Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 08:07:11 +0000 Subject: Labor Party convention At the risk of being accused of "spamming", I repost here the comments I made on the Labr.Party IGC conference in response to Paul Zarembka's report. Tom **** I disagree with Paul Zarembka that the only two weak points in the program are the health and foreign policy sections. The health section needs its language strengthened, but is basically okay. The environmental section (see text below), is not only weak but, unfortunately, has language which should have been taken out. The fifth paragraph, with its "if and only if" language, accepts the "false choice" which paragraph two rejects. At least one delegate submitted a "friendly amendment" to the Program Committee on this, but they didn't accept it. (Of course, at a convention in Cleveland, a city which doesn't even appear to have recycling, it probably shouldn't be strange that an environmental section with no mention of anything except pollution -- 25-year-old news -- would be all we'd get.) Incidentally, the civil rights language in the program was strengthened only because the sisters and brothers from Black Workers for Justice kept the committee up until 1 a.m. arguing with them. Tom Condit ***** >From Labor Party program: 14. Build a Just Transition Movement to Protect Jobs and the Environment This Labor Party affirms its commitment to a clean and safe environment. We all need clean workplaces, clean air, and clean water. But we also need our jobs. We reject the false choice of jobs or the environment. We will not be held hostage by corporate polluters who poison our workplace and our communities. We refuse this corporate blackmail. Corporations are not interested in either saving our jobs or protecting the environment. But we also know that environmental change is coming. What we produce and how we produce will change as steps are taken to protect people and the natural environment from harm. The Labor Party will support taking such steps if and only if the livelihoods of working people endangered by environmental change are fully protected. Therefore, the Labor Party calls for the creation of a new worker-oriented environmental movement -- a Just Transition Movement -- that puts forth a fair and just transition program to protect both jobs and the environment. * All workers with jobs endangered by steps taken to protect the environment are to be made whole and to receive full income and benefits as they make the difficult transition to alternative work. * The cost of this Just Transition Income Support program will be paid for by taxes on corporate polluters. --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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