Executive Director’s Note Forging a Blue-Green Alliance at the Grassroots
LAANE Executive Director
Madeline Janis
Concern about the widening gap between rich and poor is what initially drew me to the work that LAANE does. I knew that we could not address the staggering levels of inequality we face in Los Angeles—and throughout the country—through social service work alone, that a broad movement was necessary to correct what is ultimately an imbalance of power in our society.
But the movement for economic justice, in my mind, is about something even broader than improving wages, winning health benefits and increasing the power of poor and working—class communities. This is a struggle, ultimately, about reshaping our economy to serve human values—of fairness and respect for people and the environment we live in.
To achieve this goal, we need the broadest possible movement. We need to build a broad movement because we must take on global corporations with seemingly infinite resources and an entrenched ideology that says that market solutions are the only way (except, of course, when corporate interests need government help).
That is why I am so thrilled that LAANE is part of a national movement to build an alliance between labor and environmental groups at the grassroots. At the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, we are engaged in an historic struggle to revamp a trucking system that is impoverishing communities and poisoning the atmosphere every day.
The fight that the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports has undertaken is not a tactical alliance between interest groups—as the major shippers and some in the media would like to see it. Rather, it represents the only way to ensure that the more than 16,000 truck drivers enjoy decent pay, health care, and clean, well-maintained trucks with lower levels of emissions.
Maria Ramirez, the San Pedro resident profiled in this issue, understands too well that the high levels of diesel pollution and poor pay of truck drivers constitute a double assault on her community and the students she works with every day as director of a parents’ center at Banning High School. And we are fortunate to have two courageous mayors—in Los Angeles and Long Beach—who know that clean trucks and good jobs must go hand in hand if our safety and health are to be guaranteed.
But we can’t underestimate the forces aligned against us—whether it is the massive shippers like Target at the Port of L.A., or the major airlines seeking to avoid responsibility for safety and job standards at LAX, or giant hospital corporations that see little need to address community concerns.
That is why it is important that we don’t retreat into the issue area we are most comfortable with, that we do the difficult, tiring, exhilarating work of building coalitions and that we build a broad agenda that truly reflects people’s needs and aspirations.
Recommended Reading A selection of books on the labor and environmental movements, democracy, and the economy.
Labor and the Environmental Movement: The Quest for Common Ground By Brian K. Obach
Once characterized as "Teamsters and Turtles," labor and environmentalists have worked together on workplace health and safety, environmental restoration and globalization. Obach examines why, when and how labor unions and environmental organizations either cooperate or clash. (MIT Press)
Reinventing Los Angeles: Nature and Community in the Global City By Robert Gottlieb
Gottlieb examines how the powerful forces of immigration and economic globalization intersect with the politics of water, transportation and land use, and illustrates each of these core concerns with an account of grassroots responses, from reclaiming the concrete-lined, fenced-off Los Angeles River as a natural resource to "Arroyofest," the closing of the Pasadena Freeway for a Sunday of walking and bike riding.
(MIT Press)
The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America By Katherine Newman &
Victor Tan Chen
A historical novel about the massacre of 18 men, women, and children of coal mining families at a mine owned by the Rockefellers in Colorado in 1914. The book is written in free verse, adding a poetic quality to
the prose.
The Conscience of a Liberal By Paul Krugman
Krugman’s most important message is that, after years of Republican ascendancy accompanied by rapidly growing economic inequality in the United States, the point at which the pendulum finally starts swinging in the other direction has arrived. Krugman insists that the political tide is turning, and that liberals must take advantage of it. (W.W. Norton)
The fight that the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports has undertaken is not a tactical alliance between interest groups—as the major shippers and some in the media would like to see it. Rather, it represents the only way to ensure that the more than 16,000 truck drivers enjoy decent pay, health care, and clean, well-maintained trucks with lower levels of emissions.
Once characterized as "Teamsters and Turtles," labor and environmentalists have worked together on workplace health and safety, environmental restoration and globalization. Obach examines why, when and how labor unions and environmental organizations either cooperate or clash. (MIT Press)
Gottlieb examines how the powerful forces of immigration and economic globalization intersect with the politics of water, transportation and land use, and illustrates each of these core concerns with an account of grassroots responses, from reclaiming the concrete-lined, fenced-off Los Angeles River as a natural resource to "Arroyofest," the closing of the Pasadena Freeway for a Sunday of walking and bike riding. 
A historical novel about the massacre of 18 men, women, and children of coal mining families at a mine owned by the Rockefellers in Colorado in 1914. The book is written in free verse, adding a poetic quality to 
Krugman’s most important message is that, after years of Republican ascendancy accompanied by rapidly growing economic inequality in the United States, the point at which the pendulum finally starts swinging in the other direction has arrived. Krugman insists that the political tide is turning, and that liberals must take advantage of it. (W.W. Norton)
