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Anti-Immigrant Co-Optation of the Environmental Movement

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Anti-Immigrant Co-Optation of the Environmental Movement APPLY THE BRAKES: ANTI-IMMIGRANT CO-OPTATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT Presented by The Center for New Community Report authored by: Jenny Levison, Stephen Piggott, Rebecca Poswolsky, and Eric Ward with research assistance from Nina Masters, MJ Olahafa, and Brian Schultz. Copyright © 2010 Center for New Community. All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced without the permission of the Center for New Community except for sections quoted with proper attribution for pur- poses of review and public education. APPLY THE BRAKES: ANTI-IMMIGRANT CO-OPTATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT Introduction transforming 19th Century England and, unchallengeable nature. People become This report is intended to explore how anti- combined with later Social Darwinism, pollutants, with all the racial overtones of immigrant forces have corrupted the dia- were used to justify ideologies that essen- such a social construction. logue on population and the environment, tially blamed the victims of early industrial and will examine the anti-immigrant envi- development — a development that swal- ronmentalist network that has influenced lowed up, displaced and destroyed popula- The Genesis of Apply The the environmental movement for the last tions, and which was itself highly artificial Brakes 14 years. In 2009, an article in the and environmentally destructive — for To fully understand the ATB network, it is Population Special Issue of the Earth Island their own misfortune. important to understand not only the phi- Journal1 mentioned a new organization and losophy driving the organization, but also website named Apply the Brakes (ATB Specifically, anti-immigrant activists the histories of its key participants. Don hereafter). A few months later, the Center belonging to the neo-Malthusian tradition Weeden is one of the leaders promoted on for Immigration Studies2 — an anti-immi- claim that populations are constrained by the ATB website,7 and is involved with grant organization known to trade in the carrying capacity of the environment, funding the project through his family foun- racism — cited ATB in a memorandum and that population growth causes environ- dation. William G. (Bill) Elder appears to denouncing Sierra Club leadership for not mental degradation. They argue that immi- have selected much of the ATB website addressing the issue of immigration. At a grants contribute to the degradation of the content and is also listed as website time when more people of color, labor and environment by urban sprawl, congestion, editor.8 Both Bill Elder and the Weeden human rights organizations are engaging in pollution, waste generation, water con- Family Foundation have histories within the environmental concerns such as climate sumption, land conversion, depletion of environmental movement that significantly change and “green jobs,” ATB could very natural resources, and biodiversity loss, precede the ATB network, and understand- well threaten those fragile coalitions. and have gone so far as to create a formu- ing their efforts provides much context for la (change in pollution multiplied by change ATB as a whole. in population) to demonstrate these rela- An Ecological Philosophy tionships.5,6 Neo-Malthusian doctrine has While the majority of conservation leaders of Bigotry been invoked over the years by these indi- highlighted on the ATB website are united Allegedly the “result of a meeting of long- viduals and organizations to argue that in their common advocacy for population time conservationists held in Western compassion for those starving and “stabilization” and for stringent restrictions Oregon in the spring of 2006,”3 ATB has destroyed eventually backfires, leading to on US immigration, each spokesperson kept a very low public presence outside of greater future catastrophe. also provides his or her own unique slant. environmental circles, but its mission is (Brief biographies are located in Appendix clear: ATB concerns itself with “domestic ATB arguments on immigrants and popula- A.) The overall vision of the ATB consor- population growth”4 and has a pronounced tion pull directly from the neo-Malthusian tium is brought into focus, however, only by anti-immigration focus. stance — displacing blame from the nega- examining the interwoven histories of its tive influence of economic globalization primary coordinator, William G. (Bill) Elder, The discussion that ATB seeks to broadcast onto populations that are the worst impact- the white nationalist John Tanton, the anti- is essentially neo-Malthusian. The theory ed. This push by ATB to distort “cause and immigrant network SUSPS (Sierrans for US was born when Thomas Malthus published effect” serves to intentionally transform a Population Stabilization), and its main fund- “An Essay on the Principle of Population in holistic environmental philosophy based on ing source, the Weeden Foundation. 