Clinton Says Republicans Weakened His Environmental Advances

BOSTON, Massachusetts, July 27, 2004 (ENS) - The environment was not forgotten as 35,000 people from across the country gathered at the FleetCenter for the Democratic National Convention Monday - delegates, media, official guests and foreign dignitaries.

Former President Bill Clinton, star of the convention opener, addressed the delegates late last night. Reminding them that we all want "a clean environment," Clinton made the Democrats' case why the right choice for America on November 2 is John Kerry.

"The 21st century is marked by serious security threats, serious economic challenges, and serious problems like global warming and the AIDS epidemic," Clinton said.

"But it is also full of enormous opportunities - to create millions of high paying jobs in clean energy, and biotechnology; to restore the manufacturing base and reap the benefits of the global economy through our diversity and our commitment to decent labor and environmental standards everywhere," underlining the Democratic position that free trade must be fair trade.

Clinton said that after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2004, President George W. Bush missed a great opportunity to "unite the world in common cause against terror."

Former President Bill Clinton said the Republican administration has undermined the environmental work he did during his eight years in the White House, 1993-2000.

"Now they are working to develop two new nuclear weapons, which they say we might use first," Clinton warned.

Since he left office, he is in the top tax bracket for the first time in his life, Clinton said, and he is one recipient of the Bush administration's tax cuts. He used that position to criticize the current administration for undercutting environmental programs he enacted.

"They protected my tax cuts," Clinton said, while "weakening or reversing important environmental advances for clean air and the preservation of our forests."

Electing Kerry in November will put a President in office who will "clean the environment in a way that creates jobs," Clinton said.

The mood is celebratory although the problems facing the nation form the substance of the speeches. (Photo courtesy DNCC)

"Are you troubled by the erosion of some of America's most basic civil liberties? Are you worried that our environmental laws are being weakened and dismantled to allow vast increases in pollution that are contributing to a global climate crisis?" Gore challenged. "No matter how you voted in the last election, "he said, "these are profound problems that all voters must take into account this November 2nd."

Gore told the delegates that he was elected to the Senate on the same day as Kerry 20 years ago and has worked closely with him since then. "He had the best record of protecting the environment against polluters of any of my colleagues - bar none," Gore said.

In his address to the convention Monday, former President Jimmy Carter put the environment on the list of issues that he said will benefit with Democrats in the White House. "As you know," said Carter, "our country faces many challenges at home involving energy, taxation, the environment, education, and health. To meet these challenges, we need new leaders in Washington whose policies are shaped by working American families instead of the super-rich and their armies of lobbyists."

Security across the city was tight Monday, but no serious incidents occurred. Organized by the self-styled anarchist group the Black Tea Society, about 400 people marched from the Boston Common towards the FleetCenter, where the convention is being held, in a non-permitted demonstration for civil liberties and against police brutality.

Many people are very worried about the erosion in basic civil liberties of which Gore spoke from the convention stage. This concern crystalized around an area just outside the FleetCenter surrounded by double set of chain link fencing and topped with razor wire set aside as a "free speech zone" by the City of Boston.

Most people who wished to express their views refused to go inside. "It was about eight feet high and the same wide," one demonstrator said. "We refused to go in it, and instead did chants and yelled at the Democrats from behind the fence, even though we could barely see through it."

The police were "restrained," the demonstrator said even when people started banging on the fence. Now dubbed the "protest pen" the area was designed to control protesters, but except for two dozen demonstrators who staged a protest of the protest pen, they have stayed away.

Demonstrators against repressive measures to stifle protest kneel in front of the "free-speech zone" set up by the City of Boston. (Photo courtesy Indymedia)

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Woodlock toured the 28,000 square foot pen with police and city officials.

After the tour, Judge Woodlock declined to make changes to the structure in a lawsuit against the structure brought by the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), on behalf of the groups United for Justice with Peace, the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights, and the Black Tea Society.

In a separate case, he did permit a peaceful parade near the convention site, which took place on Sunday and attracted about 2,000 people.

On Monday, the First Circuit Court of Appeals denied an appeal filed by ACLU-Mass and the National Lawyers Guild seeking to overturn Judge Woodlock's decision to leave the protest pen intact, although the appellate court called the pen little more than an "internment" camp.

"We are deeply disappointed that the political convention here in Boston has been marred by a ruling that fundamentally undermines freedom of speech and assembly," said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. "It is ironic that the principles of free speech and public participation in the democratic process have been abandoned on the doorstep of a political party convention."

Today, the Christian Defense Coalition is leading a protest against the fenced in protest and demonstration area, calling for it to be removed. The group calls the walls surrounding the area, the "Berlin Wall" of free speech and civil liberties.

Reverend Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said, "This so-called demonstration area is an insult to all those who cherish the First Amendment and free speech. It is as offensive as the signs on restaurants in the '50s and '60s that stated "Whites Only." At the Democratic National Convention you are not being discriminated against based on your skin color but on your political views."