"Energy is the principal geopolitical dispute of our time.” So began the Progressive International’s workshop this weekend in Bogotá, convened by the Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria del Petróleo (Petroleum Industry Workers’ Union, USO) to chart a course to “Colombia’s Energy Sovereignty.”

The opening speech was delivered by Andrés Camacho, until recently the country’s Minister for Energy and Mining, who offered a world tour of the geopolitics of energy — from oil traffic through the Black Sea to the LNG terminals in Rotterdam, from power blackouts in Gaza to the extraction of critical minerals in the Congo.

These resource flows reveal energy not merely as a commodity — but as a strategic instrument frequently weaponized in the asymmetrical struggles between nations, with control over production, distribution, and consumption determining which countries prosper and which ones remain trapped in poverty.

Few countries understand the stakes of that struggle like Colombia: rich in oil reserves, precious biodiversity, and worker militancy to secure the country’s independence after centuries of colonial intervention. In 1948, the USO led the historic "huelga patriótica" against the Tropical Oil Company, mobilizing tens of thousands under the rallying cry: "The oil belongs to Colombians and is for Colombians." This powerful movement eventually birthed Ecopetrol, the state oil company that has since been called Colombia's "crown jewel" – a rare example of successful resource nationalization in Latin America that has survived decades of structural adjustments and their attendant pressures of privatization.

A century after USO's formation, though, Ecopetrol faces existential threats from multiple directions that endanger both workers' livelihoods and national sovereignty. Beyond relentless efforts to strip the company of its assets and income, the international political economy of fossil extraction — the model on which Ecopetrol formed and flourished — is today undergoing a rapid transformation. With fossil fuels representing more than 50% of Colombia's export revenue and one-third of its foreign income, the nation stands at a critical crossroads where climate imperatives collide with economic dependency – a contradiction facing many global South nations rich in fossil resources.

USO has shown remarkable foresight in recognizing these challenges, positioning itself not as a defender of the status quo but as a vanguard for transformation. As early as 2020, the union’s national assembly adopted resolutions endorsing a just transition and articulating the need for "efficient goals and deadlines for abandoning fossil fuels and adopting new technologies." Their early rejection of fracking and commitment to energy transition planning has established them as one of the world's most advanced fossil fuel unions – proving that workers themselves, not corporate executives or technocrats, can be the most far-sighted actors in energy politics.

These visionary workers now form a critical pillar of President Gustavo Petro's government of change, which has prioritized transforming Colombia into "a world power of life" through ecological transition. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Petro argued passionately that humanity faces "a crisis of life" as climate catastrophe accelerates, requiring not merely technical adjustments but systemic transformation. The alignment between organized labor and a progressive government creates a historic opportunity to reimagine energy systems – not as extractive operations that deplete resources and exploit workers but as public utilities serving collective needs within planetary boundaries.

During his own tenure as Minister, Andrés Camacho led pioneering innovations such as the "comunidades eléctricas", which sought to democratize energy production and distribution in previously marginalized regions. His initiatives connected renewable energy development with community empowerment, particularly in areas historically neglected by centralized infrastructure planning. Yet despite these important advances, Colombia requires a more comprehensive transformation of its energy matrix – one that must be meticulously planned and worker-led to succeed in both economic and ecological terms.

That is why the Progressive International convened in Bogotá with USO this weekend, bringing together an international delegation of trade unionists, energy policy experts, and climate researchers to collaborate on an actionable transition blueprint. Together, we are developing the Oilworkers’ Plan for Popular Energy Sovereignty and Colombia’s Just Transition — written by and for the union and its workers. This plan charts a course for an emboldened Ecopetrol in its transition from a petroleum company to an integrated energy company, the defense of a ‘public pathway’ for the energy transition, and calls for the massive expansion of union jobs and green industrialization in Colombia.

“The Oilworkers’ Plan reflects the belief that organized workers play a decisive role in elevating the class struggle inherent in the climate crisis,” the draft plan reads. “The public pathway to a just transition for Colombia is inconceivable without a strong class analysis that exposes and resists the capitalist imperatives fueling both ecological destruction and labor exploitation. Workers, through their unions, have the power to lead this transition—fusing ecological goals with territorial justice and demands for fair wages, secure jobs, and the collective good. Green industrial development is not merely an environmental imperative; it is a means to challenge decades of neoliberalism’s consequences in Colombia and build a future in which workers and communities across the country hold power over how energy and resources are produced, shared, safeguarded, and used.”

