Save the Sierra Club from Hostile Takeover (MoveOn.org)

[harris8]

(Myself, I finally joined Sierra Club last year, especially to help prevent this takeover; please consider doing the same!)

From a MoveOn.org email:

Are you a Sierra Club member? The future of the Sierra Club is at stake.

Last year, Sierra Club members voted in record numbers to defeat a hostile takeover attempt by outside groups hoping to use the Club's democratic processes to push their own anti-immigration agenda. Now, these groups have forced an anti-immigrant measure onto the 2005 Sierra Club ballot that would require the Club to advocate for new restrictions on immigration into the U.S.—a policy that will do nothing to protect the global environment but will cripple the Sierra Club at a time when all progressives need them to be powerfully focused on righting the environmental wrongs of the current administration.

Why are we getting involved? Groundswell Sierra, a network of Sierra Club members and former staff, asked us to tell the hundreds of thousands of Club members in the MoveOn community, many of whom are in the dark because by-laws keep Club staff from discussing this issue. It's such a serious threat to the progressive movement we felt we needed to pass it on.

If right-wing anti-immigrant groups succeed in their stealth drive to change the Club's agenda, it would drive a wedge between environmental groups and millions of Americans, including Latinos who have led the environmental justice movement and are an important part of the progressive community. It would be a serious setback for the larger progressive coalition, and make the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots environmental organization, much less effective in blocking President Bush's anti-environmental agenda.

These outside groups are also running stealth candidates for the board of directors without declaring their true anti-immigrant agenda. But a decisive defeat could end their efforts to take over the Sierra Club.

...

Who's behind the attempt get the Sierra Club to oppose immigration? Some supporters are environmentalists who believe that ending immigration will reduce environmental damage (though world-renowned scientists Anne and Paul Ehrlich, who wrote the seminal book The Population Bomb, disagree and oppose this takeover). But much of the impetus comes from long time, extreme-right immigration opponents who've adopted a strategy of "greenwashing" their arguments to gain mainstream support for denying immigrants basic human rights like health care or education.

... (sorry, no link)

[tubbacheez]

1. The fight for the Sierra Club is definitely not over.

The anti-immigration forces have been at it since 1986 and aren't likely to stop anytime soon.




http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=927






On edit, another related link:

http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_hate.jsp?id=554

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Already voted. n/t

[WMliberal]

3. tell me about it. Have you seen the ballot this year?

It's so friggin confusing. The Immigration-obsessed are trying to disguise themselves so people who OPPOSE their takeover bid might vote for them by mistake.

I'm gonna do some research to make sure I don't mistakenly vote for one of them.

BTW, be careful, some of the immigration-takeoverers are on DU and might feed you false info. They're willing to do anything to get elected.

[harris8]

4. MoveOn suggests who to vote for Sierra Club board

...again, from their email:

1. Vote "No" on the ballot question on immigration.

2. Vote for only 5 of these 6 experienced Sierra Club candidates for the Board:

Jim Catlin
Chuck McGrady
Barbara Frank
Jennifer Ferenstein
Joni Bosh
Jim Dougherty

Please vote for only 5 of these candidates—voting for all 6 will disqualify your ballot!

[WMliberal]

6. one of the experienced guys asks you to not vote for him, but the other 5

He usues his space to advocate them and points out a few of the immigration candidates. One of them is actually in the middle of a lawsuit AGAINST Sierra. :wtf:

[crispini]

5. AGAIN?

I guess I gotta go dig through the mail and find the Sierra Club ballot. Jeez....

[tubbacheez]

7. Unfortunately this fight will probably last at least a few more years.

The nutjobs see the Sierra Club as a perfect takeover target.

Lots of political clout. Great reputation. Excellent membership and retention rate. And minimal turnout for internal elections.


They were stopped once, and they chalked it up to a freak accident. Their plot was discovered and then public outcry outed them. How often does that occur?

They think they can slip under the radar when nobody is looking.

So they'll try again and again.

[harris8]

8. Kick for the night shift...

...just wanted to add, I found it surreal when I first heard about this last year, thinking: "These folks REALLY want to derail environmental protection so much that they want to TAKE OVER the Sierra Club???" - and the simple fact that they are trying again even harder this year makes the answer blatantly clear: "Yep!".