A1. Favorites

No reform can transform the WTO into an institution that serves the people. The time has come to build a new system that prioritizes dignity, sovereignty, and the well-being of all peoples.

The post “No reform can transform the WTO into an institution that serves the people” appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

"The effects on farmers, livestock and crops have been catastrophic. The AGRIFISH Council, which is due to meet on 13 July 2026, must include measures to tackle this situation."

The post ECVC: The AGRIFISH Council Must Take Action to Tackle the Intense Heatwave Situation appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

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

Listen to the audio version >>

While Trump conducts his war against Greentech, many US states are forging ahead with energy expansion based on sun, wind, and water. Greentech’s slashing of the cost of renewable energy production and use has made states turn to it not only to protect the climate but to make energy affordable for their people. 

A photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office with several of his Executive Orders, January 20, 2025. Photo credit: The White House, public domain.

The US federal system gives states a powerful position in energy policy. States regulate electric generation, local distribution of electricity, and infrastructure siting. They can set policy in myriad other areas from urban planning to public transit to housing that can help shape the utilization of climate-protecting Greentech.

Shortly after his inauguration, President Trump issued an executive order entitled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach.” The order describes state clean energy policies as “burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.” The order calls on the Attorney General to take action against these state laws, and she began to file lawsuits against them almost immediately. This executive order was followed by many other Trump efforts to hamstring or outlaw state climate policies, ranging from blocking California emission standards to forced reopening of shuttered coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, recent headlines have publicized retrenchment in state climate policies. New York state abandoned its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030, substituting weaker and squishier targets. California also relaxed requirements for emission reductions – although the change continues to be contested in the state legislature. In both cases energy affordability was given as a reason, although advocates of both changes acknowledged that they would not bring down energy prices any time soon. Both New York and California changes were preceded by heavy fossil fuel industry lobbying.

Such retreats register the reality that Trump’s attacks are restricting the development of the Greentech New Deal. Federal defunding of climate-protecting initiatives has made them more expensive; regulatory changes and subsidies have advantaged fossil fuels; and legal attack has undermined the Greentech revolution. But these retreats should not conceal the advances the Greentech Revolution has made in US states even during the first year-and-a-half of the Trump era.

Today’s Greentech advances in the states typically combine climate protection with affordability. That’s possible because Greentech has made production and use of renewable energy so much cheaper – rendering fossil fuels non-competitive.

California–Two steps forward, one step back?

California’s electricity is increasingly coming from solar. Photo credit: Tom Brewster Photography, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Data Source: US Energy Information Administration

California, now the world’s fourth largest economy, illustrates the collision of the irresistible force of the Greentech Revolution with the immovable object of the Trumpian fossil fuel counter-revolution. In recent years it has faced devastating heatwaves, droughts, storms, wildfires, and other extreme weather conditions resulting from global warming. Not surprisingly, an overwhelming proportion of Californians worry about climate change and back policies to fight it. In 2006 California passed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which set targets for greenhouse gas emissions and sets a declining limit on total emissions by the state’s major polluters. Over the next twenty years California substantially raised its targets and implemented many other climate protection policies. From 2001 to 2019, California reduced its carbon emissions by 25%, leaving a typical Californian emitting only half as much as other Americans.

In 2024, California’s natural gas generation fell by 8%; coal is expected to soon be eliminated entirely from its electrical supply. By the end of 2025 the state had 2.5 times more battery storage available than it did in 2022.

As soon as Trump was inaugurated president, he began a massive attack on California’s climate protection efforts. For example, he attacked the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The state sued to preserve the ban. In 2025 it extended the cap and trade program, renamed cap and invest, by 15 years. Then Governor Newsom, under heavy lobbying from California’s oil industry, announced a new plan which offers free pollution permits worth as much as $4 billion to oil refineries and other major polluters. Legislative leaders are refusing to accept the plan, however, and have refused to fund many of Newsom’s other programs until he abandons his plan. Contested negotiations are expected to continue until the legislative session ends in September. The result is hanging in the balance.

