Ep 9: Green Bans and Workers' Plans - How organised labour can save the planet

With Ellie out of action, wafflers-in-chief Daniel and Edd discuss whether trade unions have a particular role to play in the struggle to prevent the planet becoming a charred husk (spoiler: they do).

Verity Burgmann, co-author of ‘Green Bans, Red Union’, joins us to discuss the New South Wales Builders Labourers’ Federation’s “green bans” of the 1970s, before Edd talks us through the history Lucas Aerospace Workers’ plan of 1976, and Daniel reminisces about his time campaign on a roundabout in support of the Vestas wind turbine factory workers’ occupation of 2009.

Here are some links mentioned in the show, and a few extra ones:

The new edition of ‘Green Bans, Red Union’ is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Green-Bans-Red-Union-Saving/dp/1742235409/ref=nodl_

‘Rocking the Foundations’, a film about the BLF, can be viewed here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2-xkxU0wu8

The Lucas Plan 40th anniversary website is here: http://lucasplan.org.uk/

Hilary Wainwright and Dave Elliot’s book on the Lucas Plan can be purchased here: http://www.waterstonesmarketplace.com/Lucas-Plan-New-Trade-Unionism-in-the-Making-Hilary-Wainwright/book/14986886

The Workers’ Climate Action website (inactive since 2011, sadly) is online here: https://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com/. The WCA briefings on the BLF and Lucas are here: https://workersclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/blf-briefing2.pdf and here: https://workersclimateaction.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/lucas-briefing.pdf

Trade union activists may also find WCA’s ‘How to be an effective climate activist in your workplace’ briefing useful: https://workersclimateaction.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/how-to-be-an-effective-climate-activist-in-your-workplace/

For more on the Vestas struggle, Read Workers’ Liberty’s pamphlet ‘The Vestas Jobs Battle: How Wind Turbine Workers Became a Power’, here: http://www.workersliberty.org/system/files/vestas.pdf

Paul Hampton’s ‘Workers and Trade Unions for Climate Solidarity: Tackling climate change in a neoliberal world’ is basically *the* book on the overall subject matter of this episode, and is available to buy here: https://www.crcpress.com/Workers-and-Trade-Unions-for-Climate-Solidarity-Tackling-climate-change/Hampton/p/book/9781138283633

And finally, check out the Nationalise the Big Six campaign, mentioned in the episode, here: https://nationalisethebigsix.com/