RE: A 'hostile' takeover bid at the Sierra Club

Ain't the first time.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Olhado
Sent: February 23, 2004 5:21 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [ballistichelmet] A 'hostile' takeover bid at the Sierra Club 



A 'hostile' takeover bid at the Sierra Club 

http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0220/p01s04-ussc.html

By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer 
of The Christian Science Monitor

The Sierra Club - America's premier environmental group, with 750,000
members 
and considerable political clout - is the target of an unfriendly
takeover 
attempt.

A combination of animal-rights and anti-immigrant activists is aiming to
take 
control of the organization - and change its philosophy and direction -
by 
getting their slate of candidates elected to the group's board of
directors. 
They already control several seats, and more are up for grabs. The
dispute gets 
to two core questions among environmental activists.

The first is whether population growth (which in the US mainly means 
immigration) is a key contributor to environmental degradation because
more 
people mean more pollution and greater consumption of natural resources.
Some 
critics say this country's liberal immigration policy acts as a safety
valve for 
high-population countries, making it easier to avoid dealing with their 
environmental problems, and adding to the problems here.

But for many environmental activists, it's hard to take a tough stand
against 
those immigrants - especially when such a platform could dissuade other 
progressives from joining or contributing. Some critics say national 
environmental organizations have become too elite, ignoring the needs of
the 
urban poor, many of whom are immigrants.

A second question is whether rights of animals - in the wild or on farms
- are 
as important as preserving wilderness. To answer "yes" would alienate
"hook and 
bullet" organizations, hunters and fishermen who often ally with 
environmentalists on issues like forest and wetland conservation.
Merging of 
anti-immigrant sentiment

The most charged debate, by far, is the one on immigration - and it's
far more 
than just an argument among well- meaning idealists.

Leaders of the anti-immigration faction are mainly establishment types -
former 
Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm, the former director of the Congressional
Black 
Caucus Foundation, and university professors from around the country.
Paul 
Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace, president of the antiwhaling Sea
Shepherd 
Conservation Society, and an advocate of zero population growth,
gathered enough 
club support to get himself nominated and then elected to a board
position last 
year. So did two other population activists.

But hardcore opponents of immigration - including groups with allegedly
racist 
philosophies - have joined in, urging their supporters to send in $25
checks so 
they can join the Sierra Club and vote for the anti-immigration slate of
board 
members.

Even the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have
joined 
the fray, citing a dangerous, right-wing influence - what civil rights
lawyer 
Morris Dees warns is the "greening of hate."

In a recent letter to the Sierra Club's current board of directors, 13
past 
presidents of the group expressed "extreme concern for the continuing
viability 
of the club." Your tired, your poor, your environment

The combination of birth rates and immigration mean the US has the
highest 
population growth of any developed country. This includes one million
legal 
immigrants, plus an estimated 700,000 illegal immigrants, each year.
Without 
change, predicts the US Census Bureau, the country's population could
double 
this century - and nearly 70 percent of that increase would be
immigrants.

America has always been a land of immigrants, but their numbers swelled
after 
1990 when the Immigration Reform Act opened the country to the families
of many 
immigrants.

Ten years ago, Californians overwhelmingly passed a ballot measure
(later 
declared unconstitutional) denying social services to illegal
immigrants.

Since then, xenophobia linked to the war on terrorism, plus continuing
concern 
over the cost of providing government services to immigrants, have added
to 
tension. The immigration dispute within the Sierra Club reflects this,
but it 
also predates it. Some members have pushed the club to confront
immigration as a 
part of overpopulation and to take a stand; others have said it should
remain 
neutral. A fraught and fractured membership

Hallmarks of the Sierra Club since its founding in 1892 have been
grass-roots 
activism and a democratic structure right up to the top. This can mean
political 
effectiveness at all levels of government. But it can also lead to
internal 
squabbles over policy, organization, and management.

At the moment, the membership has fractured into subgroups over the
immigration 
issue. Through special websites, newspaper columns and letters, and
e-mails to 
members, the two sides accuse each other of unethically - maybe even
illegally - trying to manipulate the board vote, which will be conducted
through March until 
mid-April.

Recently, three "reform-oriented independent candidates," as they call 
themselves, sued Sierra Club president Larry Fahn, CEO Carl Pope, and
other "old 
guard" directors for abusing their positions by influencing the
election. On 
Tuesday, though, the three board candidates - Mr. Lamm, Frank Morris and
David 
Pimentel - dropped the suit.

"I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that their attempts to demonize
some 
directors and candidates remind me of the McCarthy era 50 years ago,"
says UCLA 
physicist Ben Zuckerman, a longtime Sierra Club member and advocate of 
immigration control who was elected to the board two years ago.

It's not lost on either side that John Muir, the founder of the Sierra
Club, 
himself was an immigrant from Scotland.
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