Other states go Greentech

The California climate drama should not obscure what is happening in other states.

Soon after Trump’s inauguration, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued an executive order that directs the state to procure 10 GW of clean energy and 5 GW of battery storage by 2035. The governor’s office projects up to $10 billion in savings for residents and businesses. Massachusetts also announced $180 million in immediate utility rate reductions. This cut residential electricity bills by up to 25 percent for two months.

Maryland’s Utility RELIEF (Reducing Energy Load Inflation for Everyday Families) Act provides $200 million from the state’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund to accelerate local clean energy development and storage and provides targeted utility bill relief. An Affordable Solar Act which would add up to 4 GW of new solar capacity by 2035, promote plug-in solar, and improve grid access, is pending in the legislature.

Upon her inauguration, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency on utility costs. An executive order directed the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to pursue rate relief by pausing new hikes and delivering residential bill credits. Another ordered rapid expansion of solar and battery storage and streamlining of the permitting process. In March, the BPU approved the expansion of the state’s community solar program, adding 3 GW of new capacity, with low-income households guaranteed a discount of at least 25 percent on their bills. According to American Progress, this expansion was the largest of a state-run program in the country’s history, and the program has already delivered more than $70 million in bill credits to households across the state. The governor also signed a measure that increases transmission-scale storage across the state, helping store low-cost clean energy and deploy it during peak demand to reduce price spikes and improve reliability.

In Pennsylvania, the PA EDGE (Pennsylvania Economic Development for a Growing Economy) creates tax credit programs for billions of dollars in energy and advanced manufacturing investment, including clean energy technologies. In June 2026 the Pennsylvania House put a cap on profits from utility company investments in infrastructure and eliminated nearly $1.7 billion in taxes that electricity companies now pass along to consumers as part of their bills.

In Virginia, a clean energy package includes streamlining solar siting, expanding storage connections to the grid, limiting carbon-emitting backup generators at data centers, and expanding virtual power plant programs that let utilities draw on distributed clean energy sources such as rooftop solar and home batteries.

The obstacles fall

One of the main objections to renewable energy has always been that it becomes unavailable when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. This objection has been largely overcome by Greentech’s radical reduction in the cost of energy storage. As a result, the most recent wave of state programs has put battery storage front and center.

Illinois’s Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act instructs the state to procure three gigawatts of new battery storage by 2030 to help stabilize electricity prices. It also includes a “storage for all” program that provides incentives for income-qualified households and businesses to install battery systems co-located with solar projects. The Illinois Power Agency expects the act to save customers $13.4 billion over two decades.

Pennsylvania is investing $22 million to help battery manufacturer Eos Energy Enterprises expand battery manufacturing operations in the Pittsburgh area. The expansion is expected to create 735 new jobs in Allegheny County. Last year the workers at Eos Energy voted to join the United Steelworkers Union. Eos also announced a plan to develop energy storage projects across Pennsylvania.

Another obstacle facing renewable energy is that the location where it is needed is not necessarily the location where it is produced. So state policies are addressing the extreme inadequacies of the electrical grid. For example, the state of Washington has established the Washington Electric Transmission Authority, a new state entity empowered to plan, site, and finance transmission infrastructure. New Mexico and Colorado have established similar authorities.

New technology doesn’t always mean greater complexity. Witness the emergence of small solar systems that hang on a balcony and plug right into a wall socket. More than a million homes in Germany now have such “balcony power plants,” but they are forbidden in the US. Last year the Utah legislature voted unanimously to let residents use plug-in collectors. 23 other state legislatures are now considering similar bills. According to the New York Times, such legislation would “eliminate one of the technology’s biggest barriers in the United States”: homeowners or renters could install plug-in systems “without approval from their local utility.”

