This study and the political configuration behind it of coal industry, minority business folks, and black and latino union groups is politically a massive fault line that crashes right into the Seattle-DC labor-green alliance strategy around globalization.
But it definately shows why the failure of outreach into communities of color by the Seattle-DC organizing model is such a problem. There are at least three legs of any truly progressive radical movement in this country - union activists, communities of color and environmentalists - and any strategy built on only one or even two of them will inevitably fail. There are plenty of folks who are bringing different parts together, whether in the trade coalitions, in the environmental justice movement, or in unionist movements in minority areas. But the focus on continual inclusion, not just of these three groups, but of other constituencies has to be relentless with no excuses for failure, just a dedication to making sure the outreach and molding of agendas and vision happens the "next time."
--- Nathan Newman
July 5, 2000 Study: Treaty To Hurt US Minorities By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hispanic and black Americans will suffer disproportionately if the United States adopts a U.N. treaty to reduce greenhouse gases, says a report commissioned by six minority groups and paid for by the coal industry.
The report says the treaty would diminish the earnings of 25 million black and Hispanic workers in the United States by 10 percent and throw 864,000 blacks and 511,000 Hispanics out of work. Consultants hired by the groups arrived at those numbers after reviewing several earlier government and private studies, economic projections, and demographic figures.
The $40,000 study was underwritten by a coal industry group, the Center for Energy and Economic Development. The treaty, if ratified, would mandate reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, principally oil and coal.
``Some seem to forget the harsh lessons that we learned in the 1970s when an inadequate energy policy resulted in economic devastation for millions within the black and Hispanic communities,'' said Oscar Sanchez, executive director of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, which represents 1.5 million Hispanic members of the AFL-CIO.
He defended the financial arrangement with the industry organization.
``We had, the groups here had, a story to tell and we found a way of doing it,'' he said. ``We found a sponsor. ... It's not uncommon. It's not like it's something that never happened before.''
The five other groups are the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the Latin American Management Association, the National Black Chamber of Commerce, the National Institute for Latino Development and the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
An environmental activist with the group Ozone Action said the six groups had ``sold out'' to the interests of big business.
``I think it does a disservice to the entire community and the issue,'' said, Felicia Davis Gilmore, who is black. She said minorities should support the treaty because they are the most affected by asthma and other illnesses that have been linked to air pollution.
The pact, signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, seeks a 5 percent reduction, between 2008 and 2012, from 1990 levels of greenhouse gases.
The minority groups contend companies will cut costs to meet emissions standards by reducing salaries and benefits on positions primarily held by minorities and moving factories to countries not bound by the same environmental standards.
Only 14 nations, all of them developing countries, have ratified the treaty. It must be adopted by 55 nations -- including industrialized nations that account for the production of 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases -- before it can become legally binding.
Senate leaders have said they will not consider ratifying the Kyoto protocol until the costs of complying with it are addressed and there is measurable participation by developing nations.
Vice President Al Gore, one of the agreement's framers, has said he would support its implementation if elected president. Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has called the pact ``ineffective'' and would let it fall by the wayside.
A six-minute video created by the minority groups shows a smiling Gore three separate times. Nevertheless, Harry Alford of the National Black Chamber of Commerce said, ``We're not telling anyone how to vote.''
Negotiations for the Kyoto pact are scheduled to conclude in November at a meeting in the Netherlands.