#024 Building Red-Green Alliances

Just Us and the Climate - Climate Justice Coalition

How trade unions & climate justice activists can transform the world.
In this podcast episode, we speak to Ruth Ntlokotse, the president of the South African Federation of Trade Unions and a new coordinator of the Climate Justice Coalition. We speak to her about the important role that trade unions have to play in the climate justice movement. We discuss how her workplace, which manufactures catalytic convertors, was shut down largely due to the transition to electric vehicles, and how the failures to protect workers demonstrates the need for a truly just transition.
We discuss a range of other questions like:
- What would a truly just transition be, and what is the world we are fighting for?
- What is social ownership of renewable energy, and how have trade unions been pushing for it (and failing in their fight for it)?
- How can the trade union movement be better organised to ensure they are actively fighting for a more progressive future, and not being reactive and defensive?
- Why the climate justice movement must show up for workers, and how our movements are aligned.
The episode is hosted by Climate Justice Coalition General Secretary, Alex Lenferna. The 2012 NUMSA statement on social ownership of renewable energy · The Green New Eskom campaign advancing socially-owned renewables · South African Federation of Trade Unions website · Website · Facebook · Instagram