A common complaint against large-scale solar projects is that they use up land that would otherwise be available for agriculture. However, solar projects are now actually supporting agriculture by the new techniques known as agrivoltaics. State policies are now promoting agrivoltaics. Last year, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities launched a new dual-use pilot project to organize and accelerate agrivoltaics development in the state. The three-year pilot program calls for up to 200 megawatts of solar power, with Rutgers University applying its agrivoltaics research to develop best practices and guidelines. Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia also have agrivoltaics programs under way.

Renewable energy projects can also contribute to improved land use by utilizing currently degraded spaces like landfills and contaminated industrial sites. An example is New Jersey’s Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive Program, accompanied by a Landfill to Solar online guide for local governments and solar developers, created by the Governor’s Office of Climate Action and the Green Economy. An already completed example is the Toms River project, the largest solar power plant in New Jersey and also the largest solar array on a Superfund site anywhere in the US.

Beyond the blue

Wolf Ridge Wind Farm in Muenster, Texas. Photo credit: Ben (Out with the Old, In with the New), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

The expansion of Greentech in the Trump era has by no means been limited to blue states. Some of the most extensive installations of Greentech are in red states – witness Texas. Utility-scale solar plants produced 45 terawatts from January through September, 2025, up 50% from 2024 and nearly four times what they generated in 2021. Wind power also continued to climb, producing 87 terawatts through September – a 4% increase from 2024 and 36% more than in 2021. Together, wind and solar supplied more than a third of Texas’ electricity in the first 9 months of 2025. Battery use is also growing. Three of the four largest US battery storage projects scheduled to open in 2026 are in Texas. Solar collection and battery storage are now being systematically combined: one dual project is adding 837 megawatts of solar power and 418 megawatts in battery energy storage capacity.

In Nevada, generally regarded as a “purple” state, a third of all energy demand is now met by solar panels. The state has the highest solar electricity generation per capita in the country, as well as the most solar-industry jobs per capita. The goal of producing half of its electricity from renewables by 2030 is enshrined in the state’s constitution. The Las Vegas region has the highest concentration of residential rooftop solar in the continental US. The city’s chief sustainability officer attributes this in part to the city’s easy permitting. “You’re pretty much in and out of our office with a permit in 30 minutes.”

In the absence of federal support, states are reaching out to each other to create regional alliances to implement Greentech. For example, thirteen states have formed the Geothermal Power Accelerator collaboration to rapidly expand geothermal power development. Another example: The California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 825 to begin the process of establishing a regional electricity partnership across the West. In late June, the state of Washington joined the partnership along with California and Quebec. And, after briefly withdrawing, Virginia rejoined the 11-member northeastern Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

In some states like Texas, the Greentech boom is occurring without much attempt to reap its potential social benefits. But in many states, as we will see in a subsequent commentary in this series, the Greentech revolution is enabling a broader program for jobs and justice that embodies the principles of the Green New Deal. That in turn is laying the basis for a national Greentech New Deal to come.

Looming over recent climate politics has been the issue of energy affordability. Because Greentech has made the production and use of renewable energy so much less costly than fossil fuel energy, states have accelerated their introduction of it. But the energy cost squeeze on consumers has in some cases also led states to shortsightedly reduce investment in Greentech and unleash fossil fuels.

These dynamics are now being exacerbated by the escalation in fossil fuel prices and the threat of energy insecurity that have accompanied the Iran war. The relative expense and unreliability of fossil fuel energy is likely to accelerate Greentech in the states. States that don’t want to render their economies “stranded assets” should go all out for the Greentech revolution right now.

Get “Strike!” via EmailGet “Strike!” via Substack DONATE ONLINE

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

These technologies represent a new offensive by corporations to commodify life, seize control of seeds, and disregard the rights of the peoples who have protected biodiversity for millennia.

The post Latin American Organizations Unite Against Gene Editing in Agriculture and Seed Control appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Given the volume of important developments in South Asia this month, and their relevance for La Via Campesina readers around the world, we’re sharing a summarized digest.

