Solidarity in the woods: redwood summer and alliances among radical ecology and timber workers. .

Abstract

Relations between radical environmentalists and resource workers have been marked by dramatic, at times violent, conflict. Such conflict has presented a persistent obstacle to attempts to build sustainable social relations. This paper looks at one recent attempt to overcome the divisions between radical ecology and resource workers. The Industrial Workers of the World/Earth First! Local 1 brought together environmentalists and timber workers in an alliance which sought to save old growth forest in Northern California while also defending workers against exploitation by multinational logging companies. The paper explores how this alliance was attempted and discusses the political ecology of the activists' "green syndicalist" vision.

Les relations entre les environnementalistes radicaux et les travailleurs des ressources naturelles ont ete caracterisees par des conflits dramatiques et parfois meme violents. De tels conflits constituent un grave obstacle aux tentatives de developper des relations sociales durables. Cet article s'interesse a une demarche recente visant a rapprocher les ecologistes radicaux et les travailleurs de la ressource. L'organisation Industrial Workers of the World/Earth First! (Local 1) a amene environnementalistes et travailleurs forestiers a s'allier dans le but de sauvegarder une foret de vieux arbres dans le nord de la Californie, et de proteger les travailleurs de l'exploitation par les compagnies forestieres multinationales. Cet article examine comment cette alliance a ete mise sur pied et traite de l'ecologie politique associee a la vision <> des militants.

Keywords:

Green syndicalism, Industrial Workers of the World, Earth First!, environmentalism, unionism

Introduction

The character of global capitalist expansion has convinced activists and theorists alike of the strategic importance of alliances to counter the hegemony of capital. Counter-movements against the superimposition of the capitalist market must now attend to the difficult task of developing strength among disparate minorities of the population. When taken together, these minorities form a majority that is increasingly excluded by the new global hegemony, yet developing the connections that will allow these diverse groups to work together presents significant challenges. Rob Walker (1994: 699) speaks of the crucial need for researchers to develop some insights regarding what he calls a "politics of connections." Walker is drawn to suggest as follows:

Exactly what a politics of connection would look like is not clear. Whatever the rhetorical and tactical appeal of a women's movement, or an environmental movement, in the singular, it is an appeal that cannot disguise the differences and even intolerances among such movements (Walker (1994: 699).

Perhaps nowhere has the volatility of social movement relations erupted more explosively in recent years than in those interactions between labor movements and radical ecology activists. Rather than reflecting positions of uninterest regarding one another, certain forms of confrontation -- such as the ramming of fishing vessels or driving logging trucks through demonstrations on timber roads -- represent serious acts of hostility. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the situation was so conflictual that Laurie Adkin (1992a: 145), identifying the uncompromisingly aggressive stance taken by members of both sides, claimed that "fixed stereotypes of both subject positions have developed, with environmentalists depicting workers as lumpen mercenaries, and workers depicting environmentalists as econuts." At that time many prominent environmentalists argued that a fundamental opposition between workers and environmentalists existed (see Bahro, 1984; Bookchin, 1980; 1987: Foreman, 1991; Watson, 1994).

Interestingly, it was precisely at the intersection of those battles between ecology and labour that one of the more intriguing of recent attempts to articulate social movement solidarity emerged. It was there, in the redwood forests of Northern California, that we were introduced to Earth First! activist Judi Ban and her efforts to build alliances with workers in order to save old-growth forest "and replace the corporate timber companies with environmentally responsible worker-owned cooperatives" (Chase, 1991: 23).

Until her death in 1997, Bari sought to learn from the organizing and practices of the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W. or "Wobblies") to see if a radical ecology movement might be built along anarcho-syndicalist lines. The IWW is a direct action union that organizes workers not to bargain with employers but to win control of production. Recognizing that trade union structures divide workers along different contract lines -- even within the same workplace -- the IWW organizes all workers in the same workplace or industry into the same union rather than into locals or bargaining units." This enables them to oppose the employer with the greatest possible unity. In Wobbly strikes, all workers in a workplace go on strike, regardless of their job description. This prevents situations where workers in other locals or bargaining units are, expected to cross picket lines. Historically the IWW were at their greatest strength in the early decades of the 20th Century, until they were crushed in the state repressi on of the "red scares" during the First World War.

Bari worked at bringing this radical working-class perspective to the radical ecology perspective of Earth First! -- a radical ecology group that emerged in the US Southwest in the mid-1980s. Earth First! is inspired by a philosophy of "deep ecology,' initiated by Arne Naess and developed by the nature writer Edward Abbey, which holds that elements of nature have intrinsic worth regardless of their usefulness to humans. Earth First! prefers direct action to stop ecologically questionable practices rather than hoping for legislative reforms which often come too late or do too little to protect nature. Ban's efforts culminated in IWW/Earth First! Local 1, a radical ecology union that signed up timber workers as members.

Looking at the efforts of Judi Ban and the IWW/Earth First! alliance provides an opportunity to improve our understanding of contemporary social movement convergence, in particular, to consider Walker's "politics of connection." After briefly describing the context that has fostered division among timber workers and environmentalists, I discuss some of the efforts of Local I to build alliances in Northern California. After introducing these practices, and especially the case of "Redwood Summer," I attempt to make sense of them through discussion of the discourses and perspectives that guided the efforts of Local 1. In particular, I consider both the deconstructive and constructive aspects of their politics. The alliance allowed a unique expression of opposition against those who owned and controlled the timber corporations and illustrates the emergent greening of syndicalist vision and practices.

Labour and Ecology: Missed Connections

The late 1980s and early 1990s -- marked by a shift away from welfare state programs to neo-liberal austerity measures -- were a difficult time for social movements throughout North America. For no movement was this more true than for the labour movement. Organized labour was suffering a serious decomposition as a force for change due to a variety of factors. These included shrinking or stagnant membership rates (see Lowe 2000), (1) direction by bureaucrats with little appetite for politics beyond the polls, isolation from social movements and forgetfulness of its own activist histories. Unable to disrupt neo-liberal legislative enactments, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which represented direct assaults upon its own social positions, the labour movement seemed an unlikely candidate as a focus for any convergence of alternative rebellions (see Carr, 1996, Clarke, forthcoming).

Where attempts to build bridges were initiated, priority was given typically to building coalitions between mainstream environmental groups and unions. In the United States these efforts included the projects of Environmentalists for Full Employment and those of the Progressive Alliance (see Adkin 1992a; 1992b). In Canada the most notable efforts involved the Labour and Environment Conference (Schrecker, 1975), the Canadian Auto Workers (Adkin and Alpaugh, 1988) and the Windsor and District Labour Council (Adkin 1998).

Much of the distress of such projects has usually related to the economistic priorities of traditional unionism. "In relation to environmental conflicts, they have tended to accept the logic of owners that profit is the only basis for economic growth and, hence, employment" (Adkin and Alpaugh, 1988: 54). Corporatist unions still adopt a resource management vision of human relations with nature while favouring current legislative approaches to environmental protection. In accepting the domination of nature as the primary basis for "jobs" and through the continued equation of politics with the state, unions have resisted the more radical demands of ecology activists, like those in Earth First!, to forge "dark green" alliances that question the existing logic of production and consumption and the defining of nature within it.