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The Politics of Sustainable Development: Citizens, Unions and the Corporations LAURIE E. ADKIN Using documentary evidence, interviews and surveys, Laurie Adkin examines the potential of new social movements and the labour movement to pose radical challenges to the model of development in the West. Although there are considerable obstacles on both sides, the author believes that the potential exists for a convergence between a radicalized `social unionism' and the popular democratic discourse of political ecology. "The most difficult, yet most needed, of research projects is one that moves from the theoretical to the "real" in all its detail, complexity, and contradictions. This book takes on that challenge, contributing to a rethink of both the theoretical and practical. It is especially important in recognizing the constraints on action yet showing that activists' conceptions of unionism, union culture, and ideas do matter. It will, no doubt, be of great relevance to both academics and CAW activists struggling with the politics and tensions of more successfully addressing the issue of the environment." - Sam Gindin, Director of Research, Canadian Auto Workers Union "This is a well-researched and politically astute study which illuminates the challenges faced by activists and movements that strive to break through the enclosures of conventional politics. In a sober yet hopeful voice, Adkin records the struggles of trade unionists and citizens groups to find common ground around a democratic-ecological project that might well fuel a resurgent counter-hegemony in Canada and elsewhere." -- William K. Carroll, Professor of Sociology, University of Victoria "A rare example, nowadays, of meticulous scholarship in the service of political engagement, and a key text for all those who are seriously concerned with the real possibilities--and the real obstacles--to the emergence of a new progressive politics based on the new social movements and the labour movement. The book makes the abstractions of social science come alive in its account of the real, stressful efforts of ordinary people to understand and overcome what industry is doing to their health and their jobs. It also breaks new ground in showing how crucial ideological 'discourses' are in building the necessary alliances to do this." - Colin Leys, Professor of Political Studies, Queen's University at Kingston, 1976-1996, and co-editor of the Socialist Register Laurie E. Adkin holds a PhD from Queen's University in Political Studies and currently teaches Comparative Politics at the University of Alberta. She has published articles on new social movements, the Canadian labour and environmental movements, and on Latin America. Paperback ISBN: 1-55164-080-5 $28.99 Hardcover ISBN: 1-55164-081-3 $57.99
Laurie E. Adkin, The Politics of Sustainable Development: Citizens, Unions, and the Corporations(Montreal; New York; London: Black Rose Books, 1998) The attitudes and actions of citizens' groups, unions and corporations reflect not only their stakes in protecting particular interests, but also the limits of their abilities to envision, or mobilize support for, alternatives to the prevailing mode of economic growth. Growing public concern about toxic chemicals and industrial issues coincided in the 1980s with a peak in environmental activism and government initiatives. These developments are examined alongside the complex problem of labour movement responses. How successful have these various interests been in shaping the economic-environmental regulatory framework? Analyses of the roles of actors such as citizens' groups and unions in the formation of public policy have been notably lacking in Canada. The regulatory battles studied here include: the amendment to the Ontario Environmental Protection Act which became known as the "Spills Bill"; Ontario's Municipal-Industrial Strategy of Abatement for pollution entering waterways; the introduction of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act; the public review of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement; and the public participation process for the Remedial Action Plans for the "areas of concern" in the Great Lakes Basin. Also compared are the responses of two industrial trade unions to environmental regulation of industry and the growing influence of the environmental movement. These are: the Energy and Chemical Workers Union (ECWU) and the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW). The ECWU's responses to environmental issues affecting its membership are studied in the context of the union's relations with petrochemical industry employers during expansionary and recession eras. Among the issues affecting the ECWU, this work examines: air pollution in Sarnia in the 1950s and 1960s; mercury contamination of the St. Clair River; leaded gasoline and lead smelting; and toxic chemical pollution. The ECWU provides a case study of a union which has maintained a largely passive, and at times hostile stance toward the initiatives of the environmental movement. The political economy of the petrochemical sector, as well as corporate management approaches, the ideological perspectives of union leaders and rank-and-file members, and the views of unions adopted by environmentalists, are among the factors examined in order to explain this union's orientation. The CAW has adopted a more activist and alliance-oriented approach to the environmental movement, including the creation of local environmental committees in the mid-1980s. The development of the environmental committees is examined in depth in the cases of six CAW locals in Essex county. The CAW case study focuses on the limitations and possibilities suggested by the "social unionism" strategy. The factors outlined in the ECWU case are also examined with regard to the CAW in order to explain the differences between the two cases. The ECWU merged with other unions in 1992 to form the Communications, Energy, and Paper Workers union (CEP), and the research on the ECWU ends at this point (although some observations are made of subsequent CEP interventions). Developments in CAW strategy, however, are traced to 1996, and thus permit an analysis to be made of that union's transition from social unionism to "movement unionism" in the 1990s, and the implications of these changes for claims regarding the potential of trade unions to provide counter-hegemonic leadership. Refreshingly original in that this book presents a synthesis of political economy, Gramscian thought, post-Marxist approaches, and gender analysis, case after case is scrutinized in order to assess the different strategic choices available and to explain the outcomes. Using documentary evidence, interviews, and survey work, Adkin studies the potential of new social movements and the labour movement to pose radical challenges to the hegemonic model of development in the West. Although there are considerable obstacles on both sides, the author believes that the potential exists for a convergence between a radicalized "social unionism" and the popular democratic discourse of political ecology. While ecological critiques have been overshadowed in the 1990s by deepening social inequalities, many labour and other social movement activists involved in coalition building have grasped the counter- hegemonic potential of "green economics" and democratic discourse.