The post South Asia in Focus: Peasant Organizations Raise Alarm over Heatwaves, Delayed Monsoons, Free Trade Deals, and Land Acquisition for an “AI City” appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The resolution would open doors to speculative trade on seeds, making it prohibitively expensive for peasant farmers and Indigenous peoples who feed the territories.

The post Chile: Peasant And Indigenous Organizations Reject Government Proposal To Commercialize Peasant Seeds appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

More than half of the 41 Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) registered for use in Uganda are currently banned in the European Union. Despite this, they remain on Ugandan shelves and in Ugandan fields.

The post Uganda’s Peasant Movements Push Back Against Harmful Pesticides with Agroecology appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

"If we want more farmers, policies for generational renewal must be based on principles of justice rather than profit-making." ECVC

The post Europe: ECVC responds to European Commission’s strategy for Generational Renewal appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

La Via Campesina Honduras has emphatically denounced the law which it says not only orders eviction but also legally shields those lands against any future agrarian reform claim.

The post Honduras: Peasant Organizations Denounce 1,000 Eviction Orders appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Across every region, member organizations mobilized to defend land, agroecology, rural communities, and social justice while resisting corporate control, violence, and environmental destruction.

The post 2026 | June News Wrap: Updates from LVC Members Worldwide appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Olive trees that took three generations to raise are burned in an afternoon. Wells are fouled. Animals are killed where they stand, or left behind when their owners are ordered out within the hour.

The post La Via Campesina Calls to Stop the War on the People of Lebanon, Their Land, and Their Bread appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

EU parliament's recent decision to authorize the commercialization of plants derived from New Genomic Techniques marks a turning point for EU agriculture, and paves the way for new GMOs to enter the market as early as 2027.

The post Europe | ECVC: The Hidden Stakes of “New GMOs” appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

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

Listen to the audio version >>

While President Trump has repeatedly declared the Green New Deal dead, Green New Deal-type programs are burgeoning at a sub-national level. These initiatives are facilitated by the advent of new technologies that have enormously improved fossil free energy production and use and made them far cheaper. This commentary takes a look at Greentech New Deal initiatives in American cities.

Solar panels. Photo credit: ivankmit, Envato

In Trump’s America the Greentech Revolution is being waged from below.

Although Trump’s attacks have slowed the advance of fossil-free technologies in the US, they have not prevented communities, cities, and states from creating their own Greentech New Deals. They are taking advantage of the enormous reduction in the cost of renewable energy and of technologies that use it despite Trump’s attempts to obliterate them.

Alongside the widespread pro-democracy resistance to Trump and MAGA, there is a constructive program being developed and implemented from below, utilizing the Greentech Revolution to make Green New Deals practical and affordable. Greentech and climate protection are at its core. But it also includes the full range of pro-people, pro-social programs represented by the Green New Deal.

What does the Greentech revolution look like on the ground in the US in the Trump era? Much of the action around Greentech is occurring at a local level, both in municipal and county governments and in civil society. In this commentary we will describe examples of Greentech-enabled programs in US cities and their communities in Trump’s first year-and-a-half in office to give a sense of their breadth and diversity. In the next we will review such initiatives in the states.

Back in 2007, Xcel Energy won backing from the governor of Minnesota for a gas power plant in Becker, near Minneapolis, designed to replace coal-fired generators scheduled for shutdown in the mid-2020s. But clean energy advocates campaigned for better and cheaper alternatives, and regulators eventually baulked at the $1 billion price tag. Xcel gave up on the gas plant plan and instead proposed the Sherco Energy Hub, a 710-megawatt solar facility which includes a 600-megawatt storage system, the largest battery energy storage system in the Midwest. An Xcel spokesperson said, “Batteries help us store energy when it’s inexpensive to produce and dispatch it when needed, allowing us to continue delivering reliable electricity to customers while keeping bills low.” The site will also provide grazing for nearly 2,000 sheep, reducing mowing costs while also letting local sheep farmers expand their herds. Xcel also announced plans to close all its remaining coal fired plants in the region. Sherco’s solar plant will start producing electricity in 2026.

