:30 pm June 22

Where: Event Room, Colorado People’s Center, 730 21st St, Denver, CO 80205

The post Uehlein Book-and-Concert Tour Kicks Off in Dearborn, Chicago, and Denver first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Photo by Sydney Ghazarian

By Sydney Ghazarian, LNS Director of Strategic Campaigns

At the recent Jobs With Justice conference in Atlanta, labor and community organizers joined Union of Southern Service Workers members in a powerful march and rally alongside Waffle House workers demanding dignity on the job, safer workplaces, and a living wage. Workers and allies filled downtown streets chanting “We work, we sweat, put $25 on our check!” as they called for $25/hour wages, 24/7 security protections, and an end to mandatory meal deductions that dock workers’ pay whether they eat or not. The action connected frontline worker struggles to broader fights for economic and racial justice in the South, highlighting how mega-events like the upcoming World Cup are driving profits and tourism while service workers continue to face poverty wages and unsafe conditions. With support from unions and movement partners (including LNS), the rally showed growing momentum for cross-movement solidarity rooted in the belief that our future must include respect, safety, and economic security for all workers.

Support Union of Southern Service Workers demands by signing their petition today.

The post LNS Marches with Southern Service Workers first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Photo source: Canva. “Activists demonstrating against global warming,” by Oneinchpunch

A growing list of labor unions – including IBEW Local 280, Iron Workers Local 29, SMART Local 16, CWA Local 7901, and the Eugene Education Association – have all endorsed the Eugene Clean Energy Fund.

The proposal, a ballot initiative for the November 2026 election, would fund clean energy, green jobs, and climate resilience by placing a 2% fee on the profits of Eugene’s billion-dollar corporations.

ECEF is a community-driven ballot initiative developed by a coalition of climate, health, housing, and racial justice organizations in Eugene. If passed, it would support four main areas of work:

• Renewable energy and energy efficiency programs: 60%
• Clean energy jobs training, apprenticeships, and contractor support: 25%
• Green infrastructure programs that result in carbon gas sequestration: 10%
• Future innovation: 5%

The Breach Collective, one of the initiators of the ballot, says:

“When trade unions endorse a climate initiative like this, it shifts the false narrative that workers have to choose between economic security and climate justice. It signals to voters that this isn’t a fringe environmental issue, but a mainstream, pro-worker, pro-community investment in Eugene’s future. For the building trades specifically, a transition to clean energy means construction: retrofitting homes, installing solar, building green infrastructure. That’s good, skilled union work.”

The labor endorsements join a growing coalition that already includes environmental organizations, racial and social justice organizations, health organizations, community groups, and elected leaders.

For more information, visit the ECEF website.

 

The post Unions Back Eugene, OR, Clean Energy Fund first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Image Source: Canva. “Changes,” by KWaiGon

By Liz Ratzloff

Liz Razloff, Director, Center for Labor and Community Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and former co-director of the Labor Network for Sustainability, recently wrote:

“Right now, a new economy is being built around us.

A new plant goes up on the edge of town. Farmland gets cleared for a battery facility. Transmission lines expand. Data centers rise, drawing as much power as entire neighborhoods. Billions of dollars move through statehouses and corporate boardrooms, deciding what gets built, where, and for whom.

But most working people are experiencing these changes differently.

A storm hits harder than it used to. A basement floods. A highway shuts down. A shift is missed. A power bill climbs. A job disappears or a new one appears without clear wages, standards, or protections. Rising heat makes work slower and more dangerous. We are living inside this transformation.

Corporate executives are making decisions that will shape entire regions for decades, often with public subsidies and limited accountability. State and local governments are competing to bring these projects in, sometimes offering tax breaks and incentives without guarantees about wages, working conditions, or long-term community benefit.

Across the country, workers are starting to push back on the idea that they should simply accept whatever this transition delivers. They are organizing not just around wages and contracts, but to shape the future of their industries. They are asking who controls investment, who sets the terms of new jobs, and what kind of economy is being built with public resources.

Auto workers are preparing for coordinated bargaining across an entire sector. Energy workers are raising questions about how new infrastructure is built and who benefits from it. Workers across industries are connecting the dots between climate change, job quality, economic power, and organizing.

