About 125-135 attended the “Growing Green Livelihoods: The Impacts of “Free Trade” and the Promise of a New Green Economy” forum in Detroit on March 30th, including a number of steelworkers, autoworkers and construction tradespeople. The program was sponsored by The Institute of Labor & Industrial Relations at the University of Michigan, the Blue-Green Alliance, Sierra Club and The Goldman Environmental Prize (like the Nobel Prize for the environmental movement).
Along with several other organizations, Autoworkers Caravan had a table. We had a draft statement of our core demands, our open letter to Southern non-union autoworkers, a draft response to the GM/Chrysler concessions, publicity about our trip to DC last December and a sign-up sheet. (Please visit our website to view these documents at www.autoworkercaravan.org ).
The program began with a presentation by Jesus Leon Santos, the 2008 Goldman Prize Winner. He is an indigenous farmer from Oaxaca, Mexico. A short film showed the work he and his group have done over the last 25 years to replant a million trees and repair soil erosion that makes farming difficult, and emphasized that corn in many different varieties is the staple that defines them as a people. He also spoke of the effects of NAFTA from the point of view of a Mexican farmer who has seen his native crops undersold by U.S. agribusiness, a situation in which farmers are forced to move to the city, both in Mexico and in the United States in order to find a way to survive. It was a rare opportunity for those of us in the audience to realize that NAFTA does not help Mexicans any more than it helps us.
Saundra Williams, President of the Metro Detroit AFL-CIO, spoke about the devastation that has occurred in our region as manufacturing has moved. She stated that ten years ago Michigan had 900,000 people employed in manufacturing but today it is only 491,000. Since the passage of NAFTA two-thirds of the jobs that have been lost were in manufacturing. She emphasized that the promise of green jobs had to be both green and “good” (union) jobs.
Donele Wilkins from Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice (DWEJ) pointed out that the devastation we have with 11.6% unemployment in Michigan, and double that for Detroit, is exacerbated by the fact that there are 450,000 contaminated sites throughout the country. Detroit has at least 45,000 of them! This has lead to higher rates of asthma, cancer and lead poisoning. For example, 87% of the Michigan children who suffer from lead poisoning live in Detroit! She stressed the importance of creating jobs that clean up the brownsites. Today many of us are living next to, or on top of, a toxic area. This particularly affects the quality of our children’s lives.
DWEJ is currently developing a training program to equip their graduates to work in various aspects of green energy. All 20 in their first graduating class have jobs, but obviously the program needs to expand.
(DWEJ is part of the environmental justice movement rather than just an environmental movement—the difference being that they are primarily concerned about the people—that is, that African Americans and poor people in general are the ones expected to live in neighborhoods with toxic waste dumps or incinerators.)
The third speaker was Margrete Strand Rangnes, who is the Responsible Trade Program Director for the Sierra Club. She also spoke about how NAFTA had led to the hollowing out of manufacturing and pointed to the need for new policies at the state and federal level.
During the open mike portion of the program at least three of us (Bob McCreary, Wendy Thompson & Frank Hammer) from the Autoworker Caravan spoke about the need to build a transportation and energy industry, not just an auto industry. Our points were well received by others, including steelworkers who reported in discussion afterwards that some of their members in another state are now building wind turbines.
In informal discussion before and after the meeting we spoke to people about how Obama’s plans for GM and Chrysler were based on thinking inside the box rather than the kind of creative thinking that needs to be done. The point is not to “save” the corporations but working people and our communities.
This is just a short report to give you a sense of the range of discussion. It was good to be able to present our solutions for a way out of the economic crisis to people who valued our ideas. For too long autoworkers have been identified as people who supported the company in their fight against lowering emission standards.
Dianne Feeley, UAW Local 235, American Axle retiree