Sherco shows how Greentech’s reduction in the cost of energy and facilitation of battery storage opens the door for communities and governments to demand that fossil fuels be replaced by renewable energy. As climate journalist Tina Casey commented on CleanTechnica, the Sherco facility “demonstrates how community efforts and basic economics can push the needle on the energy transition.”

Manchester Public Schools is a suburban school district outside of Hartford CT with 17 schools, four of which are Title I schools serving low-income communities. While the state had many solar programs, by 2020 private solar developers had concluded that Manchester would “never do a project.” But in 2022, with support from the Connecticut Green Bank, solar panels were installed at 6 of Manchester’s 17 public schools, adding 1.6 MW to the town’s solar energy capacity. Now Manchester has three net-zero energy school buildings and is adopting cutting-edge technologies like ground source heat pumps. Manchester also has additional ongoing investments in net-zero buildings, including a new library. Solar installations are projected to save the Town of Manchester approximately $100,000 annually. Beyond financial savings, these renewable energy systems are now valuable educational tools, reportedly sparking curiosity and environmental awareness among students.

In Seattle, drayage trucks contribute significantly to air pollution, disproportionately impacting low-income communities along freight corridors in the Duwamish Valley. According to Seattle’s then-mayor Bruce Harrell, “Seattle’s port is the backbone of our economy, but diesel drayage trucks that transport goods are some of the Duwamish Valley neighborhoods’ heaviest polluters.” Seattle has now developed a Heavy Duty Electric Trucks Pilot to provide incentives for purchasing electric drayage trucks. The program results in part from interviews conducted with drayage truck drivers who pointed out electric trucks were too expensive for them to buy. The drivers’ insights helped shape a new approach that, according to the city’s Office of Sustainability and Environment, “centers equity to ensure a just transition for truck drivers, particularly independent owner-operators, who are critical to our region’s supply chain and who bear disproportionate environmental and economic burdens.”

Funding for the program comes from Seattle’s JumpStart Payroll Expense Tax on extremely high salaries. The funding was recommended by Seattle’s Green New Deal Oversight Board, which develops budget and policy recommendations for environmental initiatives in partnership with communities. Said then-Mayor Harrell, “Through the Heavy Duty Electric Trucks Pilot, we’re investing in the technology that will ultimately reduce emissions in frontline communities while also supporting drivers to ensure they have real opportunities in the zero-emission economy.” The trucks are expected to be in operation by the end of 2026.

The drayage truck program is only one small component of Seattle’s much broader community participation climate effort. For example, Greenspace, Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment, partnered with Seattle’s Green New Deal Oversight Board, the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council (MLK Labor), and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle to pilot “climate community assemblies” that included union members and workers, community members, and social justice and youth advocates to make decisions, influence government, and shape solutions. The Urban League’s neighborhood-based assembly focused on climate preparedness for BIPOC and working-class community members. MLK Labor, a labor council representing more than 100,000 workers in King County, led a worker assembly focused on workplace safety, green job standards, and improving public infrastructure to be ready for extreme weather. A follow-on project will turn ideas developed by the assemblies into policies for the city. And future community assemblies will help shape Seattle’s Climate Action Plan Update.

On the site of an abandoned psychiatric hospital in Southeast Washington, DC, a renewable energy project called Sycamore & Oak has just opened a “microgrid” — a self-contained system that includes energy generation and consumption. Solar panels provide electricity during daylight hours and charge batteries that continue to provide electricity during the night. The project’s workforce development program trained a cohort of 10 local residents, most of whom are from Ward 8 where the project is located, for the installation. According to Jordan Taylor of GRID Alternatives, the nonprofit that provides solar installation and workforce development for the project, “Ultimately the Black-owned businesses that are supported by Sycamore & Oak get to receive lower-cost power.” With fuel-based energy, “you’re emitting fossil fuel pollution into the local community,” which is “usually a low-income or disadvantaged community.” Taylor said that improvements in building science are not only better for the environment, but more cost-effective. These range from construction techniques to long-term energy usage over the lifetime of a building. “We can build the same structure for 90% less energy consumption. That’s both a cost-savings measure, as well as an energy efficiency and ecologically friendly one.”

