199 © Te Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 N. Räthzel et al. (eds.), Te Palgrave Handbook of Environmental Labour Studies, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71909-8_9 9 Fighting in the Name of Workers: Exploring the Dynamics of Labour- Environmental Conficts in Kerala Silpa Satheesh Introduction Existing literature on labour-environmental relations explains conficts as a square-of between working-class trade unions and middle-class environmen- tal movements (Foster 1993; Rose 2000; Obach 2002; Estabrook et al. 2018). Such conceptions of environmentalism as a middle-class phenomenon fall short in explaining the conficts between labour movements and working- class environmental movements, particularly in the context of the Global South (Satheesh 2020a). Using a case of labour-environmental confict sur- rounding industrial pollution in Kerala, a South Indian state, this chapter demonstrates how tensions can develop even when people from similar class backgrounds constitute both movement groups. Te chapter explores the conficts between trade unions and green move- ments in the Eloor-Edayar industrial belt in Kerala and uncovers how the stand-of between the industrial workers union and the local green move- ment, constituted by poor and working-class members, challenges current theories. A careful exploration of the history of environmentalism in this industrial belt shows that the local green movement draws from a left ideology while employing Gandhian modes of non-violent protest/direct action S. Satheesh (*) Azim Premji University, Bangalore, India e-mail: silpa.satheesh@apu.edu.in