Decolonization Series: Hawaiʻi Labor Disputes, Alternative Economies and the Path to Ecological Wellbeing
by Lauren Ballesteros-Watanabe, Chapter Organizer | Reading Time: 8 minutes
The entanglement of colonialism, capitalism, corporate greed, and the normalization of American industries operating abroad has drastically shaped the state of our environment, economy, and well-being. While debt reaches record highs, incomes remain stagnant, and climate disasters are intensifying—corporations continue to extract resources from fragile ecosystems. Meanwhile, growing knowledge around how America’s vast wealth is spent abroad despite tax-payers’ desires for investments in social systems; leaving Americans with an openness to economies beyond capitalism than ever before.
“Free trade” and the global economy, often portrayed as beneficial, have driven displacement, worsened the climate crisis, and forced Indigenous people and rural communities from their lands and homes. More and more citizens, especially youth, are calling out these grave disparities. There are growing movements that have been around for decades, toward sustainability and justice, active steps towards dismantling the structures that allow capitalism to ravage resources and communities, replacing them with decolonized, place-based, and community-centered economic systems that reflect Indigenous values and support long-term ecological health. Building meaningful alternatives requires us to examine how these interconnected issues affect our communities and recognize the broader connections.
Island Nation Economies Engineered for External Benefit: What's occupation got to do with it?
The pursuit of place-based solutions to global economies also requires a holistic understanding of the intertwined roles of occupation and economic manipulation. For example, island nations such as Hawaiʻi, Guam, and Puerto Rico serve as stark examples of how capitalism and colonialism and militarism intersect to exploit both natural resources and human labor for the benefit of external powers. These islands, with their rich histories, unique ecosystems, and self-sustaining cultural practices, were transformed into tools for profit by colonial powers that saw their beauty, resources, and people as wealth building assets..
In each of these places, the arrival of Western capitalists and US governance reshaped local economies to serve foreign interests. In Hawaiʻi, Western capitalists arrived in the 19th century, and following Hawaiʻi’s illegal annexation by the U.S. in 1898, its natural beauty and rich culture were marketed to attract tourism. The U.S. military promoted Hawaiʻi as a prime rest and recreation destination for service members, fueling hotel construction and tourism infrastructure. After WWII, tourism boomed as veterans returned with family and friends, and Waikīkī saw a surge in hotels and resorts, marking the start of mass tourism. However, this industry remains largely controlled by external corporations and equity firms that funnel profits away from the islands.
Similarly, Puerto Rico, as a US colony, faces economic policies and tax laws that benefit external corporations, leaving the island in a state of financial dependency. Manufacturing plants, particularly in pharmaceuticals, exploit tax incentives to profit but abandon the island once benefits expire, creating unstable employment. When Hurricane Maria struck in 2017, Puerto Rico’s economy, weakened by colonial economic policies, struggled to recover, exposing the deep harm of this dependency. Meanwhile, Guam’s economy is dominated by the US military, which controls significant portions of the island’s land and resources, prioritizing defense needs over local well-being. Decades of military dumping, spills, and herbicide use have left Guam riddled with toxic sites, like Hawaiʻi and Puerto, many of which have yet to be cleaned. As in Hawaiʻi and Puerto Rico, Guam’s tourism sector mainly serves foreign interests, with the majority of profits benefiting outsiders rather than the local community.
Rising Worker Movements and Alternative Economies
A closer look at Hawaiʻi, demonstrates how labor unions and workers are pushing back against an exploitative status quo facing all industries, rejecting the pressures to sacrifice quality care and service for profit. From the Hawaiʻi Nurses Association to hotel and postal workers, laborers across the islands are organizing for fair wages and reasonable workloads, resisting employer demands that compromise their ability to serve communities well. This wave of labor action is no coincidence; it's a collective response to a profit-driven system that prioritizes financial gain over people. The hotel industry, a longstanding pillar of Hawaiʻi’s economy, exemplifies this tension as workers demand fair compensation and job security against equity firms that value profits over hospitality. Similarly, healthcare workers are calling for better staffing, wages, and conditions, amidst exhorbant executive pay; highlighting how deeply capitalism has permeated even essential services and “non-profits.”
