In early February 2025, 120 union leaders and allies from 35 countries gathered in Mexico City for the Second Inter-Regional TUED South meeting.
The launch of the TUED South platform in Nairobi in October 2022 signalled a growing commitment among Global South trade unions to fight for an energy transition guided by planning, cooperation and a public goods framework.
Hosted by Mexican energy unions and other allies, this second interregional demonstrated the growth of the TUED South project since Nairobi, while providing a unique space to report on union efforts to defend and extend public ownership of energy, and to discuss plans for future campaigns and interventions.
Three regional policy meetings preceded the Interregional, in Johannesburg (May 2023), Bogota (May 2024) and Bali ( July 2024). Involving a total of 119 unions from 56 countries, these meetings set the stage for the discussions in Mexico City (see our recent bulletin summarising the TUED South trajectory from Kenya to Mexico).
Consisting of 14 sessions, the February 4th-6th meeting in Mexico City took place against a threatening global backdrop, one marked by a new US Administration and some European countries committed to throwing overboard laws and regulations to address climate change. Meanwhile, several South governments (Argentina, Turkey and India, for example) continue to align themselves with the global effort to attack unions and working class organisations as well as public services and social protections.
A TUED discussion paper was presented to the meeting that reflected on the current impasse of North-led climate and energy policy and how the Global South might assume leadership on climate and energy at the level of narrative, policy, and—perhaps—practical South-South cooperation. Titled, Towards a New International Energy Order (NIEnO), the draft paper attempts to explain how the public pathway option can inform a South-led politics capable of filling the vacuum that will be created by the impending collapse of the North-led neoliberal “green growth” model.
A preliminary discussion on the NIEnO paper heard responses from Akhator Odigie (General Secretary, ITUC Africa), Asad Rehman (Executive Director, War on Want) and Marina Mesure (Member of the European Parliament). Fadhel Kaboub, a Tunisian economist, also commented on the potential leadership role of Global South governments committed to escaping the twin traps of debt, poverty, and neocolonial exploitation of resources. TUED plans to organise a global forum on the NIEnO paper in the near future.
Day One of the 3-day meeting featured the achievements of the Mexican government and union movement’s efforts to reclaim energy to public control while developing policies to manage the transition away from fossil fuel dependency (via the expansion of hydropower and public solar programs).
In a session titled Step-by-Step Reclaiming: Can Other South Countries Emulate Mexico’s Approach? the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) Foreign Relations Secretary Humberto Montes de Oca remarked, “The Second Inter-Regional Meeting of TUED South in Mexico City has allowed us to exchange international experiences around the right to energy, the energy transition towards low-carbon, cleaner energies and the defence of the public sector in this strategic area of the economy.” Recent changes in Mexican legislation aimed at recovering Mexico's energy sovereignty were a central topic throughout the 3-day meeting (co-hosted by SME along with UNTyPP, NCT, and CILAS). For more details regarding trade union positions on Mexican energy policies, see TUED bulletin on the recent shutdown of key neoliberal institutions.
In 2009, 44,000 SME workers were fired and their facilities occupied by the army. This act of naked repression was part of the neoliberal restructuring of Mexico’s power sector, and roughly 14,000 SME members declared themselves “in resistance” and are still campaigning to be reinstated into the national utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad. Commenting on the reinsertion campaign, Montes de Oca said, “We hope President Sheinbaum's administration will take measures to implement a democratically controlled and publicly owned energy transition, and will work closely with independent unions. We support the government’s efforts, but we will continue to fight for the reinsertion of SME workers into a new public system,” said the SME leader. [Participants received a summary of the Mexican government’s actions covering the period from 2017 to the present.]
Participants also welcomed a significant legal victory won by unions and allies in Indonesia. In December 2024, the country’s Constitutional Court declared unconstitutional recent neoliberal laws and regulations designed to privatise Indonesia’s electricity system via measures to expand the role of for-profit Independent Power Producers (IPPs) [see TUED Bulletin 148]. Andy Wijawa Secretary General of the Persatuan Pegawai PT PLN Indonesia Power (PPIP) explained how his union helped lead a broad campaign against the proposed laws, an effort supported by PSI, TUED and various progressive NGOs. Joined by Achmad Khoirul Anam (SP-PJB) both comrades announced plans to build broad trade union and social movement support for an alternative approach to energy transition, one that situates the public utility (PLN) at the heart of the effort.
