A NEW Green Deal

[irishbobcat]

Working Together for a New Green Deal. By Van Jones,The Nation, October 29, 2008. "The time has come for a public-private community partnership to fix this country and put it back to work. In the framework of a Green New Deal, the government would become a powerful partner to the problem solvers of the world -- and not the problem makers... US social change movements today are still nearly as racially segregated as the rest of society. This is a moral tragedy. And it is a tremendous barrier to building sufficient power to advance a positive social change agenda for anyone and everyone. Breaking through this standoff is a critical first step toward building a New Deal coalition for the new century -- which would be the only thing dynamic, diverse and powerful enough to overcome the obstacles to progress... On the civil society side [of the public/private alliance], five main partners should make up the Green Growth Alliance: labor... scocial justice activists... environmentalists... students... faith organizations... These five forces, in alliance with green business, can change the face of politics in this country. Their goal would be straightforward: to win government policy that promotes the interests of green capital and green technology over the interests of gray capital (extractive industries, fossil-fuel companies) in a way that spreads the benefits as widely as possible. The idea would be to resolve the economic, ecological and social crises on terms that maximally favor green capital and ordinary people. Fortunately, the Green Growth Alliance [involving groups like the Apollo Alliance, the Blue Green Alliance, Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection, Green for All, and 1Sky] is not just a theoretical necessity. It is already becoming a practical reality... For the sake of the ship -- our planet -- and all aboard it, the effort to go green must be all hands on deck. We can take the unfinished business of America on questions of inclusion and equal opportunity and combine it with the new business of building a green economy, thereby healing the country on two fronts and redeeming the soul of the nation. We must. This article is adapted from The Green Collar Economy, by Van Jones with Ariane Conrad."

Vote Dennis Spisak for Congress on November 4th!