Since 2016, environmental justice and climate justice organizations like Movement Generation have strategized on ending the “banks and tanks” economy, realizing ecological collapse is rooted in the extraction of land and labor, towards an economy of care. Together, labor, indigenous communities, and environmental advocates champion dignified livelihoods and responsible land stewardship, insisting on rights that support families and protect natural resources for future generations. The rise of labor disputes, and widespread public support, in Hawaiʻi signifies a broader call to take active steps toward alternative economic systems and embrace Indigenous values of stewardship, aiming to build regional economies that prioritize community and environmental health. This shift marks a move towards a just transition, integrating sustainability and justice at the heart of economic reform. Similarly, the labor movement has proposed and put forth economic transformation in a global Solidarity Economy as “both a means of self defense for surviving and sustaining our communities through the onslaught of neoliberalism and wider economic uncertainty, as well as a framework and set of tools and examples people across the world are using to create transformative and liberatory change – a new world in the shell of the old.”
Another major “alternative” economic structure is the circular economy, the circular economy, in general focuses on closing material cycles, reducing resource use, and reducing emissions facilitates operating within environmental limits. Renowned economist, Kate Raworth who pioneered the “doughnut economics” concept which points out that “sustainable development means ensuring that all people have the resources needed — such as food, water, health care, and energy — to fulfill their human rights.” The circular economy has been criticized for not explicitly targeting the social dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals . In many ways “circularity” is a tamed version of capitalism that is aimed at operating within planetary boundaries rather than addressing the inherent violence that took place to shape global inequality.
Into the realm of an Aloha ʻĀina Economy
In contrast to the potentially “reformist” approach to unbridled capitalism, indigenous knowledge has the potential to inform the redesign of economic processes toward sustainability. For example, in Aotearoa, relatively recent triumphs in political activism have led to Māori reasserting their rights to serve as kaitiaki, or guardians, in alignment with traditional practices to perpetuate intergenerational well-being of the land and people. In North America, Indigenous communities that have retained traditional methods of living sustainably inform processes that connect environmental ethics with sustainable ecological practices. Ultimately, Indigenous frameworks of economy and economic development challenge dominant narratives of the capitalist-driven economy by emphasizing interconnected communities rather than individualism. Becauseno matter the economic system chosen, social justice is an integral part of broader political frameworks of sustainable development. The white paper, “Island and Indigenous Systems of Circularity: How Hawaiʻi can inform the development of universal circular economy policy goals” says as much,
“It is difficult to envision a circular economy that can be environmentally sustainable without also achieving social reforms of the current oligopolistic market systems because these very systems inhibit our communities’ ability to act as agents of environmental change.”
Within a Hawaiian ancestral economy, circularity was inherent as such that nearly every resource held a purpose and role within a broader system that recognized kinship between people and nature. Sociopolitical hierarchy was manifested in complex systems of land tenure, resource management, and taxation that had the capacity to sustainably support a large island population. Scholars have argued that Hawaiʻi is one of nine civilizations to have independently developed into a state system. Three crucial features of this ancestral circular economy are (1) achieving optimal productivity using regenerative practices to yield enough to provide for the socioeconomic needs of the entire population, while (2) using and managing resources with minimal waste or pollution, and (3) redistributing resources regularly to achieve equity and prioritize network relationships.
By decolonizing our economies and adopting Indigenous, place-based values, we can envision systems that support both human and ecological well-being. This alternative is not utopian but is grounded in models that have existed for millennia, practiced by communities who thrived without sacrificing the earth or exploiting their neighbors. Collective efforts to demand justice—whether in the form of fair wages, environmental protections, or decolonized policies—are a step toward an economy that respects and sustains life rather than depleting it.
The combined efforts of workers, environmentalists, and advocates for Indigenous rights and sovereignty represent a powerful movement capable of countering capitalism’s destructive tendencies. It is a movement that calls for collective responsibility, reminding us that the health of the land and the dignity of labor are inseparable. To truly address the root causes of our ecological and social crises, we must commit to alternative economies that prioritize community, sustainability, and respect for all forms of life. Only through such a profound transformation can we create a future where both the earth and its people can thrive.