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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.
