South Africans have something Green New Deal boosters in the United States only dream of: a nationalized electricity sector. Unlike the investor-owned utilities supplying most Americans’ power, South Africa’s state-owned electric utility, Eskom, has a mandate to supply electricity as a “basic right” and, by 2050, to fully decarbonize.

For now, though, Eskom’s power comes almost entirely from coal. This, coupled with rolling blackouts — caused mostly by rickety equipment and worsened by paralyzing debt — has made Eskom a site of intense political struggle. The current government, led by the African National Congress, has responded to Eskom’s crises by trying to slowly privatize the electricity sector — a move proponents say will add more renewables to the grid, but which workers fear will destroy their jobs and leverage. In an attempt to oppose privatization, electricity workers in the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA), as well as former NUMSA members and labor activists, have advocated for an explicitly socialist transition that would not only develop the country’s wind and solar potential but also fully de-commodify energy in a country where millions still lack electricity.