Global South Unions Search for a “Public Pathway” Approach to Energy Transition

Several decades ago, unions in the Global South were on the cutting edge of societal struggles for democracy, new forms of organizing, and efforts to build a more equal world. In Brazil, Korea, South Africa, Philippines, and elsewhere, unions contributed to a political culture that was classbased and militant. As unions in the North were staggering under the blows inflicted by rightwing governments determined to reign in the power of unions, South unions in a number of key countries appeared to be going from strength to strength. In October 2022, a good number of those same unions that had led historic struggles in the 1980s and 1990s attended a three-day meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, to launch a new South-focused platform where unions work together on issues of energy transition, climate change, and economic development. Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED), the global network which I coordinate, convened the seventy-person meeting with union representatives from twenty-seven countries. Leaders from the Philippines, South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Colombia, and Mexico joined their counterparts from sixteen African countries. Unions from France and the United Kingdom also participated.1 Trade union discussions on climate change are always difficult, and normally produce more consternation than inspiration. There are few heroes, and seldom any uplifting stories. And while the radical traditions of the unions present were on display in the banners that decorated the room, this new generation of leadership finds itself contemplating a challenge so formidable it threatens to redefine what it means to be a trade union. Participants referred to the devastating floods in Pakistan that, just weeks prior to the Nairobi meeting, had displaced 7.9 million people and killed 1,700. According to UNICEF, 27,000 schools have been washed away and child mortality levels have risen in the months since the floods took place.2 Earlier in 2022, 400 hillside dwellers died during record-breaking rainfall in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province.3 These events further corroborate what scientists have been saying: the impact of climate change will everywhere be severe, but the lack of public services and resilient infrastructure will mean that poor countries will be hit particularly hard.4 Meanwhile, the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change are mired in energy poverty. In 2020, Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for more than three-quarters of the world’s people (568 million) who remained without access to electricity.5 1169708 NLFXXX10.1177/10957960231169708New Labor ForumSweeney research-article2023