Community Benefit Agreements have become an important way to ensure that Greentech developments meet social needs. The once-industrial city of Worcester MA recently laid out a 51-acre manufacturing-focused GreenTech Park on a former abrasives factory site in Worcester’s Greendale neighborhood. The Worcester Business Development Corp., the City of Worcester, and representatives of organized labor signed a community benefit agreement ensuring compliance with the City’s Specialized Stretch Code, which is designed to help Worcester meet its goal of net-zero emissions by 2045. The CBA also commits the partners to compliance with the City’s Responsible Development Ordinance which ensures job opportunities for Worcester residents, people of color, women, local contractors, and apprentices. The agreement requires monthly stakeholder meetings and informational discussions with Greendale residents. Fred Taylor, president of the Worcester NAACP, business representative for Carpenters Local 336, and co-chair of the Worcester Community-Labor Coalition that helped negotiate the CBA said, “This agreement ensures responsible development that will not only create local jobs for our community members but also promote a safe working environment with good wages.” It will “increase tax revenue for the city, helping to make Worcester a better place to work and live.”

In June 2026, Montgomery County MD announced 20 clean energy and energy efficiency projects. According to the Montgomery County Executive, the initiatives will

“support practical projects that improve energy efficiency, strengthen emergency preparedness, and create more resilient public spaces, particularly in communities that are more vulnerable during extreme weather events. These investments will lower long-term operating costs for taxpayers while helping the County make meaningful progress toward our climate goals.”

The projects have a strong Greentech element. They include solar-powered backup systems at seven recreation centers; an agrivoltaics demonstration project at the Agricultural History Farm Park; and building automation system upgrades. County official David Dise says, “We are proudly advancing Montgomery County’s climate goals through innovative green energy solutions, including microgrids and resilience hubs.”

In the Bryant community in Ann Arbor MI, a quarter of residents spend more than a third of their incomes on utilities. After years of campaigning by local energy activists, 80% of Ann Arbor voters approved a new Sustainable Energy Utility. Operating alongside the existing privately-owned utility, the SEU will purchase, install, and maintain solar panels, battery backup systems, and other fossil-free energy infrastructure in residents’ homes. Those who choose to join pay a small monthly fee – far less than they save from their free solar installation. The city will own the facilities, but residents can sell whatever electricity they don’t need themselves. The plan will pilot in Bryant and spread to other locations in the city. The SEU could also build its own microgrids, for example putting solar panels on schools to provide power during school hours and then supplying other SEU users when school is out. Derrick Miller of the nonprofit Community Action Network says, “When we started having a conversation about how to decarbonize the neighborhood about four years ago, it felt outlandish. Now, it doesn’t feel like anyone can stop us.”

Alongside the Cow Palace arena just south of San Francisco, construction has begun on the Cormorant Energy Storage Project, whose 250-megawatt capacity will make it the largest battery array in any major US urban area. It will supply energy to MCE, a community choice aggregator which purchases electricity on behalf of local residents as an alternative to for-profit utilities. The battery will bring $73 million of property tax revenue to Daly City; the developer will donate $1.5 million in community benefits.

These are only a small sampling of the Greentech-facilitated programs in American cities, but they illustrate the diversity of such initiatives. They show that Greentech-facilitated programs are in place in every region of the country, in jurisdictions large and small, and in localities blue and red, exhibiting myriad forms of both energy production and energy consumption.

