Because of this coalition—working under the banner of No Coal in Oakland—the city took a historic vote on June 27 to ban coal, following the lead of cities such as Portland, Oregon. Had the deal gone through, millions of tons of coal would have been stored at the port terminal annually, and Oakland would have become the largest coal-export city on the West Coast. It also would have increased Oakland’s culpability in contributing to greenhouse-gas emissions linked to climate change. [...]
Still, it was monumental that any labor reps took part in the protest, let alone that they played a leading role. The blue-green alliance formed in recent years among labor and environmentalists has not been ironclad. The AFL-CIO would not join climate change activists in their protests against the Keystone XL pipeline, worried about the jobs it might cost its members. And while the AFL-CIO did pledge to help billionaire Tom Steyer’s political efforts in fighting climate change earlier this year, eight major building-trade unions fired an angry letter at AFL-CIO president Richard Trumpka for doing so. [...]
The Oakland fight against coal expanded well beyond labor, though. A number of traditionally non-green social justice groups stepped up for this fight. A teach-in held at the local SEIU headquarters last December was emblematic of this. There, a variety of activists came out to speak on a multitude of issues—gentrification, displacement, and the fight for a minimum wage of $15 among them—tying it all to the need to keep coal out of Oakland. It wasn’t just a display of intersectionality; it was a constellation of forces converging. [...]
“Yeah, most of the environmentalists were white, and the the other side tried to say that those white people don’t understand our struggle, and that they were just trying to gentrify West Oakland,” says Muhammad. “But I was like, ‘Wait, I’m black, and [coal pollution] affects black people, too. I don’t want to be breathing that stuff, or work in that stuff. So don’t try to say that only Caucasians are concerned about this.’ Most of my local union is black, and we got a problem with it too.”
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