Green Movement

Alexander Cockburn’s “Green Leaders Have Turned Into Toadies” (Column Left, Jan. 5) contains a serious confusion of terms. When he wrote of “green leaders,” it should have been “leaders of environmental organizations.” There is a robust international Green movement which includes Green parties in over 70 countries. This Green movement is vitally concerned about what is happening to the environment but goes far beyond that in questioning the whole basis on which our societies are constituted and which threatens an ecological collapse.

The four pillars of the German Green movement are: nonviolence, social justice, ecological wisdom and grass-roots democracy. The U.S. movement has amplified these by adding decentralization, community-based economics, feminism, respect for diversity, personal and social responsibility, and future focus. The Green (purposely capitalized) movement thinks in terms of fundamental social change. That is why Cockburn’s “green leaders” rarely support Green candidates and opt for the status quo.

ROBERT W. LONG

San Pedro