Inclusive Recovery: THRIVE Agenda
by Lauren Ballesteros-Watanabe, Chapter Organizer | Reading time: 3 minutes
Resilience and recovery, two buzzworthy concepts post-2021. Yet we are well into the new year still wondering—when and for whom? Unfortunately, our elected leaders have prioritized budget cuts and reformist approaches to “recovery.” But reform won’t cut it. The interlocking crises of racial and economic injustice exposed intertwined urgent needs for transformative systemic change. From public health and climate mitigation to resilience and racial justice, we need a recalibration of our centuries old institutions built through colonization and extraction. The people are ready.
The recent mobilization of a younger, more diverse voter base, locally and nationally, resulted in a new administration and democratic majority. Sierra Club National and allies are continuing this success through the THRIVE Agenda: Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in a Vibrant Economy. It is a bold policy roadmap introduced to Congress as a crucial step towards addressing the overlapping crises of this moment, recognizing the repair of historical harms needed and committing to how we care for our collective future.
The THRIVE Agenda lays out eight pillars that Congress must focus on to create an economy that will work for everyone, not just the folks at the top.
Creating millions of good, safe jobs with access to unions.
Building the power of workers to fight inequality.
Investing in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
Strengthening and healing the nation-to-nation relationship with sovereign Native Nations.
Combating environmental injustice and ensuring healthy lives for all.
Averting climate and environmental catastrophe.
Ensuring fairness for workers and communities affected by economic transitions.
Reinvesting in public institutions that enable workers and communities to thrive.
Each of these are critical for rebuilding an equitable economy and society. THRIVE seeks to reverse the corporate erosion of workers’ organizing rights and bargaining power so that new, as well as millions of existing low wage jobs, become the family-supporting union jobs that everyone deserves. It would alleviate Individuals working two or more jobs just to get by and families could build their own financial resilience.
Enter more buzzwords—just transition and regenerative economy. In order for them to work locally, both must be grounded in two deeply related sets of collective rights: the rights of ʻāina and the peoples’ right to the resources required to create productive, dignified, and ecologically sustainable livelihoods. Achieving that would create a new economy based on reflective, responsive, reciprocal relationships of interdependence between us and the land upon which we depend.
And while the agenda is thoughtfully created, it is important to note that not everything translates perfectly. Our unique cultural and colonial history commands its own approach and solutions. We must acknowledge the illegal occupation of our islands and the injustice done to Hawaiians then work back meaningfully through the years of plantation era exploitation in order to reconcile the construction of stratified institutions and heal for our collective wellbeing.
There are many community and nonprofit organizations and professionals coming together to build a new economy from the bottom up. For example, there is the ʻāina aloha economy. We need to demand our elected representatives to reject “going back to normal” and work towards an overhaul. Our future depends on it.
Just like the words of climate activist Dr. Ayana Johnson, “Who are we to give up on the planet and each other?... Truth, courage, and solutions will get us there.”
We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to take action towards an inclusive recovery. The THRIVE resolution provides concrete ways to succeed. It is a clear compass for us to use in stewarding in a new path forward. This isn’t a dream, it is possible — if we work for it.