Workers' Climate Action
Workers' Climate Action is a direct action and solidarity network made up of socialists, anarchists and other class struggle activists involved in both the environmental and labour movements.
It formed as a result of collaboration between activists from various political backgrounds around the 2006 Heathrow Camp for Climate Action, during which activists were involved in engaging with aviation and transport workers working in and around Heathrow.
WCA was central to worker-engagement and outreach around the 2007 Kingsnorth climate camp, staging daily visits to the gates of the power plant to talk to workers.
In 2009, WCA activists were the first to respond to the announcement of the closure of the Vestas wind turbine blades factory on the Isle of Wight and were integral to organising the 3 July public meeting which began the organising process which culminated in an ongoing worker occupation of the factory.
WCA stands for a worker-led just transition to a low-carbon economy and believes that organised labour, particularly in frontline industries such as aviation, energy and transport is a key agent which is fundamentally capable of effecting meaningful social change. It looks to the history of working-class environmentalism and direct action, including the Lucas Aerospace workers' struggle of the 1970s and the New South Wales Builders' Labourers Federation's "Green Bans" as inspiring lessons for contemporary struggle and sees tactics such as sit-down strikes as crucial.
It also seeks to struggle within the trade union movement to change what it sees as the conservative policies of some unions on issues like aviation, coal mining and nuclear power, as well as supporting the self-organisation of workers in the energy industry.