Workers are not waiting to see what happens. They are stepping in to shape the future.

This means fighting to ensure that public investment creates high-quality, union jobs, not a race to the bottom. It means demanding training pathways that actually open doors, not promises that disappear once projects are approved. It means building alignment between labor and communities so that development strengthens the places people live, rather than extracting from them.”

You can read Liz’s full piece here.

To be connected with future CLCS organizing and programming around sustainable jobs and just transition, fill out this interest survey.

The post Workers Confronting the “New Economy” first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

According to a new report from the research organization Ember, last year solar and wind power accounted for 99 percent of the growth in world electricity supply, while generation using fossil fuels declined.

In the US, 93% of all electricity capacity added in 2026 is set to come from solar, wind and batteries. Just 7% will come from fossil fuels.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/28/trump-clean-energy-progress

The post Solar and Wind Providing 99% of New Global Electricity! first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Image Source: Canva “Green Grass Field Under Blue Sky,” by Dan Blood. (Altered)

Unexpected breakthroughs are making energy produced from sun, wind, and water cheaper, safer, and more efficient than energy produced from fossil fuels. That’s according to a new series of commentaries by LNS senior strategic advisor and co-founder Jeremy Brecher. The series explores this “Greentech revolution,” and ask what it will mean for Americans. According to Brecher, the Greentech Revolution is already transforming the way the world produces and uses energy and it will further transform economics, politics, and society. Here are the first pieces in the series giving the background of the Greentech Revolution globally and in the US:

The Greentech Revolution: A New Strike Series

“Energy runs the world, and how energy is produced and used is undergoing a historic transformation. As UN secretary general António Guterres put it,‘We are on the cusp of a new era. Fossil fuels are running out of road. The sun is rising on a clean energy age.’”

The Greentech Revolution: Energy Production

“The use of sun, wind, and water rather than fossil fuels to produce energy is transforming economies around the world. How far has that transformation already gone and what is likely to be its future?”

The Greentech Revolution: Energy Consumption

“Radical, unanticipated developments in electrification, storage, distribution, and other technologies are transforming not only the way energy is produced but also the way it is used. Like the transformation in energy production, these advances in energy consumption are transforming economies and creating new opportunities to protect the climate and improve our lives.”

The US and the Greentech Revolution

“Greentech technologies that protect and improve the environment are revolutionizing energy production and consumption worldwide. The Greentech revolution has also been under way in the US, but it has been severely retarded by the power of the fossil fuel industry and its allies and the policies they promulgated.”

The post The Greentech Revolution first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Chika Okoye discusses Movement Generation’s Just Transition Principle: If it’s not soulful, it’s not strategic.

  At the start of this year we decided to embark on a process of evolving MG frameworks, tools, and curriculum—including Just Transition, Resilience-Based Organizing, Three Circles and others—to reflect the more than 10 years of practice with our movement comrades and, most importantly, to meet this moment. We started by reaching out to beloved comrades from many, many organizations and have already received so much excellent feedback, critique, gaps, innovations, and offerings!   Please consider donating to Movement Generation to support our Frameworks Evolution project!   DONATE

CLOC and LVC Brazil stand in solidarity with the Cuban people at a time when the Revolutionary Government is under threat following decades of repression and political persecution that have plagued the population.

The post La Vía Campesina Brasil expresses solidarity with the Cuban people in the face of the US economic, commercial, and financial blockade appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Participants from the Maritimes, Ontario, and Puerto Rico will take part in a week of farm work, discussions, and workshops.

The post Canada: National Farmers Union Nova Scotia to Host Agroecology Brigade with Partners from Puerto Rico appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The approval of the Agrarian Jurisdiction Law represents one of the most important advances and a historic victory for the defenders of the land, the territory, and the right to live with dignity in rural Colombia.

The post With the Agrarian Jurisdiction, Social Justice Advances in Colombia appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

After the 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum in Sri Lanka in September 2025, which brought together over 500 representatives of social movements and grassroots organizations from across the world, the Common Political Action Agenda (that will guide the movement actions in the years to come is finally out.

The post The Nyéléni Common Political Action Agenda is Finally Out appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.