Jerry Silberman

We are not ready to be again a nation of farmers, each growing our own, but we are potentially on the edge of a major shift in public consciousness in favor of sustainable local food chains, moving us toward independence from corporate agriculture, and that much less dependent on fossil fuels.

Organizing: Movement, Community, Pressure Group?

Greer begins with a serious confusion when he conflates “community”, “movement” and “pressure group”. He is talking about movement building, not community building, when he references the Grange or civil rights.

Few have been more enthusiastic about Obama’s recovery plan than the Apollo Alliance, which sees it as the culmination of their hopes to re-energize the US economy through “green” technology. Will they be rewarded? The Alliance channels a vision of restoring growth and world leadership to the US by investing in technology which is less polluting and less dependent on fossil fuels. The Apollo does not acknowledge a crisis in energy based on resource depletion, although they do acknowledge a crisis based on global warming.

As the drama of the bursting bubble of Wall St. gives way to a slower, but steady and painful, economic decline, the first and most important question we should ask is “Should we try to blow another bubble, or should we reject bubble culture values for something entirely different?”

Can the Apollo Alliance, which promotes “growth” on the basis of green jobs, meet the challenges of peak oil and climate change?

The labor movement has not yet grasped the relationship between climate change and fossil fuels. At a recent conference, union representatives began to grapple with the topic, but there are still differences between the U.S. and international efforts.