STORY posted on March 5, 2010 by dawn
A Push to Save Greenpeace
Employees, activists struggle against Tzeporah Berman's appointment
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Activists launched a new website today, claiming Greenpeace International's appointment of Tzeporah Berman as co-director of its climate change campaign will push Greenpeace "beyond the point of no return." The appointment would make her a leader of the organization's global climate strategy.
savegreenpeace.org urges people concerned about Berman's appointment to sign on to a statement of opposition, sometime before the countdown clock hits zero, and she becomes "a cog in the corporate greenwashing machine."
Berman is under fire for the Great Bear Rainforest deal, which saved only 30 per cent of the forest and left the public in the dark, and for her praise of B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell. She carried the Olympic torch in the lead up to the 2010 Olympics.
"Greenpeace's original approach was confronting corporations and governments at the scenes of their crimes," said savegreenpeace.org co-creator Macdonald Stainsby. "That approach has softened lately, but if they hire Tzeporah Berman, they'll be on the fast track to corporate collaboration, beyond the point of no return," he said.
"It was greatly disappointing. I'm not willing to work for an organization that is willing to employ her, so I'm looking for alternatives," one Greenpeace staff member told savegreenpeace.org on the condition of anonymity. "There has been quite a bit of backlash to the decision already. 15 people I know have cancelled their memberships," he said.
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Click here to listen to an interview with Macdonald Stainsby on the Early Edition with Rick Cluff on CBC Radio 1. Greenpeace declined to be interviewed.
Correction: Berman will become leader of Greenpeace's global climate strategy, not their tar sands campaign.
The site for the Vancouver local of The Media Co-op has been archived and will no longer be updated. Please visit the main Media Co-op website to learn more about the organization.
Comments
Greenpeace went corporate years ago.
If you're really concerned about contributing to real environmental sustainability don't contribute to greenpeace. Help out the sea sheppards. They started greenpeace but were forced out of their own organization by greedy corporate careerists.
It's true...
...that Greenpeace has strayed pretty far from their original mandate. But the fact remains that they're the most powerful of a very small number of environmental groups that confront projects like the tar sands using direct action.
This is a battle worth fighting and winning. In this case, the corporate collaborationists overreached, and a lot of people are really outraged. It's a perfect opportunity to start a major push back against secretive, unaccountable corporate collaboration in the environmental movement.
Please... Lets not use this
Please...
Lets not use this event or article as a platform to try to snag a few more donors for the Sea S. and further splinter the environmental movement.
Greenpeace overall (historically and currently) accomplishes unmatched achievements for the environmental movement. Today the organization occupies a position that effects so much change in the world it was not even imaginable just a few decades ago, and thus the organization is charting new territory every year.
Maybe its time to reconsider how members interact and keep the organization accountable. Currently I am only aware of two methods 1) by donating more or less and 2) by responding to the yearly questionnaire they send out.
Unlike many other non-profits We do not elect the Greenpeace’s directing boards... Maybe this should change?
is she really the ruin?
is Tzeporah Berman really the ruin of greenpeace? is the organization not already heavily infilitrated by green capitalists?
if she really is the ruin, then let her ruin it and we can have grassroots organizations fill the vacuum of a greenpeace collapse - or is greenpeace 'too big to fail' now?
this system can not be reformed, saving greenpeace from itself is not how i want to spend my energies.
A quick response
Hi Dan,
Of course Greenpeace has green capitalists in it. That said, this hire is a major step in the direction of actively soliciting cash from big foundations and collaborating directly with corporations much more than before. GP was heading in that direction, but this them stomping on the accelerator.
This is only partly about Greenpeace. It's about the widespread corruption of the environmental movement, whereby ENGOs channel the energies of the large swaths of the public toward goals that are antithetical to what those people actually believe in.
I agree that ultimately only grassroots, democratic structures are going to fully address planetary destruction.
But how do we get there?
I don't fully know, but I think that exposing and opposing the corruption in the existing structures is a necessary first step to creating broad-based grassroots organizing.
The hiring of Tzeporah Berman is, unmistakably, a strategically opportune moment to achieve both exposition and opposition to this corruption on a greater scale than would otherwise be possible.
By demanding accountability and democracy of Greenpeace at a time when large portions of its supporters are furious at the lack of it, we either achieve those (good) or highlight unmistakably the need for those things in any future organizing structure (also good).
If the proposition is to simply wait for Greenpeace to implode, and assume that people will make the right decisions without any strategic intervention, I have my doubts about the likely effectiveness of this course.
To fight the collaborationists and establish democratic structures that actually fight environmental destruction, we'll need every strategic edge we can possibly find. This major misstep is the best break we've got in a while, in my opinion.
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in response to:
"If you're really concerned about contributing to real environmental sustainability don't contribute to greenpeace. Help out the sea sheppards. They started greenpeace but were forced out of their own organization by greedy corporate careerists."
Paul Watson parted ways from Greenpeace due to his violent approach to matters (evident in sea sheppard tactics) not due to the organization's "greedy corporate careerist." Greenpeace was founded on Quaker ideals and pacifism, and remains a NOT-FOR-PROFIT organization. Get serious.