The end of the year is a great time to look back and celebrate our victories from 2005 and how we were able to go under, around and over the stubborn and ignorant federal government. This strategy had many progressive groups going straight to the top, of corporations that is. With industry giants such as Wal-Mart, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, various power companies and even Microsoft as targets we've faught some pretty tough battles, but not without some satisfaction.
Luckily for us, Human Events Online (subtitled "The National Conservative Weekly") compiled a top ten list of progressive corporate victories from the year, except they title it, "The Top Ten Worst Moments for Free Enterprise in 2005." We'd beg to differ and tip our hats to these corporate giants for acknowledging they can turn a profit and help take care of people and the environment. Number one on the list is Rainforest Action Network's victory convincing Goldman Sachs to not only ensure their lending strategies acknowlege and are helping to stop global warming, but now the banking giant is officially lobbying the federal government for policies to combat climate change. Other highlights include Microsoft phasing out use of PVC under pressure from the Center for Health, Environment and Justice and the NY Stock Exchange stopping Life Sciences Research, a well-known animal-testing institution from listing because of a campaign by Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty. And finally, as Wal-Mart Watch continues the campaign against Wal-Mart it seems we are far from a complete victory, but progress is definitely being made as Wal-Mart announced plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars toward curbing greenhouse gas emissions, much to the chagrin of these neo-cons who still believe global warming is just an elaborate sham by the left (because really, we have nothing better to do, right?).
As national governments trudge through difficult and frustrating climate negotiations in Montreal, mayors, taking cues from youth, are taking the lead. Today, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability released the World Mayors and Municipal Leaders Declaration on Climate Change. The Declaration, which is not yet available online, agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% below 1990 levels by the year 2020 and 90% by 2050. What's more, the mayors referenced the International Youth Declaration as they set the targets. Read More »
The Youth Delegation in Montreal discovered that an informal meeting of the Asia-Pacific Pact on Clean Development and Climate (dubbed "the coal pact" by environment organisations) is taking place today.
The informal meeting, between six of the biggest coal exporters and users on the planet (Australia, The United States, India, China and South Korea) is taking place despite a public statement by a US delegation member that the pact would not be meeting until January.
"This meeting is clearly designed to undermine the Kyoto protocol negotiations happening here in Montreal," stated Anna Rose, National Convenor of the Australian Student Environment Network and the Australian International Youth delegate. Read More »
Youth understand how important our future is. The U.S. delegation to the U.N. Climate Negotiations in Montreal right now does not. Luckily there are way more of us here than them.
This week over 200 youth from the U.S. are joining young people from all over the world in Montreal to demand that the Kyoto Protocol, the first and only international agreement addressing climate change, be strengthened and continued beyond it's current ending date of 2012. In this sea of old men, black suits and World Wildlife Fund panda bears, the youth are a fresh and energetic voice for equity, common sense economics and the future health, safety and security of all people. We were also recently briefed by the U.S. delegation who offered little hope for our future, as Billy Parish explained in the youth blog. Their major role here is to block progress by proposing amendments and procedural measures that essentially just take up time and stall attempts by intelligent delegations to move forward. Read More »
FYI young liberals - ask before you paste random stickers on yourself...
This morning as I was looking around the hallway at what should be some of the best and brightest of the young liberal movement I noticed something strange and out of place - a proudly worn sticker of a conservative social security (destruction) group called Students for Saving Social Security.
I thought, maybe he's infiltrating, but his name badge indicated otherwise, so I decided to investigate further.
Me: "Hey, can you tell me about that sticker?"
Him: "Oh ya, a friend just gave it to me. He got it at a Pelosi event the other night."
Me: "Do you know what that organization is or does?"
Him: "No, my friend just gave it to me he got it outside the event, so I thought I'd wear it."
Me: "You know that's a conservative SS group who organized the SS rally for the College Republicans at their conference?"
