Jeremy Brecher

Common Preservation in Action

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Climate Protection

Posted by Jamie Cantoni

I first became aware of the threat of global warming in the early 1970s from the writings of social ecologist Murray Bookchin.[1] In Common Sense for Hard Times, Tim Costello and I, citing Barry Commoner, warned that environmental degradation could destroy the capability of the environment to support a reasonably civilized human society.[2] In 1988 I wrote a widely reprinted op ed for the Chicago Tribune called “The Opening Shot of the Second Ecological Revolution.”[3] In maintained that a movement responding to global warming and other results of global environmental connectedness will have to “impose its agenda on governments and businesses.”  It will have to say that “preserving the conditions for human life is simply more important than increasing national power or private wealth.” And “it will have to act globally — with international petition drives, worldwide demonstrations and boycotts, and direct action campaigns against polluting countries and corporations.”[4]

[1] Murray Bookchin, Post-Scarcity Anarchism (Ramparts Press, 1971) p. 22.

[2] Jeremy Brecher and Tim Costello, Common Sense for Hard Times (New York: Two Continents/IPS, 1976) p. 134, quoting Barry Commoner, The Closing Circle (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1971) p. 215.

[3] Link to file.

[4] Jeremy Brecher, “The Opening Shot of the Second Ecological Revolution,” Chicago Tribune, August 16, 1988.

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ABOUT JEREMY BRECHER

11You and I may not know each other, but I suspect there are some problems that we share -- problems like climate change, war, and injustice. For half a century I have been participating in and writing about social movements that address those problems. The purpose of this website is to share what I've learned. I hope it provides something of use to you in addressing our common problems.

For the record, I am the author of more than a dozen books on labor and social movements. I have written and/or produced more than twenty video documentaries. I have participated in movements for nuclear disarmament, civil rights, peace in Vietnam, international labor rights, global economic justice, accountability for war crimes, climate protection, and many others.

PROJECTS

Common Preservation

  Human Survival Movement

Climate Protection

  Climate and Labor

  Climate Insurgency

  Against Doom

  Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs

Labor History

  Strike!

  Common Sense for Hard Times

STRIKE! Commentaries on Solidarity and Survival

  • Protecting Workers and Communities–From Below | Part 1: On the Ground
  • New Foundations for the House of Labor?
  • Commentary: The Green New Deal – The Current State of Play
  • Commentary: The Green New Deal in the States – Part 2
  • Commentary: The Green New Deal in the States – Part 1
  • If the Courts Won’t Protect the Climate the People Must
  • The Inflation Reduction Act and the Labor-Climate Movement

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