Colombian oil workers and la Unión Sindical Obrera (USO) are leading the charge for a just transition. Here's what Canada can learn from their worker-led climate plan.

Lala Peñaranda of Trade Unions for Energy Democracy Matt Kirkegaard of Progressive International present the Colombian Oilworkers' Plan — a bold strategy for a worker-led public pathway to transition off fossil fuels, with vital lessons for the Canadian labour and climate movements.

Colombian oil workers are at the forefront of this strategy. Peñaranda and Kirkegaard explain why workers, not corporations or the profit motive, are leading substantive climate action in Colombia and what that means for Canadian workers.

This is the seventh episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers—while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment. In this episode, Peñaranda and Kirkegaard survey the history and class interests surrounding Colombia's worker-led climate strategy.

Notes and further reading:

• PI Briefing | No. 17 | The Oilworkers’ Plan
• Petro-Politics | Interview with César Loza, President of la Unión Sindical Obrera (USO)
• Colombia Wants to Phase Out Fossil Fuels

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The fight for better workplace conditions doesn’t stop at renewable energy. Workers in renewable energy need union representation, collective bargaining and a voice in their workplace for the energy transition to benefit all Canadians.

Alex Connolly, a renewable energy worker in Nova Scotia, compares the workplace conditions from his time in the oil sands to his current work putting up wind turbines. He shares how quality wages and work closer to home aren’t at odds with lower emissions.

But the fight for better workplace conditions doesn’t stop at renewable energy. Workers in renewable energy need union representation, collective bargaining and a voice in their workplace for the energy transition to benefit all Canadians.

This is the sixth episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from the Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers—while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment. In this episode, Connolly answers what it’s like working in the oilsands and discusses the opportunities for workers in renewable energy.

Notes and further reading:

• ‘Fly-in, fly-out’ oilsands workers face significant mental health challenges, report suggests
• Heads in the sands: Understanding the social and economic risks of declining global demand for Alberta oil
• How Canada can equip workers for a low-carbon future

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2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecturer Grace Blakeley sits down with Luke Savage in Toronto, Canada, for a conversation on the failures of neoliberal capitalism, the age of individualism it has produced, and what the left must do if it is to win the working-class.

Blakeley and Savage examine how the far-right have taken advantage of the gaps and inequities made under individualism and why organizing is needed to fight for working-class democratic power.

Watch the full conversation on YouTube and listen to Grace Blakeley's full 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture, 'Genuine Democracy in an Age of Hyper-Individualism' in Perspectives Journal.

Buy Grace Blakeley's latest book Vulture Capitalism: Corporate Crimes, Backdoor Bailouts, and the Death of Freedom and subscribe to her Substack for more writing and ideas.

Buy Seeking Social Democracy, Ed Broadbent's book co-authored by Luke Savage, Frances Abele, and Jonathan Sas, and subscribe to Luke Savage's Substack.

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Does the so-called green consumption of the “sustainability class” really work to help save us from climate catastrophe? Without challenging capitalism, can everyone afford the cost of living, reduce emissions, and achieve climate justice?

Aaron Vansintjan and Vijay Kolinjivadi are the authors of The Sustainability Class, published by The New Press. Their book is a sharp—and often funny—takedown of lifestyle environmentalism among the middle and upper-middle classes, which goes to absurd lengths to consume its way out of the climate crisis. But the authors don’t just critique—they point toward something better. They argue that the genuine concern motivating the sustainability class can be transformed into collective action, especially by working with unions and community groups to improve public health, affordability, and quality of life.

This is the fifth episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from the Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers—while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment. In this episode, Sebileau makes the case for connecting the cost of living crisis with sustainable transportation.

Show notes and further reading:

• The Trouble With the Ultra-Rich’s Environmentalism
• How One of Montréal’s Poorest Neighborhoods Became Ripe for Green Gentrification
• End of the Line? Saudi Arabia ‘forced to scale back’ plans for desert megacity

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The 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture was delivered by Grace Blakeley, illustrating why neoliberal capitalism has overruled democracy and why we must organize to take back democratic power for the working-class.

The 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture was held on Tuesday, May 20th in partnership with Toronto Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Arts. A special thanks to TMU Interim Dean of Arts Amy Peng for hosting this Broadbent Institute event.

