green unionism

By the IWW Eco Union Caucus - IWW Eco Union Caucus, November 10, 2025

As delegations of numerous State representatives gather in Belém, Brazil, for the Thirtieth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), known as COP30, the Industrial Workers of the World Environmental Union Caucus (IWW EUC) would like to pause and reflect on this critical moment. After three decades of annual meetings, the COP and UNFCCC have utterly failed in their objective of reducing the grave risks posed by global warming to humanity and the rest of nature. Such failures are clear: carbon-dioxide emissions are now at an all-time high, and 2023, 2024, and 2025 have been the hottest on record… so far.

Ahead of the COP30 meeting, UN Secretary General António Guterres conceded that the world has officially missed the +1.5°C target in increased average global temperatures (relative to pre-industrial levels) that the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement had identified as the goal for controlling global warming.

The Trump regime—in line with its atrocious authorization of oil and gas extraction in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency, mandating the violation of the Endangered Species Act via the clear-cutting of vast old-growth forests, withdrawing yet again from the Paris Agreement, resurrecting coal energy, and wrecking numerous renewable-energy projects—isn’t even bothering to send a delegation to COP30, although it still remains a COP member.

In parallel to the climate-denialist U.S. government and armies of fossil-fuel lobbyists that have stymied action to curb global warming for three decades, petro-despotic States like Russia and such OPEC members as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will presumably continue to block any and all international agreements that might mandate meaningful reductions in worldwide carbon emissions at COP30, even without the U.S. officially present.

The IWW EUC emphasizes that the entire COP process is a farce, and that capitalism—together with all other authoritarian economic and governmental systems—must be dismantled to protect humanity and planet Earth against the climate and environmental crises. This is so, given that capitalism mandates the subordination of the working classes to the whims of the managers and owners, who are committed above all to maximizing profit and increasing market share, even and especially when their directives degrade and destroy the environment and the possibility of a livable future. (Consider the classic example of the oil executive who imperils the health and safety of his offspring by ordering the expansion of fossil-fuel production.) As a caucus, we assert that only a post-capitalist future based on ecologically sustainable worker- and community-controlled alternatives will allow for real mitigation of global warming and restoration of ecological balance.

We applaud the front-line community-led non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), Indigenous groups, unions, and nation-States that demand accountability from COP member states, especially those of the Global North. That being said, we certainly do challenge the mistreatment of workers, front-line communities, and Indigenous peoples at the hands of all States, whether they be more or less powerful.

Collectively, we support the statement and call to action in “Weaving Paths from Colonial Apocalypse to Ecological Revolution.”

Lastly: Abolish wage slavery, and live in harmony with the Earth!

By That Green Union Guy - IWW Eco Union Caucus, July 30, 2025

The Contra Costa Refinery Transition Partnership (CCRTP) includes United Steelworkers District 12, United Steelworkers Local 5, the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, UA Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 342, and the Contra Costa Central Labor Council, with support from the United Steelworkers International Union, the California Federation of Labor Unions, UC Berkeley Labor Center, and the BlueGreen Alliance Foundation. It is the culmination of several decades of organizing effort jointly conducted by many of these organizations, dating back to the mid 1990s (for some background, see the introduction and first chapter from the anthology, Power Lines: Building a Labor-Climate Justice Movement.

The roadmap offers 31 practical and specific recommendations on how to provide a managed decline of the remaining four oil refineries in the Bay Area (three in Contra Costa County, specifically Martinez, Rodeo, and Richmond; and one in Solano County, specifically Benicia.)

These include both environmental justice demands, many of which include community input on refinery conversions as well as reparations for impacted communities. Simultaneously, the roadmap includes numerous demands union workers might make in contract negotiations, including provisions for making workers adversely affected by refinery transitions “whole”, including everything from early retirement without penalty, to right of transfer to other still operating facilities by the company, to paid retraining, with seniority rights being a determining factor in who gets first dibs. Indeed, this document reads as a joint contract negotiated by the workers and the community that can serve as a model for similar cases globally.

The Bay Area IWW invites everyone to join us in honoring Judi Bari Day (May 24th) to honor our late comrade and fellow worker Judi Bari. Judi Bari was a revolutionary ecologist active in Earth First! and a member of the IWW, her story is detailed here, here, and here.

Marking the Moment: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM, May 24, 2025 - Gather near Oakland High School on Park Blvd near East 34th Street in Oakland;

IWW Social: 4:00 - 7:00 PM - Gather at the Bay Area IWW Union Hall (Grassroots House), 2022 Blake Street at Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley for a social (food & beverages will be provided), a showing of the documentary, "Who Bombed Judi Bari?" and a (brief) discussion about Judi Bari's green unionism, revolutionary ecology, and their relevance to current organizing campaigns.