Stop Greed, Build Green.

A new strategic framework and agenda putting the working class in charge of climate and economic transformation

The United States is staring down both a cost-of-living and a climate crisis. The government is ignoring the working class as prices rise and disasters mount.

We need a new political strategy to bring down costs, rebuild the government, and redistribute power to put working class people in the driver's seat of climate and economic transformation.

Currently, 60 percent of Americans struggle to afford a 'minimum' quality of life. Rising costs across the economy—in housing, energy, transportation, and healthcare—have a complex tangle of causes: supply chain vulnerabilities, corporate concentration, decades of underinvestment in public infrastructure, and government failure to act on the climate crisis.
If the government continues to fail to act on the accelerating climate crisis, this will get much worse. This is called the climate-cost nexus, the point where environmental instability, from extreme weather to resource scarcity to the volatile price of fossil fuels, continues to directly inflate costs for working people.
Nationally, polls show that the majority of voters want their elected officials to address the climate and cost of living crises together—and they believe it is possible:

70% of voters think that economic policy can lower costs while directly reducing emissions.

70%
19%
10%
Economic policy can lower costs while directly reducing emissions.
Economic policy cannot lower costs while directly reducing emissions.
Don't know

55% of voters say they want elected officials to address the climate crisis and rising cost of living through coordinated policies.

55%
35%
4%
6%
Address the rising cost of living and climate change together through coordinated policies.
Focus primarily on the cost of living.
Focus primarily on climate change
Don't know / none of these
A working class climate agenda would connect climate politics to the kitchen-table issues that affect working people, and build a strong public sector. This approach is rooted in a framework called Green Economic Populism, which argues that effective policy interventions should be:
Green
Improve working class lives through tangible climate policy that cuts carbon pollution and increases resilience
Economic
Grow working class agency by rapidly lowering costs, breaking up the oligarchy, investing in high-quality public goods, and creating good jobs
Populist
Build working class power against the elites driving climate and economic crises.

Green Economic Populism in Action

A working class climate agenda is already growing on the ground. Our framework builds on this energy to chart out a national vision to bring down costs, decarbonize, and build power for the working class.
How can the government work fast and at scale to address the overlapping crises we face and rebalance power?
Deliver Fast

Rent and home insurance costs are capped, and no utility company can shutoff your power. Public transit in urban and suburban communities is reliable, coming every 15 minutes to get you where you need to go.

Fight Greed

Big Tech, private equity, and fossil fuel executives are put in their place: they no longer take land for energy-guzzling data centers without our consent and are taxed to fund our basic needs.

How can the government work fast and at scale to address the overlapping crises we face and rebalance power?
Build the public sector

The government delivers reliable, affordable public power and green social homes, and builds a FEMA that works for all as disasters mount.

Mobilize investments

The public and private sector work hand-in-hand to procure and install solar panels, induction stoves, and batteries built by union labor. Public banks fund infrastructure upgrades, from EV charging stations to home repairs.

We already have economic tools can we use to bring down costs, rebuild the government, and remake the economy to take on the climate crisis at scale:
Tax the ultrawealthy
Our tax system is regressive and lets the wealthiest off the hook. We can unrig the tax code and ensure the ultrawealthy and big corporations are paying its fair share.
Divest and invest
Spending on war and militarism is a drain on public dollars that should be put toward a massive public investment in climate mitigation and adaptation. We must divest from terror and invest in public goods that support working people.
Expand antitrust and antimonopoly enforcement
Monopolies and private equity firms are gouging the working class, skirting environmental laws, and selling low-quality goods. We can break up unchecked corporate power to bring down costs and increase quality of life.
An ambitious policy agenda needs to be championed by a coalition that has control over their workplaces and communities and drives decarbonization long term.
Good Green Jobs
Ensure that green jobs are good jobs by protecting workers’ rights to freely and fairly form unions and bargain for changes in the workplace.
Organizing Protections
Expand the right to organize around just working and living conditions and standards for workers, tenants, and community members.
Green Economic Populism builds power for working class people to take control over a green transition. Working people are the engine of our economy and are the most affected by the climate crisis. A working class climate agenda and strategic framework centering immediate relief, robust regulation, state capacity, and public investment can move us from economic precarity to a green, stable economy that works for everyone.

Read the White Paper

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Read the Agenda

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