On Day 2, three regional roundtables discussed energy and climate-related struggles in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Speaking on Brazil, Fabíola Latino Antezana, coordinator of the National Collective of Electrical Workers (CNE) and leader of CNU-Stiu, explained, “everyone has heard about the Bolsonaro administration’s aggressive campaign to privatise Eletrobras. They were very effective, privatising nearly every company across Brazilian states in generation, transmission, and distribution. Over 93% of Brazil’s electricity generation is renewable, but the country places seventh globally in highest total emissions because 48% of emissions are the result of land use change (largely due to export-driven agricultural products). But private multinationals are not interested in reducing those emissions; instead, they are focused on privatising electricity, oil, gas, water, and transport, among other sectors, in the name of climate action. Our coalition platform (Plataforma operaria y campesina del agua y la energía- POCAE) includes electrical sector works, oil and gas workers, hydropower sector workers, and social movements such as MAB and MST, all working together to reclaim and restore energy while creating a popular base to pressure in the 2026 Congressional elections.”
On the theme of movement building, the women’s caucus that first met in Bali in July 2024, laid out the importance for TUED South to create a space for women to share ideas and experiences across regions and languages. In Mexico, women comrades reported on victories against sexism and the common struggles women workers confront in the energy sector, or as mothers providing childcare, as union leaders, and as feminist activists. As TUED’s Irene Shen noted, “As we reclaim and restore utilities and energy companies to public ownership, we need to examine what forms of democratic control we need to integrate the priorities of women for safe and protected work environments; to support skills training and leadership development and/ or to accommodate their additional roles as caregivers.” Given the urgent need to find ways of transitioning into a low-carbon economy, does part of the formulation of a public pathway include fighting for the expansion of low-carbon emitting sectors dominated by women workers such as health, education or domestic caregiving? Future discussions will need to tackle these questions.
The issues of economic inequality faced by women and girls globally and the relevance to a public pathway approach to the energy transition were also raised. Studies show that 1.18 billion are living in energy poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa alone. The data show that the delivery of electricity is not enough to make a difference in the day-to-day lives of women and girls.
TUED has previously shown that neoliberal energy policies in the region have undermined public utilities, halting plans for electrification. Women and girls are disproportionately impacted by these privatization efforts. As comrades pointed out, the role of women as consumers of energy is critical and prompts us to consider a public pathway that outlines who has access to the energy we are fighting for and to identify priorities for how the energy is used, and in those priorities, how to centrally integrate both ecological and women’s agendas.
TUED will pilot a 6-week workshop series for women this year to become familiar with technical energy terms, energy policy, and sharpen our ability to see through neoliberal policy language, and further discussions on issues raised in Mexico City.
Participants in Mexico held a session to review actionable strategy and reiterate the call on union leaders within the TUED network to stand in solidarity with the struggles of the Palestinian people. Scores of trade unions and trade union federations across the world have already endorsed the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) initiative.
Elyes Benammar (GFEG/UGTT—Tunisia), urged TUED unions to “actively support the economic, political and cultural boycott of the brutal Zionist entity that has committed the worst crimes in Palestine and South Lebanon and have violated the most basic human rights under the protection of US imperialism and its allies.”
Andress Oliveira, Latin America organiser for the BDS campaign, stated: “Our coordinated boycott will amplify the voice of the Palestinian people, thus putting pressure on the occupying entity, which may prompt an end to the aggression and contribute to accelerating the response to the aspirations for freedom and justice of the Palestinian people.” TUED South participating unions and BDS will co-host upcoming online workshops on the energy embargo campaign, including one for Israeli Apartheid Week 2025 (March 21-30).
During Day 3 of the Interregional, Fernando Vivaldo, International Relations Advisor of CUT Brasil, reported on planned trade union actions at COP 30 - which will take place in the Brazilian Amazon city of Belém in November this year. “Now is the time,” said Vivaldo, “to articulate a new development model, and an energy transition with a focus on the public pathway, which conceives of energy as a fundamental public good, whose access must be universal and detached from the mere logic of profit - and, as a structuring axis, respect for decent work, within the framework of the ILO.”
Seb Munoz (War on Want) and Chadli Sadorra (Asian People's Movement On Debt And Development) offered perspectives on the need to strengthen the collaboration between South-based trade unions and the climate justice movement. Sadorra referenced the impact that the South unions’ COP 29 statement had made in Baku the previous November. Representing tens of millions of workers in the South, more than 100 South unions had signed the statement on the need to use climate finance to expand public assets and thus rebuild the capacities of states to address both energy poverty and expand low-carbon forms of energy.
On Day 2 of the meeting, Daniel Chavez of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and Buenos Aires based Veronica Robert, lead researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) led a discussion on Green Industrial Policy (GIP). The session mapped some of the current drivers of GIP, the significance of ownership, and the need to consider ways to integrate GIP into the Public Pathway alternative. Tanya Van Meelis, head of COSATU’s policy unit, referred to the challenge of deindustrialisation in South Africa, particularly in manufacturing, and Tuscany Bell, EPSU’s policy lead for utilities, reported on how Europe’s competitiveness crisis and high electricity charges were being fully exploited by the populist right.
