Labour, Nature and Capitalism: Exploring Labour-Environmental Conflicts in Kerala, India

By Silpa Satheesh

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1800088043
• ISBN13: 9781800088047
• Release Date: November 2025
• Publisher: UCL Press
• Length: 240 Pages