ABOUT THIS BOOK

In the fight for environmental justice, who speaks for the working class? A look at the uneasy alliance between labor and industry in Kerala.

Set against the industrial belt of Eloor-Edayar, Labour, Nature and Capitalism investigates the uneasy tensions between trade unions and environmental movements in Kerala, complicating the celebrated “Kerala Model” of development. Through ethnographic research and document analysis, Silpa Satheesh studies how capitalist interests shape and divide movements that appear to share common ground. The book challenges the simplistic “environment versus development” binary, depicting how industrial labor and grassroots environmental activism frequently find themselves at odds, despite both being embedded in struggles for justice.

By foregrounding the lived experiences of movement actors and examining the ideological fractures that emerge in postcolonial capitalism, Satheesh provides a much-needed intervention into debates on labor and ecology in the Global South. This interdisciplinary work is particularly valuable for scholars and activists working at the intersection of environmental justice and working-class mobilization, shedding light on the possibilities and limits of solidarity in the fight for just transitions.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Silpa Satheesh is assistant professor in the School of Social Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala, India.

REVIEWS

"Labour, Nature and Capitalism is a carefully researched as well as theoretically astute book on a subject of vital importance to India and the world. Based on fieldwork in Kerala, Dr Silpa Satheesh studies the tensions between grassroots environmental groups and trade unions, analysing how factory labour finds itself in opposition to other, even more vulnerable sections, of the working-class. Importantly, she explores both the organizational as well as affective aspects of struggle, allowing activists to speak loud and clear in their own voices. Through her work, Dr Satheesh convincingly demonstrates that the conventional polarity of ‘environment versus development’ is false and even pernicious."

— Ramachandra Guha, author of Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism

"This work is an important contribution to an understudied and weakly understood arena, the relationship between trade unions and environmental movements. While anecdotal accounts of the tensions (and sometimes complementarities) between the two movements are common, detailed and systematic studies are not. Given the urgent need to bring these movements together to challenge capitalist exploitation and unsustainability, this study is very timely."

— Ashish Kothari, environmental activist and author

"There are many environmental grassroots movements in the state of Kerala. This fascinating book focuses on the Periyar River gravely and persistently polluted by discharges of "company water". Competent activists have denounced the environmental and public health damages for many years, counting on support from farmers and fishers. However, another section of the working class, smaller in number but more powerful politically, the industrial trade unions - together with factory owners and the state administration- accuses them of being at the service of "anti-national" interests. By poignant, long outspoken interviews with members of both opposite groups and thorough documentation, the sociologist Silpa Satheesh brilliantly answers a question of world relevance – is there an environmentalism of the working class?"

— Joan Martinez Alier, Autonomous University of Barcelona

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgements
Preface

1 Introduction

2 Methodology

3 Industrialization and the emergence of local Environmental Movement

4 Political Economy of Industrial Capitalism, Unions and environmental movements

5 Moving beyond class?

6 Frame-disputes between labour and environmental movements

7 Counterframing strategies and tactics

8 Discussion and conclusion

Epilogue
References
Appendix A: Abbreviations