VAN JONES, THE GREEN JOBS CZAR
The man's a saint, isn't he? He's fighting for social justice, job training, the environment, and against racism. He wants to raise people out of poverty. Not only that, he wants environmental justice. What is environmental justice, you might ask?
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Environmental justice is the movement to ensure that no community suffers disproportionate environmental burdens or goes without enjoying fair environmental benefits."
"It's the environmental racism that allowed the powerful people in society to turn a blind eye for decades to the downsides of the industrial system that got us to this point."
What is the environmental racism he's talking about?
"Well, the only reason that we have the unsustainable accounting that we have right now is because incinerators, dumping grounds, and sacrifice zones were put where poor people live. It would never have been allowed if you had to put all the incinerators and nasty stuff in rich people's neighborhoods..."
"It's the environmental racism that allowed the powerful people in society to turn a blind eye for decades to the downsides of the industrial system that got us to this point."
"The other thing is that the environmental justice agenda is also changing. Before, it was much stronger on demanding equal protection from environmental bad. Now
we are also demanding equal opportunity and equal access to environmental good."
What is the environmental good he is referring to? Money.
"We want an equal share, an equitable share, of the work wealth and the benefits of the transition to a green economy."
"....we want to make sure that the green economy is an equal-opportunity, diverse economy that can lift millions of people out of poverty."
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We don't want it to be an ecoapartheid economy where the vast majority of the owners and workers and consumers and beneficiaries of the green economy are all one race."
He is asked, "What are some of the policies that you're envisioning would create this more level green-jobs market?"
"It's a two-part answer. First you've got to have a green economy. Then you've got to make it just and inclusive. You've got to put a price on carbon; that's got to be a top priority for the new administration."
How is he going to pay for his scheme. Like any good socialist, he's going to take it from the producers of wealth.
"The minute the rules change so that we punish the polluters, so the polluters have to pay, and the people who are doing things in a clean and green way are benefited, which can happen within the year, then you're going to see a massive transfer of both public and private capital into the clean and green sector."
"We want a really aggressive cap. We want to make the polluters pay. We don't care if they pay by buying permits or paying taxes."
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Just imagine how much money would be necessary to retrofit the millions and millions of homes in the country, and hire enough people to do it.
"Now, the real question is who's going to get those jobs."
"When the government moves, then capital will move, and when capital moves, then jobs will be created. We want to say very early and very loud, not after we see the big green economic boom, the real boom that's coming, but before, that the jobs question is critical, justice is critical, equal opportunity is critical, and pathways out of poverty are critical."
It's all about getting the money; that's his real concern.
"We're so clear about this because with the Silicon Valley tech boom, communities of color, poor people got nothing out of it. By the time we got into the argument, to talk about "Let's close the digital divide," the only thing Silicon Valley could think of to do is to give us recycled computers."
"We don't want, having already fought the digital divide in the '90s, to now have to deal with an eco divide."
Money, money, money. Don't earn it, don't produce something of value to someone else, just exist, and you have a right to get a piece of the pie.
The quotes are derived from an interview on the Mother Jones website. http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2008/10/qa-van-jones
