Labor & Employment Law

Community Programs Offer New Vision for America

By James Parks

Angela Glover Blackwell
Joan Fitzgerald
Gar Alperovitz

In 2008, the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor joined with the Teamsters, the city administration and the Port of Los Angeles to create the innovative Clean Truck Program to combat the toxic emissions that had caused spikes in asthma, cancer and mortality rates among children, truck drivers, the elderly, dockworkers and residents near Southern California’s transportation corridors.

The Clean Truck Program is a prime example of the ways workers and community leaders can work together to rebuild our economy and create a new vision for the future, Northeastern University professor Joan Fitzgerald told a forum on “Rebuilding America From The Bottom Up” at the America’s Future Now conference, which ends today.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation, praised the Clean Truck Program in a statement last year:

“Small and large companies alike have seen the economic advantages of environmental stewardship, and have invested over $500 million in low-emission fleets. Over 60 percent of the cargo that arrives at our shores is now moved to American stores by professional, hard-working drivers in clean trucks?three years ahead of schedule to meet emission-reduction targets.”

While national policy issues remain important, in our nation’s cities, rural areas and regions, workers and community leaders are creating and testing new and innovative ideas to turn the country around. In the process, progressives are finding support from liberals and conservatives for a new vision of America, Fitzgerald and other panelists said.

Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative described a program in Cleveland, Ohio, where residents of a depressed neighborhood received help from retired business leaders and others to create worker-owned businesses to provide services for institutions in the community such as hospitals, museums and universities. The workers also established a land trust, which ensures developers cannot come in and toss residents out once the community begins rebuilding.

People are willing to put a lot of energy behind these local projects because they are the most affected by the outcome, said Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink. Progressives must reconnect with local communities to build a strong movement, she pointed out. Blackwell and Alperovitz said progressives could learn from the labor and civil rights movements, which grew out of the frustrations and anger of workers and people of color on the ground and were translated into a national vision and program.

The anger and fear over the economic collapse of the country is very strong around the nation, Alperovitz said, and Americans are ready for a new vision and new ideas. Progressives must stop seeing themselves as a Washington, D.C.-based group focused on legislation and join with community-based groups to change the country, he said.

Health care and energy are becoming the driving economic forces of the future and large amounts of federal money will be spent in these areas, Alperovitz and Fitzgerald added. Progressives must work both in Washington and in the nation’s cities and towns to make sure health care and clean energy policies create jobs in communities where unemployment is high.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on June 09, 2010 (boomark / email).