Jeremy Brecher, author of The Green New Deal from Below: How Ordinary People Are Building a Just and Climate-Safe Economy, answers questions on his new book.
Q: Why did you decide to write this book?
While writing my series of “Strike! Commentaries for Solidarity and Survival,” I began to discover more and more examples of people who were developing Green New Deal-style programs in their own communities, cities, and states. Like the national Green New Deal, these “Green New Deal from Below” initiatives used the existential necessity for climate protection to also address pressing needs for jobs and justice. This seemed like a crucial element of meeting our desperate social, economic, and environmental problems, and yet it had not been widely noted, let alone seriously studied or widely presented. I wrote this book because I wanted to make the rise of the “Green New Deal from Below” known to those who might emulate it or be inspired by it.
Q: What is the most interesting discovery you made while researching and writing your book?
New local and state Green New Deals have continued to emerge right down to the present.
Q: What myths do you hope your book will dispel or what do you hope your book will help readers unlearn?
The constructive things that ordinary people do are often treated as “not news.” If we don’t know about the constructive things people are doing, we easily assume that they are just passive or apathetic. That easily leads to despair that people can organize themselves and act for their own and each others’ needs. I know no antidote to despair better than the knowledge that people can organize themselves and act – and that they are in fact doing so.
Q: Which part of the publishing process did you find the most interesting?
I had an excellent copyeditor from whose attentive work I learned a lot.
Q: What is your advice to scholars/authors who want to take on a similar project?
If you have a subject you really care about and you are willing to put in a lot of work, go for it!
Q: What do you like to read/watch/or listen to for fun?
Listening to and playing folk music – blues, ballads, bluegrass, and many other genres – has been my lifelong source of pleasure and relaxation.
Jeremy Brecher is a cofounder and senior strategic advisor for the Labor Network for Sustainability. His books include Strike!, Save the Humans? Common Preservation in Action, and Climate Insurgency: A Strategy for Survival.