Such initiatives have been retarded by Trump’s attempts to wipe out Greentech. They have also met resistance from local MAGA and NIMBY forces. But as these examples show, they are continuing to bloom.

These initiatives are significant for several reasons. They directly improve the lives of the people they affect and reduce the emission of climate-destroying greenhouse gases. They demonstrate concretely how climate protection, racial and economic justice, grassroots democracy, and quality of life can be combined. They show that people acting together can overcome Trump’s anti-Greentech counter-revolution. And looking forward, they lay a foundation for the triumph of a Greentech New Deal once Trumpian resistance is overcome.

 

Get “Strike!” via EmailGet “Strike!” via Substack DONATE ONLINE

The post Greentech New Deals in the Cities first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Three Roads: Labor, Music, Ecology is a new book by LNS president and founder Joe Uehlein. Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants/Communication Workers of America says, “Three Roads is both an instruction manual for building campaigns to win big fights and a deeply personal and uplifting memoir. Joe is a true champion for working people and our planet, and he makes the stories of our fight sing off the page.”

Now Joe is giving a series of readings and performances from Portland Me to Seattle WA:

Here’s where to catch Joe’s Show:

More info here

The post LNS Prez Joe Uehlein Touring with New Book and Guitar first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Image Source: “Protest against ICE in downtown Minneapolis 23 January 2026 – ICE OUT – Fuera ICE” by Fibonacci Blue via Wikimedia Commons.

Minnesota trade unionists are among 15 people indicted in mid-June on charges of “conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer” during ICE attacks on Minneapolis since December 2025. The indictment cited participation in assemblies of trade unionists and other workers held at the United Labor Centre in Minneapolis as evidence that the activists participated in a criminal conspiracy.

Kieran Knutson, president of Communications Workers of America Local 7250, described these worker assemblies as “an attempt to create a democratic space for workers to be part of decision making about how the workers’ movement participates in the anti-ICE resistance, and in the labor movement in general.”

“Most union members can go to their union meetings if their unions have meetings and participate this way, but this was a way of doing that across different unions, across different industries, across different trades, in a way that’s directly democratic, to talk about and discuss and debate issues. It wasn’t a front group for any one political trend. A number of unions sponsored it.”

More than fifty labor and community groups responded to the conspiracy indictment with a statement signed by SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, CWA Local 7250, UFCW locals 1189 and 663, Education Minnesota, and the Minnesota AFL-CIO, among others. It read in part:

“A hundred thousand of us peacefully marched in minus twenty degrees. No matter what we look like, how we pray, or what language we speak, we looked out for our neighbors and stood up to attacks on our state. But now, ahead of our midterm elections, the Trump regime’s weaponized DOJ is lashing out in hopes of intimidating people who challenge their corruption, abuses of power, and attacks on our freedoms.

“But Minnesotans have already proven we won’t cave to bullies and their billionaire backers, no matter their fearmongering and division. We’ll continue to stand together and stand up for what is right, because that’s what neighbors do for each other.”

For more on this story:

• “Sweeping Federal Indictments of Ice Observers Net Minnesota Unionists” from In These Times
• “We’ll Continue to Stand Together”: Minnesota Labor Slams Federal Indictments as Political Repression from Workday Magazine

The post “Then They Came for the Trade Unionists…” first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Data centers are large warehouse-like structures filled with digital electronics that process artificial intelligence (AI). They can encompass more than a million square feet. Today by one count there are 4,149 data centers in the US, with 2,788 more under construction or planned. LNS is currently preparing an informational guide about the impact of data centers on workers.

The companies planning data centers maintain they will benefit local communities and produce large numbers of much-needed jobs. Some unions have joined them. But according to a recent Gallop poll, seven in ten Americans oppose constructing data centers in their local area. Nearly half, 48%, are strongly opposed. Barely a quarter favor these projects, with only 7% strongly in favor. Community coalitions in hundreds of locations are organizing to oppose them. Just in the first quarter of 2026, the number of groups actively opposing data centers more than doubled to 833 across 49 states. They say they will corner local energy supplies and therefore raise electric rates; drain scarce water resources; pollute the environment; accelerate global warming; and create heat and noise pollution for miles around.

