How is it that America finds herself in the position of schoolyard patsy, woe-is-me victim of China’s illegal trade practices that are destroying U.S. renewable energy manufacturing and foreclosing an energy-independent future? Come on, America. Stand up for yourself. Tell China that America isn’t going to hand over its lunch money anymore; international trade law will be enforced now. That’s the demand the United Steelworkers union made this week when it filed suit detailing how China violates a wide variety of World Trade Organization obligations.

With unemployment so high and middle class job prospects so low, this Labor Day is overcast by gloom. We can surrender to it. We can rant with Glenn Beck and kick the dog. Alternatively, we can join with our neighbors, employed and unemployed, our foreclosed-on children, our elderly parents and together create a grassroots groundswell that gives government no choice but to respond to our needs, the needs of working people.

These days, good-paying industrial jobs need not exact untimely deaths from pollution. In fact, development of clean renewable energy generators – the likes of wind turbines, solar cells, biomass – would create and support good industrial jobs in America. Blue collar union workers and green collar environmentalists are pressing lawmakers to pass comprehensive climate change legislation. The BlueGreens told audiences in August the choice for lawmakers is leaving a legacy of environmental hell or bequeathing climate unchanged.