Ellen Meiksins Wood was one of the left’s foremost theorists on democracy and history, and often promoted the idea that democracy always has to be fought for and secured from below, never benevolently conferred from above. The Institute founded the annual Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize & Lecture to honour Professor Wood’s legacy as an internationally renowned scholar and to bring her work to new generations of Canadians.

The Ellen Meiksins Wood Prize is given annually to an academic, labour activist or writer and recognizes outstanding contributions in political theory, social or economic history, human rights, or sociology.

Each year’s recipient also delivers the Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture.

The 2025 Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture was delivered by economics and politics commentator Grace Blakeley. She is awarded the 2025 Prize in recognition of her critical analysis of economic systems and neoliberal capitalism that helps movements take back democratic power for the working-class.

Listen to the full lecture, and learn more about the Ellen Meiksins Wood Lecture.

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Hear from frontline educators at the 2025 Progress Summit on what’s driving the crisis and how we can defend democracy by fighting for strong, inclusive, and well-funded schools.

Canada’s public education system is in crisis mode. From chronic underfunding and privatization to attacks on teachers and burnout—these aren’t isolated issues. Across the globe, right-wing movements are attacking public education, banning books, rewriting history and pitting parents, teachers, and students against each other. That same rhetoric is taking hold here in Canada, as we saw in the 2025 federal election.

In this episode of the Perspectives Journal podcast, we bring you a live recording from the Broadbent Institute’s 2025 Progress Summit, a conversation on Public Education at the Tipping Point. Moderated by Heidi Yetman, President of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation, the panel shows how the erosion of public education threatens democratic values—and what teachers from across Canada and the world are doing to stop it.

Panelists include:

• Heidi Yetman – President, Canadian Teachers’ Federation (Moderator)
• Haldis Holst – Deputy Secretary General, Education International
• Carol Sarich – President, Canadian Association of Principals
• Ken Montgomery – Chair, Ontario Association of Deans of Education

Listen to this urgent discussion from the 2025 Progress Summit to learn what’s causing the current crisis, why it matters for Canadian democracy, and how we can organize for public education that’s well-funded, equitable, and inclusive.

Notes:

• Why the Program Cuts at York University Are Bad for Democracy by Honor Brabazon, Perspectives Journal Mar. 14, 2025
• 2025 Progress Summit: Daring to Take on Today’s Crises (highlights)
• Why Ontario Schools Are in Crisis Under Doug Ford ‘Sources’ podcast episode, PressProgress Feb. 21, 2025

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Equiterre's Sustainable Mobility Analyst shows how clean mobility can help working class Canadians save money while making our communities cleaner and healthier.

Canada is falling behind its G7 peers. Our public transit systems need major investments to serve ordinary Canadians — by cutting costs associated with personal vehicles — and by limiting a major source of emissions. Revamped transit systems between and within Canadian cities can make it easier, cheaper and cleaner for Canadians to get around. Blandine Sebileau, Analyst, Sustainable Mobility at the Quebec environmental organization Equiterre joins the show to argue that clean mobility can help working class Canadians save money while making our communities cleaner and healthier.

This is the fourth episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from the Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers — while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment. In this episode, Sebileau makes the case for connecting the cost of living crisis with sustainable transportation.

Notes and further reading:

• Green Economy Network Common Platform: Public Transit, Good Jobs
• Putting Wheels on the Bus: Unlocking the Potential of Public Transit to Cut Carbon Emissions in Canada, by Environmental Defence Canada & Équiterre, February 2024.
• Public transit is the climate solution we need

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The energy transition runs on union power. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is one of the labour unions that will generate the electricity needed to seize the potential and jobs of a just transition.

Brandon Dyck, government affairs coordinator at IBEW, joins the show to discuss how rank and file IBEW members experience climate change firsthand and stand to benefit from the energy transition.

IBEW members will be crucial to achieving the energy transition — from the thousands of kilometres of transmission lines needed for an east-west grid to rapidly expanding green energy. Dyck makes the case for putting workers in the driver's seat, backed by committed public investment to create the infrastructure and jobs that will guarantee a just and fair transition.

This is the third episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, a short series from the Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network mapping how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers and communities — while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment.

Notes and further reading:

• Statement from IBEW Canada on the Federal Election 2025
• The Green Transition Must Be Union-Powered
• Green Economy Network Common Platform: Renewable Energy, Good Jobs

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