Him: "No, he just gave it to me. Do you think I should take it off?"
Me: --
Him: "Ok, I guess I'll take it off."
And to make it worse, he wasn't the only one...
Me: "Hey, can you tell me about that sticker you're wearing?"
Him: "Oh ya, they were giving them out outside our event last night."
Me: "You know that's a conservative group, right?"
Him: "Umm, no, it is?"
Me: "Yup, it sounds like they've been following you guys around handing them out."
Him: "This is what I hate about the conservatives - their dirty tricks."
So I was never really sure how in love with Hillary I was, but today she spoke with such passion and conviction about how dirty energy sucks and we have such obvious, viable solutions... I just didn't know what to do with myself.
She persisted that the US needs to be a worldwide environmental technology leader. That we need to "clean up quickly the mercury in our water that gets into the bloodstream of pregnant women and their children." And - we can do it while creating jobs and a stronger energy export economy.
Now it sounded vaguely reminiscent of Apollo Alliance rhetoric and isn't backed by viable, strong policies, but at least it's back in fashion to talk environment and one indication how important energy could be in '06 and '08.
With steady increases in energy use by the American people and the steady destruction of environmental regulations by the government, more and more people are at risk from the poisons and pollutions spewing from dirty coal, oil and nuclear plants around the country. And the industry's response - only to propose more.
If you want to do something about it check out www.energyaction.net to see what organizations are fighting the good fight and how you can get involved. Or at least write to your elected officials. The states are taking the lead on this, thank goodness, but hopefully in the next few years (and elections) we can make this a national priority again.
I'd like to continue eating fish, drinking water and breathing without fearing for the health of my unborn children. Now who's the real advocate for life?
After forays into the heart of the young conservative movement that often felt robotic and overbearingly authoritative I was happy to enter the disorganized and much more realistic world of the college dems.
The opening today started with nervous, slightly shaky and lame joke making by the President and other national leaders. It was refreshing though because I think they might actually be able to relate to other young people. They didn't have the stiffness displayed by the outgoing CR chair who seemed to be a shining example of what the conservative movement seeks - nice suits on slick talking souless drones.
Unfortunately, I heard from a very friendly and eager Texas delegate that the President who's about to be re-elected fails miserably in his complete lack of communication with the states and chapters who actually make the organization do something.
He should take a note from Hillary who reaffirmed that the grassroots are the truely important and effective part of all this and they need to be supported and motivated all the time, not just around "events and elections."
She also remarked that young liberals need to be "as well armed" as their conservative counter parts who have "loud and aggressive sounding arguments that don't stand up when they're analyzed." Then, she plugged a new org she's working with that is trying to be a think tank of sorts for sharing ideas and tools among young progressives. Unfortunately its name - American Democracy Institute - is another one of those vague phrases that a friend of mine says sounds like a front for something real shady (I still don't know exactly what it is...)
Atleast the Sen. sounded honestly excited about youth and really gave the sense taht she was talking to and WITH us. This last half was a vast improvement over the begining which was essentially a 12th grade history lesson in why each Dem prez ever rocked.
This wasn't the only thing she was excited about though - that woman got crazy fired up over fiscal responsibility. She's big on it. And, amazingly, she got the young crowd really applauding it. Now, I'm all about balanced budgets, but it generally doesn't get me up out of my chair. So kudos to the superwoman for that.
It appears I'm the resident CP environmentalist, which is fiiiiine by me. The panel ranged from student organizer superstart Billy Parish as moderator to Carol Browner, fomer administrator of the EPA under Clinton, John Passacatando, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA and Anna Aurilio, legislative director of US PIRG.
The panel reminded us of the importance of students in the environmental battle, but also what politics and real life are. It's awesome the EPA has the energy start program, but the majority of the American public, while they appreciate that, will still buy the refridgerator with the prettier door as Carol explained. It's tough. So the answer? It's not always fair to rely solely on the consumer. When there are only two air conditioners in the store, as happened to Anna, ya gotta buy one of them, even if it lacks the energy star. This is why it is sooo important to set standards that are mandatory, so all equipment is as efficient as it can be. This saves consumers money. This prevents global warming. We ALL win. It's true.