1798” in which he stated that the discrep- greater care towards the world and each ancy between the rate of population and other, into misanthropy. Ecological thinking the rate of food growth would lead to a based on dynamic and interconnected nat- Bill Elder and SUSPS Bill Elder, a former Boeing employee and permanent food shortage for humans. ural systems turns into a philosophy that health-care consultant9 based in Issaquah, Malthus’ works gained influence in rapidly- treats national and state borders as Washington, has long been involved in anti- 2 immigrant and population activism. Elder columnist for the white nationalist website to keep hidden about its genesis, what is joined the Sierra Club in 199410 during a VDARE — named after Virginia Dare, clear is that SUSPS was synonymous from recruitment effort that drew in activists allegedly the first white child born in the its inception with dramatic attempts to shift from anti-immigrant organizations. Elder United States.24 Elbel is a founder of Defend the Sierra Club to a strict platform of immi- served as the Population Coordinator for Colorado Now who, when challenged about gration restriction. In 1998, SUSPS activists the Sierra Club’s Cascade Washington State statements blaming impoverished people of placed a proposition on the ballot within Chapter during the late 1990s11 and into color for environmental problems, wrote the Sierra Club that would have reversed the new millennium. 12,13 “Damned right. I hate 'em all - negroes, the Board’s neutrality policy, and would wasps, spics, eskimos, jews, honkies, have forced the Club to adopt an anti- Past political efforts by Elder have focused krauts, ruskies, ethopans, pakis, hunkies, immigration stance. The proposition failed on themes of population, planning, and pollocks and marxists; there are way too 60%-40%,31 and as a result of this loss, growth. These endeavors include running many of them [original spellings main- SUSPS changed tactics from ballots to unsuccessfully in 1996 for the Washington tained throughout].”25 board elections. State House of Representatives as an inde- pendent candidate14 and defeating two John Tanton and The nebulous nature of SUSPS worked to Issaquah, Washington school bond meas- its political advantage, allowing it to dodge ures in 1998 and 1999. Elder also served the birth of SUSPS issues of membership and funding while as Executive Director for the now-defunct The original impetus for the establishment still working in close association with more Alternatives to Growth Washington, an of SUSPS was a 1996 decision by the highly structured and better-funded anti- organization “committed to researching and Sierra Club Board of Directors to adopt a immigrant groups and leaders. In the 2002 fostering a re-examination of growth related policy of neutrality on US immigration — a and 2003 Sierra Club elections, three public policy issues”15 which existed in the decision in response to warnings that a SUSPS-backed candidates were elected to early-2000s.16 Alternatives to Growth cadre of anti-immigrant activists were the 15-member board — first Ben Washington was heavily influenced by attempting to push immigration restriction Zuckerman (board member of the racially- Alternatives to Growth Oregon, a group then as a Club focus.26 tinged Californians for Population headed by Andy Kerr.17 Kerr is also affiliated Stabilization), followed by Paul Watson with the present-day ATB consortium. 18 As the oldest and largest environmental (Founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation organization in the US, the Sierra Club had Society) and Doug LaFollette (Wisconsin’s It was during his tenure as Executive long been a target of anti-immigration Secretary of State). 32 Director for Alternatives to Growth activists. In 1986, John Tanton — a white Washington that Elder became immersed in nationalist who has also played a signifi- By the 2004 Sierra Club elections, SUSPS a controversial national network named cant role in the birth or funding for a dozen needed to elect only three additional candi- SUSPS, originally referred to as Sierrans for other anti-immigration groups27 like the dates to the board in order to control the US Population Stabilization. Social Contract Press, Federation for organization and impose its anti-immigra- American Immigration Reform (FAIR), tion plank. Its three main candidates were VDARE, and SAGE — wrote in a memo that Richard D. Lamm, national advisor to The Leadership of SUSPS “the Sierra Club may not want to touch the The exact structure of SUSPS has never Tanton’s Federation for American immigration issue, but the immigration Immigration Reform (FAIR); Frank Morris, been clear, and the group’s leadership has 28 issue is going to touch the Sierra Club!” board member of Tanton’s Center for lacked transparency from its inception, Prior to the founding of FAIR and other radi- which SUSPS lists as 1996.19 SUSPS is Immigration Studies; and David Pimental, cal anti-immigration environmental groups, board member of the Carrying Capacity unincorporated, and roles within the coali- Tanton himself headed the Sierra Club’s tion shift often; individuals step up or stand Network whose president, Virginia Population Committee during the early Abernethy, described herself as a “white aside in order to provide the most effective 29 1970s.
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