anti immigrant takeover of Sierra Club

[corporatewhore]

Anti-migrants plan coup at 100-year-old green group

'Extreme concern' for future of US Sierra Club

Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles
Friday January 23, 2004
The Guardian

The most powerful and venerable environmental organisation in the United States is facing what is being described as its greatest crisis in its 112-year history. There are claims that anti-immigration groups are planning to take over the Sierra Club, in a battle that has reopened the debate on the priorities for environmentalists worldwide.
The Sierra Club was founded in the 19th century by John Muir, a Scottish immigrant regarded as the father of American environmentalism. It now has 700,000 members and is the best known of all environmental groups in the country. Because of its vast membership and its history, its stance on major political issues carries much clout.In March, elections are due for five seats on the club's 15-strong board. Supporters of anti-immigration and anti-population growth stances are running for election and hoping to establish a majority on the board, partly in order to formulate an anti-immigration policy for the club.The environmental rationale behind the move is that the ecological infrastructure of the US will be irreparably damaged if millions more people arrive.Last week, 12 past presidents in a joint letter expressed their "extreme concern" for the "continuing viability" of the Sierra Club if this group of candidates is elected.

"It would be the end of John Muir's vision as we know it," said Lawrence Downing, a past club president and spokesman for Groundswell, a group formed within the club to fight what they describe as a takeover. "It would turn the club into the hands of outsiders who have their own personal agenda."

Some members claim that far-right groups are now urging people to join to take control of the club. The civil rights group the Southern Poverty Law Centre has joined the battle and is running a candidate of its own to highlight the issue.
"Without a doubt, the Sierra Club is the subject of a hostile takeover attempt by forces allied with a variety of rightwing extremists," said the centre in a letter to club members. "By taking advantage of the welcoming grassroots democratic structure of the Sierra Club, they hope to use the credibility of the club as a cover to advance their own extremist views. We think members should be alert to this."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1129526,00.html

[xray s]

1. There is a pattern forming here

First AARP, now the Sierra Club.

The cancer spreads....

[Lars39]

3. And churches, too.

I don't think there is any organization that's off limits to them.

[Gman]

2. It worked with the AARP

and you're right. Its an insidious cancer.

[cryofan]

4. It is NOT an insidious cancer! MOST Americans want less immigration

Poll after poll after poll shows that 60-80% of Americans want less immigration. As for the environmentalism-oriented Sierra Club, you don't have to be a rocket science to know that slowing the massive legal and illegal immigration we now have will HELP the environment.