Patrick Schloesser, a software engineer at Amazon Web Services, recently testified in support of regulation of new data center construction in Seattle: “It’s been reported that this year, Amazon is spending $200 billion on capital, with most of it going to data centers and AI. Microsoft is spending $190 billion. Meanwhile, the leaders at my company have laid off 30,000 corporate employees in the last eight months.” (The Seattle City Council ultimately voted for a yearlong moratorium of local data center construction.)

Tech workers, joined by the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of University Professors, and the Working Families Party, have just founded the Guardrail Alliance, a super PAC designed to “take on moneyed entities that oppose reining in A.I., while supporting legislation to safeguard the technology.”

The post Why All the Fuss about Data Centers? first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Image Source: “Renewable Energy Systems Engineering” by Getty Images Signature via Canva (Altered)

The Green Workers Alliance is an organization of 1,800 renewable energy workers across the country who are mobilizing to win more and better jobs in the sector. In early June GWA members joined allies from the United Ratepayers campaign to crash the Edison Electric Institute annual summit in Las Vegas, joining activists from across the nation to call for an end to rate hikes and increased use of renewable energy, the most affordable way to power our nation. As the CEO of Nevada Energy spoke, ratepayers demanded the utility cancel the daily demand charge, which is being imposed as Nevada residents face worsening struggles paying their utility bills. GWA says that expanding renewable energy means jobs for its members and affordable energy for hard-pressed utility customers.

Source: https://www.greenworkers.org/post/gwa-on-the-move-this-spring

The post Green Workers Alliance Crashes Edison Electric Institute Summit first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Image Source: The White House, Public Domain

In two new pieces in his Commentary on Solidarity and Survival series, LNS co-founder and senior strategic advisor Jeremy Brecher reviews Donald Trump’s war against fossil-free energy and examines to what extent it has succeeded.

Trump’s Anti-Greentech Counter-Revolution by Jeremy Brecher | Jun 1, 2026

From the day of his inauguration until long after the closing of the Straits of Hormuz, President Donald Trump and his fossil fuel supporters have conducted an unrelenting war against the Greentech revolution and fossil free energy.

Irresistible Greentech Revolution Meets Immovable Trump Counter-Revolution by Jeremy Brecher | Jun 15, 2026

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.

 

The post Has Trump Defeated the Greentech New Deal? first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Image source: “Piles Judicial Court Files” by AndreyPopov via Canva (Altered).

In March, 2023 the UN General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, to rule on the obligation of nations to protect the climate under international law. In July 2025 the Court ruled that States have an obligation to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emissions. The Court also ruled that if States breach these obligations, they are legally responsible and may be legally required to stop the wrongful conduct, offer guarantees that it won’t happen again, and make full reparation, depending on the circumstances.

Now the General Assembly has passed a new resolution, affirming the Court’s ruling that States are obliged to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emission. There were 141 votes in favor, and 28 abstentions, with Belarus, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the US, and Yemen voting against.

Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/05/1167561

The post UN General Assembly Backs World Court: International Law Says Governments Legally Responsible to Protect the Climate first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

Image Source: “Global Climate Strike 09-20-2019” by Markus Spiske via Canva (Altered).

In an advisory opinion issued May 21, the International Court of Justice ruled that the right to strike is protected under the International Labor Organization’s Convention No. 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement,

“At a moment when workers’ organizations face sustained attacks around the world, this opinion reaffirms that the freedom to withhold one’s labor is not a privilege granted by the powerful, but a fundamental human right grounded in international law.”

Check out “Labor Unions Celebrate World Court’s Ruling That Enshrines the Right to Strike” from Truthout for more information.

The post World Court Affirms: Workers Have a Right to Strike first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.