On Fire and Under Fire: Climate, backlash, and winning with working class communities

How does climate action survive and win in an age of fury and backlash?

The Trades Union Congress is inviting you to Congress House, the heart of the UK trade union movement

Division and anger have been rising. People feel alienated by elite politics. Industrial heartlands have been starved of investment. Chemicals & steel plants are closing – good jobs go and climate action is blamed. Civic space is shrinking. The elite climate consensus has been smashed. Now it’s being eroded in communities across the country.

Climate action faces an existential threat.

Changing the direction of travel and growing support for climate action is possible – if we meet people where they are to build consent. People want an economic system and public services that leave us all better off. Action that improves lives today, safeguards jobs and builds a safe future for the next generation. To fix a rigged system that protects the billionaires at the expense of everybody else.

To win, we need to adapt, transform and scale up. Tweaking previous practices won’t cut it. We need popular majorities, unlikely alliances and to develop and support new and different forms of leadership in our movements.

That’s why the TUC and NEON are convening a conference on facing off the fury and the backlash, and winning a climate-safe future with workers and good jobs at its heart.

This is a conference for those that

• Believe that a climate transition needs to be anchored in people’s lives and struggles, rather than a politics for the elite
• Want to understand why people are angry and why support for climate action is falling
• See the potential of hyperlocal organising, transformative digital comms, bolder policy proposals
• Think our movements need to be more innovative and ambitious in scaling up
• Recognise the importance of strengthening workers voices and leadership, and uniting different sections of the public behind workers demands
• Are serious about winning a climate-safe future with working people and good jobs at its heart.

This one-day conference (9.30am – 5pm) organised by the TUC and NEON will bring together industrial workers, funders, and climate groups to chart a path that protects climate action and delivers for working people.

Workshops include:

• Eyes wide open: what does backlash look like on the ground – with Steve Evans (Deputy Leader, Wolverhampton Council & Unite Convenor at Jaguar Landrover). Dave Douglas (Chair of Climate Jobs UK + GMB Yorkshire & Humber), Jason Wyatt (Unite Port Talbot steel works)
• Building the backlash: How the climate movement lost the working class – with Tessa Khan (Uplift), Claire Peden (Unite for a Workers Economy), Charlotte Hall (ED, Climate Jobs UK)
• Winning on the ground in working class communities – with Paul Geary, (Unite rep in now-closed Luton EV plant and social media star), Sharon Yates (GMB Ceramics rep), Maddy Carroll (Own the Space), Chris Robson (Unite, Chemicals rep & Stand up for your Class) and Sofie Jenkinson (Round Our Way)
• Winning against the odds in digital spaces – with Craig Stewart (that.guy.craig), Kirsty Major (The Guardian), Areeba Hamid (ED, Greenpeace), Mika Minio-Paluello (TUC) and Berry Cochrane (Forward Action)
• Drinks from 5pm