Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relation between class consciousness and environmentalism by comparing trade unionism and grass-root activists to generate awareness against detrimental industrial policies and privatisation processes in Terni and its steel plant, a highly polluted Italian company-town.

Paper long abstract:

This paper draws on my doctoral fieldwork conducted in 2014/2015 among ThyssenKrupp-AST steelworkers in Terni during a long period of unrest, which ended with the dismissal of over 500 workers and the partial closure of the plant. This moment of working-class activism was met by the community with solidarity for the workers, and renewed concerns for environmental hazards caused by the plant.

The question of industrial pollution has been widely debated when analysing the socio-economic cost borne by industrial company-towns, especially through Political Ecology and Eco-Marxist lenses. Literature shows that, since deindustrialization, industrial workers and unions have lost their leading role towards environmental struggle to community-centred grass-root activism, causing a shift in social science research from working-class to community issue (Barca 2012; 2016).

This paper discusses longitudinal ethnographic data focusing on the history and role of USB, a new trade union formed in AST during the industrial dispute. In a present context of possible downsizing and 'green' restructuring of the plant, and in juxtaposition to traditional unions, USB initiated conversations with local environmentalist groups to combine the safeguard of jobs with that of health and environment.

This paper closely examines relations between USB and grass-root activism in defence of the natural environment beyond heavy industry, and maps resistance using class as key explanatory concept and analytical tool (Carrier and Kalb 2015) to shed new light on class-consciousness as an agent to environmental activism, and for new kinds of research which overcome the conflict between labour and environment.