Clean air, good jobs and justice

DETROIT--Around 1,000 activists from Detroit and around the country marched under the slogan of "Clean Air, Good Jobs and Justice" on the final day of the United States Social Forum to protest the largest waste incinerator in the world.

Protesters marched from Detroit Public Library through residential areas and ultimately past the incinerator and into the neighborhood that is downwind of it. Participants included Zero Waste Detroit, the East Michigan Environmental Action Council, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, the Sierra Club, Southwest Detroit Environmental Vision, Teamsters Local 214 and Joint Council 43, Code Pink and the International Socialist Organization.

The target of the protest was the Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Facility, which is privately owned and operated for profit by a subsidiary of Covanta Energy called Michigan Waste Energy. The facility produces around $40 million from charging the city an unusually high rate for waste disposal and from selling the energy generated.

It also produces numerous dangerous chemicals including sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxide, mercury, lead and dioxins--and is a serious contributing factor to making Michigan's 48217 zip code, where it is located, the most polluted in the state.

Vincent Martin of South West Environmental Vision said that the area also contains an oil refinery, Ford plant, three steel plants and four asphalt plants. Togther, they create one of the most toxic areas in the country.

Unbelievably, when Detroit and the surrounding area did not produce enough garbage to keep the incinerator running at high capacity, the city stopped its recycling program in order to keep the toxic fires burning. Recently, the binding agreement that the city had with the incinerator expired, but the city has extended the operations. The consequences have been devastating for the community.

A teacher from a school downwind from the plant spoke at the rally and described how her students have itchy skin and burning eyes because of the incinerator: "They think no one cares about them but all you here show that people do care."

Bradley Angel of Green Action spoke about how people are dying from asthma and cancer in the community at incredible rates--and that the government seems to be just fine with that. "A better world is necessary, and we are going to make it happen!" he said.

A representative of Teamsters Joint Council 43 was at the rally to speak in support of replacing the waste incinerator program with a recycling program that would produce six to 10 times more jobs with good benefits and a cleaner community.

Activist Emily Manes from Gender Just said that activism is crucial because it gives people power. Code Pink activist Victoira Quevedo said she was disappointed with the government's lack of action around numerous issues, and that she thought that the struggle for environmental justice was a struggle for all of us. The money being spent on the war by the Democrats should instead clean up the Gulf Coast, she stated. "Capitalism is anti-human," she concluded.

Susana Deranger, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation who resides in Canada, spoke about environmental racism resulting in a disproportionate toxic burden falling on people of color and the poor. Her community is downstream from oil producing tar sands, and is experiencing abnormal rates of rare cancers and other diseases.

"This is an indigenous struggle; this is all our struggle," she said, "We must love our mother."

Ted Glick, a long-time activist around environmental and other issues, said that the U.S. Social Forum is critical for building a new left, and was glad to see climate justice issues more present. "Obama will never do what's needed on his own. Only if we build independent massive social movements that can fight for the needs of the people will we get what we want," he said.