Wisconsin, Unions and Struggles (Earth Day)

[handmade34]

It was Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson that started Earth Day in 1969... his idea but it was the "people" who made it all happen...

"...Energized by Nelson’s proposal in the fall of 1969, people wasted no time in organizing teach-ins and events for their communities. Almost immediately...He was overwhelmed by the pure enthusiasm he received from elementary school students, high school teachers, churches, and community groups...a bigger Earth Day meant a harder day to organize, and he knew he and his Senate staff could not do it alone...
...Even before Earth Day 1970, environmental concerns had the attention of a few labor unions which worked to limit air pollution, water contamination, and workers’ exposure to hazardous chemicals. The United Auto Workers (UAW)—who had had a conservation department for some time—and the AFL-CIO—new to the environmental cause—made the first donations to the teach-in project, and several other unions became involved for the first time around Earth Day, lending their strength to environmentalism going forward...

**"...In the opposite camp, surreptitious socialist agendas were suspected by others, such as a Milwaukee corporation president who refused to donate to Earth Day because he detected the involvement of "certain militants" interested in "the total overthrow of the business community." Several elected officials, egged on by the anti-communist John Birch Society, wondered aloud if it was mere coincidence that the event's date fell on the birthday of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin...Conservatives spoke out against environmentalists' goal to increase public spending and government regulation for the environment. A convention of the Daughters of the American Revolution declared such spending to be "unnecessary and harmful," thrust upon the nation by exaggeration and "pollution of the mind."
"Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time not the resources to organize the 20 million demonstrators who participated from thousands of schools and local communities. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself." -Nelson

http://www.nelsonearthday.net/earth-day/index.htm

[Faygo Kid]

1. I was a frosh at Wayne State University that first Earth Day. The next week, Kent State.

I will never forget it: An absolutely beautiful spring day with Frisbees and dogs with bandanas and peace and love that very first Earth Day.

The next week, Kent State. I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.

[handmade34]

2. remember it well...