The other major point - we MUST work together building strong alliances and play the politics game. Know what your health and environmental standards are, then ask the business, ask the facilities departments how they can best do that. It's a lot easier to bring them in at the begining and ask their input than try to fight them later. We can all win. It's true.
Right now I'm sitting in the main room listening to an all-star panel moderated by the awesome Dee Dee Myers (read our 5 mins w/) talkng about what are progressive values, how do we message them and how do WE win the battle of ideas.
A couple highlights for me...
Thomas Frank almost jumping out of his chair to talk about how economics are no longer the main issue people are voting on.
Heather McGhee being totally cool and hitting on how individuals really just want to feel good. She talked about how when someone is broke and battling for healthcare, they don't feel good. When they are yelling at others telling them they are Godless, the right pats them on the back and says "great job!" The right has a way of making them feel righteous and good about themselves which can be incredibly uplifting and empowering.
Ezra Klein being an articulate and aware young person and being the campus voice on the panel and reinforcing that national security is actually incredibly important to college students. We don't want to be attacked! It's true! And we'll hit to the streets every time to voice opposition to unjust and bloody wars without strategy that we can't win.
Paul Begala exclaiming that dammit, we're hard asses too. But we think! He's a down to earth American who is looking at things the way they really are and is not afraid to yell insults at the incompetence of conservative foreign policy. He promoted the phrase "Progesive patriotism", which I think is awesome. That's right, we're patriotic but in a smart way that won't get our boys killed by an ever increasing terrorist squad.
Nerves finally settled after the conventioneer/conventionette talk, which got much stronger reactions from the audience than I ever expected. So yes, Ann Coulter saying "It would be a much better country if women did not vote" really riles up the progressive crowd. Not cool, Ann.
What was interesting about our skit about gasp-drawing conservative quotes was when immediately afterwards a group of guys from GW came up to me to say "We know a Republican here!!!!"
It's kind of like trying to get even with Karl Rove for revealing undercover operatives...except this isn't a criminal, horrible and dangerous act.
Anyways, I hope to talk to our spy buddy who obviously is not nearly as stealthy as we were. I'm curious to see what he pulls out of this day. It was easy to find crrrizazy rhetoric at the CRNC, but we're definitley more moderate and actually discussing what our values our in an open fashion, rather than just putting up a bunch of old white dude and having them tell us what's important. I guess that's because we think, and not just about ourselves.
July 22 marks one year since the government declared genocide in Darfur, Sudan, the only time in history that genocide has been officially declared while it was happening. Yet the mainstream media coverage has been inadequate, leaving Americans in the dark about A tragedy where 400,000 people have already died, 2 million have been displaced and hundreds more continue to be killed everyday.
Therefore, the American Progress Action Fund and Genocide Intervention Fund have launched the “Be A Witness” campaign which includes a website, www.BeAWitness.org, where they track the coverage of Darfur by major TV networks and ask people to e-mail the major networks with a plea to give real coverage. While our news media spends countless hours on trivial stories like TomKat and the Runaway Bride than it does the real news of the day. The news media, and television in particular, has tremendous power to stop human suffering by covering tragedies like Darfur.
Additionally, Be A Witness is supporting grassroots efforts to lobby and pressure media outlets to bring this incredibly important human rights issue to the forefront of the American media landscape.
This campaign gets at what we believe is a core American desire: to be a leader among leaders when it comes to combating this ultimate crime against humanity.
Please take a minute to visit www.BeAWitness.org and help us spread the word.
Please remember that Campus Progress' terms of use do not allow promoting or endorsing any particular political party or candidate for office. Posts or comments that do this will be deleted.
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