Printer FriendlyThomas Estabrook, Ph.D., lead educator with The New England Consortium (TNEC) has a new book Labor-Environmental Coalitions: Lessons from a Louisiana Petrochemical Region.
Published by Baywood as part of their Work, Health and Environment Series and edited by Charles Levenstein and John Wooding, the book explores the dynamics of the Louisiana coalition to offer lessons for other coalition efforts.
In 1984, the oil, chemical and atomic workers began a 5-year campaign to win back the jobs of its members locked out by the BASF Corp, in Geismar, Louisiana. The multiscale campaign involved coalitions with local environmentalists as well as international solidarity from environmental and religious organizations. The local coalition which helped break the lockout was maintained and expanded in the 1990's. Labor-Environmental Coalitions: Lessons from a Louisiana Petrochemical Region traces the development of the Louisiana Labor-Neighbor Project from 1985 to the present, within the context of a long history of divisions between labor and community in the U.S.
The book seeks to understand coalitions as a necessary strategy to counteract the dominant forces of capitalist development. Dr. Estabrook contends that the Labor-Neighbor Project, like labor-community coalitions generally, created a unique blend of politics shaped by the geographic nature of the industry's politics; by the relative openness of gevernment; and by the class experience of labor and community members. Estabrook argues that for labor-community coalitions to have longer term political impact, they should adopt an explicitly progressive approach by building a broader class and cultural leadership and by demanding state and corporate acountability on economic, public health, and environmental justice issues.