The Workers’ Climate Action network was launched in January 2008. Working within the camp, and with activists within the labour movement, WCA has helped this summer’s Climate Camp move on a long way.
At the opening night plenary, on capitalism and climate change, Daniel Randall, a young GMB organiser, spoke about the role of the labour movement in fighting climate change and how the labour movement might mobilise around unifying demands such as the shorter working week, longer annual holidays and public ownership of transport. Here the current aims of the labour movement coincide with a need for people to travel differently for rest and leisure.
He also spoke about the Lucas Plan and the Builders’ Labourers Federation of New South Wales, both powerful workers’ movements of the 70s with inspirational ecological politics.
Clara Osagiede, secretary of the RMT cleaners' grade, spoke about the history of colonialism and oil exploitation in the Niger Delta region where she was an activist; migrant workers from that region now make up a big proportion of the tube cleaners in struggle. For Clara fighting climate change is not about reducing CO2 emissions in the abstract but about building a mass workers’ movement capable of fighting capitalism and capitalist exploitation.
The President of the Medway Trades Council also gave an excellent exposition of capitalism and a vision of working-class socialism and democratic planning by workers and communities.
After debating WCA and the Campaign Against Climate Change, Medway TC agreed to support the camp and to oppose Kingsnorth. They also made sure socialists debated Arthur Scargill when he accepted the WCA invite to come to the Camp.
The session with Scargill was disrupted badly by police attempts to storm the camp, taking most WCA activists away from the meeting that we had organised! It is a shame that Scargill didn’t come and show immediate solidarity at the police line, because he felt it would be a diversion to the real debate. However he did express disgust at the police in media interviews afterward. In the event, over three hours, a meeting built up of about 80 activists and a real debate took place. Scargill believes the climate camp is wrong-headed in its approach to reducing emissions.
He argues that the NUM has fought for the best safety standards for workers in the industry anywhere in the world, and should be supported rather than opposed in preferring a British coal industry rather than coal imported from South Africa, China and elsewhere, which is dirtier, where there are terrible labour and environmental standards, and which has to travel the world to be burnt. Also, there is a massive stock pile in the UK and mining communities in need of employment. He made clear that he was not lining up with the bosses, as some suggested, and still wearing the coal not dole badge reminded people of his union’s determined fight against capitalism.
Scargill also argued that by opposing coal we strengthen the hand of the nuclear lobby and criticised the current NUM leadership for supporting the Government’s energy white paper; he would never give his support to a strategy that involved nuclear.
Scargill was arguing for British coal as a transitional fuel while developing a 100% renewables capacity. He also said it was reckless to be putting obstacles up to the development of Carbon Capture and Storage technology, as it was clear that India and China would continue to burn coal. We should be trying to clean up that process and reduce emissions — building unity with the NUM and other unions around the world — rather than adopting silly slogans like “leave it in the ground”. He strongly emphasised the need for a policy that acknowledged the right of poorer countries to a decent reliable energy supply. There was a good discussion in the end, inconclusive but comradely, with a warm and long applause for Scargill and Dave Douglass from the NUM/IWW for coming.
Later in the week, 50 or so activists turned up to a session by Jill Mountford of the AWL on the 1984-5 great miners’ strike, and discussed a range of important lessons about the power of workers’ struggle against the capitalist state, and posed many questions about how the labour movement can pick itself up from the defeat of that strike. This session also talked about the transformative power of struggle, with discussion about the significance of Women Against Pit Closures.
Another highlight was the Campaign Against Climate Change workshop on “just transition”, though this fell short of thorougly taking up the lessons from Lucas and the BLF; that radical workers’ democracy based on the idea of workers’ control and the willingness to create new union structures and take on the bureaucracy will be necessary in building a trade union movement against climate change. The WCA network resolved to build consensus around a fifth core aim of Climate Camp for the September national meeting, to add "a workers' led just transition" to the existing aims of "movement building", "direct action", "sustainable living" and "education".
WCA activists were able to open up space for left-wing discussion about how the movement should grow, as well as taking part in the life and actions of the camp.
The WCA’s twice daily visits to Kingsnorth and the strong working relationship with the local trades council were good in themselves, but also demonstrated a different and probably complementary approach to the direct action tactics of the Camp and its current social basis. Relations locally were more positive on the day of action, with few complaints about the camp; many local people said they would visit. There were proper discussions about workers’ organisation, multinationals, government policy and just transition with lcoal energy workers.
WCA has plans to continue its work with the trades council and the local Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway group (which did great work during and in the run-up to the camp).
WCA will continue work with Heathrow workers (against expansion). We have plans for a regular airport bulletin, jointly with the Labour Representation Committee and the Campaign Against Immigration Controls, and hopefully working closely with John McDonnell MP and the soon to be re-founded Hillingdon Trades Council. We expect to mobilise for current strikes at Gatwick and Stanstead. Scottish activists are developing campaigns. We are involved in solidarity actions with the tube cleaners' strike.
The Workers' Climate Action conference to organise, debate and educate ourselves will take place in Sheffield in October. E-mail workersclimateaction@gmail.com