In the session Developing a Public Pathway Approach to Technology Options, TUED’s Brian Kamanzi outlined some of the key debates around various “net zero” technologies and how public ownership provided the means to assess different technologies based on their social and ecological advantages and disadvantages. In a paper prepared for the meeting, Kamanzi emphasised the importance of rejecting market-dominated frameworks in favor of public-oriented policies which prioritize energy sovereignty and public ownership. Titled The Importance of Technological Pluralism in the Just Energy Transition for the Global South, Kamanzi explained how the neoliberal energy policy regime reinforces dependency on foreign technologies and capital, exacerbating socio-economic disparities in the Global South. The paper introduces the concept of technological pluralism as a strategy to navigate the polarized debates surrounding different energy technologies, which often limit our ability to develop broad-based platforms around public ownership.
The Mexico meeting also highlighted the progress of the Network for the Public Pathway (RedCaPu), a consortium of six union-facing research groups based in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. The idea for a network was initially proposed at the Nairobi meeting in October 2022, and was further developed at the TUED South meeting in Bogotá in May 2024. The goal of the network is to deepen TUED's analyses of national and regional cases, as well as to guarantee greater communication and daily contact with social organisations in the region.
RedCaPu presented an analytical document on the public path in South America. As Pablo Messina (Comuna) noted, “Many Zoom meetings gave shape to the document that we can share today [to be published in an upcoming bulletin]. Given our limited resources, we believe that the results were more than auspicious.” The paper presents the origins and consequences of liberalisation and privatisation of energy, as well as the need for a publicly owned and democratically controlled Just Transition.
Although each contribution to the report focuses on a specific country, common themes are clearly detectable, including the complicit role of the state, the commodification of energy, and foreign control of energy contracts by multinationals. In the case of Colombia, the text offered specific technical proposals, while others, such as the discussion on Uruguay, offer a more political and conceptual analysis. The Red CaPu is designed to inform trade union strategies for reclaiming and restoring public energy, and underscores the need for comprehensive approaches that consider technical, social and political aspects. According to RedCaPu’s coordinator, Pablo Messina, “The network hopes to expand the number of centres (and countries) in the network, and to define a thematic agenda that allows us to be more in-depth and incisive in our analysis of the just energy transition in South America, such as Green Hydrogen, binational treaties (e.g. Itaipú), the definition of ‘Sacrifice Zones’, and the problem of critical minerals.” View the recording of the Red Capu session.
The Mexico meeting also announced the convening of a TUED South task force on coal phase down in the Asia-Pacific region. Reporting on the initiative, allied scholar Suravee Nayak highlighted the complex embeddedness of coal in socio-economic and political life of India and the challenges of planning for just transition away from coal in the Global South. “International funders and NGOs are far removed from the on-the-ground realities of workers and communities in coal-producing regions in the Asia-Pacific, therefore trade unionists' intervention is immediately necessary to bring a bottom-up perspective of building a public pathway for coal phase down and just transition,” she remarked. The task force decided to research critical questions starting with the case studies of India and Indonesia. The group will present its initial findings at the TUED South Regional Meeting in Nepal scheduled for early 2026. Several key questions will be considered by the task force, principal among them being: How can we build a transformative public pathway which secures the future of workers and communities including the most marginalised informal workers, migrant workers, coal scavengers, and women? Equally important, if coal use is phased down relatively quickly, what energy sources can be scaled up to meet the region’s growing energy demands in ways that are consistent with the net zero commitments made by many Asia Pacific countries?
In keeping with the TUED South tradition of holding workshops with unions of the host country, Mexican unions gathered on February 7th for a half-day discussion on the Public Pathway in Mexico.
Among the panelists in the Mexican case study was Dr. Fluvio César Ruiz Alarcón who has held various positions within PEMEX including independent member of the Board of Directors at Pemex Gas y Petroquímica Básica, Pemex Petroquímica, and Petróleos Mexicanos SA.
The workshop closed with a panel of international union comrades who shared case studies from their countries in their respective fights for public energy including in Trinidad & Tobago, South Africa, the Philippines, Nigeria and Uganda.
The following documents were prepared for the CDMX meeting and circulated beforehand to encourage a deeper engagement in the meeting discussions:
Union participants were also encouraged to review previous TUED working papers, including:
If your union has published a text not included above, please send it to Lala: lalatued[at]gmail[dotcom].
Founded in 2012, Trade Unions for Energy Democracy (TUED) is a growing global network of 130+ unions and close allies in 40 countries working to advance democratic control and public ownership of energy in ways that promote solutions to the climate crisis, address energy poverty, promote energy sovereignty, resist the degradation of both land and people and respond to attacks on workers' rights and protections.
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TUED and TUED South invite all unions and allies who have been supported by the existence and persistence of the TUED network to contribute. No contribution is too small. Our movement must continue to be union-powered and union-resourced to ensure independence and autonomy.
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