In one of the many round tables that could be heard in Baiona in the event “Alternatiba” on 6 October, along with Iñaki Antiquity and Joseba Azkarraga, the deputy secretary of the ELA trade union, Amaia Muñoa, highlighted the research carried out for them by Florent Marcellesi.

More than one of the attendees would have been surprised that ELA, a veteran in the trade unions of the Basque Country, took into account the ecological transition of the economy of Marcellesi, known in political ecology. Why? What for? How? Written in the leaflet. Since the title of the round table reflected the spirit of the whole alternative, “The challenges of Euskal Herria in the face of ecological reconversion, food sovereignty and energy transition”, Muñoa openly acknowledged the difficulties of classical unionism in linking the current agenda in defence of workers’ interests.

A few weeks earlier, on September 1, the automotive, energy and paper plants united with Unifor's new name called Naomi Klein, a well-known neoliberal globalization researcher and activist against the largest Canadian trade unions. This put a double title to his speech: “The climate crisis and a joint left-wing agenda” and “Why trade unions should join the climate struggle”.

Although the author of No Logo and Shock Doctrine and the documentary The Take made many references to the situation in Canada, he made a claim that was of interest to workers around the world. Here's the summary.

In the last 35 years, multinationals have taken advantage of all crises – economic, natural disasters, wars – for the benefit of their interests and it has not been enough for people to know the yardsticks of that logic. In the same way that they are not mobilizations against this logic: they are born, strengthened, hope is ignited and disappear. Why?

Because we are trying to organize the remains of the war that has shocked society and workers' rights over the last 30 years. The young and not so young people who have come to the streets are the children of this war organized by neoliberalism.

The new social movements have brought many things, the ability to mobilize the great multitudes, the real plurality, the commitment to great intentions, the organizations of deep democracy. But it's the movements that need the workers' unions, their radical history, the institutional force, to give stability to the movement as anchor. Your organizational experience.

Need for a strong public sector

But even though citizenship moves against the austerity imposed by corporations, there is still something missing from the movement, according to Naomi Klein: that we really do not believe it is possible to build a neoliberal agenda instead of another. Because young people know nothing other than deregulation, privatisation and cutting.

We know nothing more than to defend, not to build. But beyond giving up their lies, we need our truths. It is not enough to reject your project, we need our project.

The economic and political elites are extractive. They act as if there were no limits, not to start raw materials on the planet, nor in the functioning of society, nor in the burden that workers' bodies can bear. The workforce for the elites is a raw material that, like oil, must be exploited to the maximum, regardless of collateral damage, be it health, the family, the structure of society, human rights.

The strongest narrative to stand in front of this story is that of climate change. The current economic model not only shakes workers, peoples, public services and social protection networks. It shakes the life that sustains the planet itself, destroying the conditions for it to survive.

Climate change is not an ‘issue’ that is added to the list of others. It is the cry of civilisation. Because there are limits that cannot be exceeded. We have to make a transition and now.

Many trade unionists may be uncomfortable in this debate, as they work in sectors such as automotive, mining or the carbon-emitting sectors. They must not abandon the climate crisis to the environmentalists, the trade unionists must internalise that the industrial revolution that has led our society to wealth is the one that is now putting all the systems of nature upside down.

Focusing on the climate does not mean abandoning the rest of the struggles. On the contrary, the climate crisis highlights the need to tackle austerity, because overcoming the next disasters will require sound public services and infrastructure.

We need to revitalize the public sector. To reduce carbon silences, cleaner public transport is needed everywhere. Change construction to make it more energy efficient. We do not need new infrastructures, we need investments to improve existing ones. The fight for climate will not alienate workers from the fight for public services, quite the opposite.

Millions of new jobs are needed in this policy. Parts of the low-carbon economy, with low carbon emissions, are already large, often wrongly paid. We must not punish them with cuts, we must encourage them with a better salary. More caregivers, educators, health workers, public services are needed...

How can we finance it? The elites have already shown that there's money, they've used it to get banks out of the hole. The money is in the banks and in the hands of the big companies that cause the climate crisis. Those who have promoted globalisation without free trade rules, in addition to the unemployment of deindustrialisation, are the main culprits of the climate crisis.

So let's apply the polluter pays the polluter: taxes for carbon emitters, taxes for financial transactions, taxes for corporate profits.

Naomi Klein says at the end that the next time an old polluting industry is closed to us, we should not be satisfied. Do not ask for permission. Let's take the company, take it on, make it cooperative, start making it a more sustainable activity. The climate crisis is a tool: take it and use it to demand what is not supposed to be possible.