GJC Agenda Front and Center at Green Jobs Rally
It’s official! The Green Jobs revolution is here, and it arrived with a splash at the State House on June 16, when dozens of federal and state legislators, labor and community leaders, media personalities and others gathered for a rally organized by the progressive AM radio show of the event’s host, Jeff Santos, to highlight both progress being made as well as areas needing improvement.
Among the speakers were Mass AFL-CIO President Robert Haynes, Rep. Barney Frank, Rep. Ed Markey, State Sen. Marc Pacheco, State Rep. Frank Smizik, industry players like Cape Wind, student leaders, environmental leaders from the Sierra Club and League of Environmental Voters, and many others. It was clear from what they had to say that not only is a green wave coming, but we in the US might well be in danger of missing it altogether unless we can get into high gear immediately on transforming our economy. Fundamental changes need to take place in transportation, energy, construction, manufacturing- just about every facet of our economy- and many of the people in the room have been pushing government and industry for years to introduce policies that do so.
Speaking for the Green Justice Coalition was Soledad Boyd, senior organizer with Community Labor United. She said that while the projected numbers for jobs and economic growth were impressive, the question that residents of disenfranchised neighborhoods like Boston's Grove Hall were asking was, “How many jobs have we created?” She painted a scenario where we replace the current low-paying, polluting industries with a ‘green economy’ in which workers “can’t pay rent, can’t put food on the table, and can’t send their kids to college. Is that what we want? I think we’ve had enough of that.” After all, these are taxpayer and ratepayer dollars, she pointed out: "It’s about our money and how it’s spent.” The crowd responded with a standing ovation.
