Workshops
Green Cities: Local Experiences, Global Connections
Global economic pressures set the stage for local economic justice struggles, as communities are threatened with the loss of good jobs and tax revenue to the many places around the world competing to offer cheaper labor, fewer regulatory controls, and more business subsidies. Buffalo’s latest casualty is the American Axle plant, which will idle 650 unionized jobs, to be replaced by production in Mexico and Michigan, as an already profitable company seeks higher profits in the global market. The problems of local democracy parallel those at the global level, where economic policy often has been shaped outside of democratic processes and without broad civic participation. Yet a global perspective can also show that another economic world is indeed possible, and that progressives can draw on a rich variety of alternatives in forming a local reform agenda. How might local economic justice efforts benefit from thinking globally? In what ways might diverse local initiatives be better linked? What lessons might cross-border comparisons reveal? This panel will particularly highlight the possibilities for connections among advocates in neighboring North American nations, with panelists exploring a continental living wage movement, new ideas for strengthening labors bargaining power in the global economy, and how a Cree community’s alternative development strategy might be a model for addressing economic devastation in other communities faced with severe unemployment and poverty.
Moderator: Martha McCluskey, University at Buffalo Law School
Lowell Turner, Cornell University ILR School
Richard Roman, University of Toronto
Edur Velasco, Universidad Autonoma, Mexico City
Yael Levitte, Cornell University ILR School
Greg Albo, York University