This initiative arrives at a decisive moment in global climate politics as the window for effective action rapidly narrows while fossil capital continues its reckless expansion. Despite overwhelming evidence of climate emergency, upstream oil and gas investments reached $528 billion in 2023, an 11% year-on-year increase that threatens to lock in catastrophic emissions for decades. The democratic control of energy systems has therefore become essential for both planetary survival and social justice – requiring organized workers to lead the conversion of fossil infrastructure as rapidly as possible.

The fruits of our Bogotá workshop thus extend far beyond Colombia's borders. As workers across the global South confront similar challenges of economic dependency, climate imperatives, and corporate power, USO's leadership provides a critical model of how labor can seize the initiative in energy transition planning. Working with member organizations like Brazil’s Federação Única dos Petroleiros (FUP) and through processes like South Africa’s G20 Presidency, the Progressive International seeks to share the lessons of USO’s leadership to forge solidarities among energy workers worldwide – turning the principal geopolitical dispute of our time into the principal opportunity to secure shared and sustainable prosperity.

Latest from the Movement

Report finds Government misled public over arms to Israel

On Wednesday 7 May, a groundbreaking new report by the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Progressive International and Workers for a Free Palestine revealed a wide range of shipments of military goods, munitions of war, arms, and aircraft parts from the UK to Israel since the war on Gaza began in October 2023 — including one maritime delivery to Haifa carrying over 160,000 items from the UK to Israel.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy has stated in the House of Commons that "much of what we send [to Israel] is defensive in nature" such as "helmet[s] or goggles", and "not what we describe routinely as arms".

However, the report shows the UK has sent thousands of goods to Israel which are defined as arms and ammunition, going far beyond helmets and goggles, finding that Lammy’s suggestions to the contrary in the House are “untrue and misleading”. Most of the shipments occurred after the UK government’s suspension of around 30 arms export licences to Israel in September 2024, with the UK sending 8,630 separate munitions since the suspensions took effect.

“This explosive report shows the government has been lying to us about the arms it is supplying to Israel while it wages genocide in Gaza,” Zarah Sultana, Progressive International Council member and elected Labour MP, told the Guardian.

Stop Booking Apartheid: Day of Action

On Thursday 8 May, Booking.com workers joined forces with activists in Britain and the Netherlands to demand the company stops facilitating the dispossession of Palestinian land.

At Booking.com’s Manchester HQ, activists from Youth Front for Palestine projected visuals of refugee tents with the names of settlements promoted by Booking.com. “By promoting tourism and rental properties on illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, Booking.com is profiteering from Israeli war crimes,” said one member of Youth Front for Palestine.

In Amsterdam, activists from XR Justice Now and Diem 25 held a banner in front of Booking’s HQ and leafleted workers entering the office informing them of Booking.com’s 55 listings in the occupied West Bank. Lending their support to the Stop Booking Apartheid campaign, one company employee said: “Booking.com must be publicly held to account for their ties to Israel and we thank the campaign for amplifying our voices."

Following the campaign’s launch last week, Thursday’s day of action marks the begining of a concerted international effort to demand Booking.com cuts ties with Israel.

Art of the Week

Permeating - Attempt, 2024 is an artwork by Michael James Fox (Colombia) depicting an abstracted image of indigenous Colombian flora. The work, which comprises an immersed photographic print wrapped in plastic, speaks to alienation from land, belonging and community. Fox’s photographs are autobiographical: the isolating nature of adoption and the dissociative states that come with it. Adoptees can find themselves forced to accept erasure, a condition that he aims to convey in his work.

Of the work, Fox has said, “Having been adopted, I’m interested in the notion of extraction. The picture has been subject to modification and chemical processes to extract... The translucence of the suffocating plastic entrapping the image gives the impression that the image or memory can be obtained.” Michael James Fox is a New York-raised and London-based photographer and moving image artist who works with analogue conceptual photography and experimental image processing techniques, transforming the identifiable into dreamlike abstraction.