Green Jobs Czar Van Jones not sure what green jobs are

Van Jones, the self-described former communist turned Obama "Green Jobs Czar," was interviewed by Newsweek’s Daniel Stone for a July 28, 2009 web-only story.

Washington is spending $60 billion to create the careers of the future, but not a single green job yet exists. Obama’s ‘green czar’ explains.

From the East Bay Express

November 2nd 2005

“I met all these young radical people of color – I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was, like, ‘This is what I need to be a part of… I spent the next ten years of my life working with a lot of those people I met in jail, trying to be a revolutionary…I was a rowdy nationalist on April 28th, and then the verdicts came down on April 29th..By August, I was a communist.”

The communist organisation Van jones went on to lead was called Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM).

According to the leftist blog Machete 48

Returning to Van Jones, with all the shimmer associated with a rising star, many forget that a man now advising the president was a member of a revolutionary organization in the SF Bay Area called STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement). Throughout the group’s history, Van Jones was seen as a public figure within the Bay Area left and a leading member of STORM.

STORM had its roots in a grouping of people of color organizing against he Gulf War in the early 1990’s and was formally founded in 1994. The group’s politics had a number of influences, but evolved towards what could be best characterized as third worldist Marxism (and an often vulgar Maoism). The group grew in influence until its disbanding in 2002 amid problems of internal dynamics and especially controversy around the leadership roles that members played in the youth movement (such as the fight against Proposition 21).

Nearly the entire membership of the organization was staff members for various social movement non-profits in the Bay Area, many linked to the Ella Baker Center, which Van Jones steered.

While never large, STORM was one of the most influential and active radical groups in the Bay Area, controlling numerous front organisations including Bay Area Police Watch, one of several anti police activities Jones was involved in.

Other STORM fronts included a Marxist training organisation-School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) and an unemployed rights group-People Organized to Win Employment Rights(POWER).

Jones and STORM were also very active in the anti Iraq War demonstrations of the early 2000’s.

While way out on the left STORM also worked with “mainstream” communists. Bay Area left identity Elizabeth (Betita) Martinez was close to Jones and helped “mentor” his Ella Baker Human Rights Center.

Martinez was a long time Maoist who went on to join the Communist Party USA breakaway organisation Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism (CCDS)in the early 1990s.

Martinez still serves on the CCDS advisory board alongside radicals such as Angela Davis, Timuel Black (a personal friend of Barack Obama who served on his 2004 Senate campaign committee) and musician Pete Seeger (who performed at Obama’s Washington Inauguration Concert.

Martinez and Jones worked together on several projects including attending a Challenging White Supremacy workshop which much impressed Jones;

Martinez is also a board member of Movement for a Democratic Society, the radical parent body of Progressives for Obama

“To solve the new century’s mounting social and environmental problems, people of color activist and white activists need to be able to join forces. But all too often, the unconscious racism of white activists stands in the way of any effective, worthwhile collaboration. The Challenging White Supremacy Workshop is the most powerful tool that I have seen for removing the barriers to true partnerships between people of color and white folks. If the CWS trainings were mandatory for all white activists, the progressive movement in the United States would be unstoppable.”

If by greeen jobs, they mean bio tech jobs, there are hundreds of thousands of bio tech jobs. Here are a few of the headlines in todays biofuelsdigest dot com RFA says ethanol demand rising, reserve stocks at 19.6 days In Washington, the Renewable Fuel Association said that ethanol demand rose to 713,000 barrels per day in May, up from 673,000 b/d in March. The RFA projected that fuel ethanol production was 669,000 barrels per day, and that fuel ethanol stocks have now fallen to 588 million gallons, or 19.6 days of reserves. and Crimson Partners signal green light for 52-acre international biofuels center in Indiana In Indiana, Crimson Partners announced a go-ahead for plans to acquire 52 acres of land in Elkhart for a biofuels and renewable energy. The center, which will employee around 250 workers, will produce and run on all of its own power supply, and will be manufacturing wind and solar products as well as bio-fuels for [...] and Central Farmers Coop acquires former VeraSun 100 Mgy corn ethanol plant in South Dakota In South Dakota, the Central Farmers Cooperative has acquired the former 100 Mgy VeraSun ethanol plant in Marion, and said that it will commence operation immediately at full capacity and will rename the plant NuGen Energy. Dougherty Funding, which provided the financing package to NuGen, acquired the plant in bankruptcy from VeraSun for a $93 [...] and Today in Biofuels Opinion: “We want to certify a biofuel by 2011.” Dr. Alan H Epstein, vice president technology and environment at Pratt & Whitney: “We want to certify a biofuel by 2011 and we have an agreement to share results with GE and Boeing. Between us we make 98 per cent of the engine market and we genuinely are working as a team on this to [...] and a contrarian note Controversy erupts over low job creation report on the Iowa Power Fund In Iowa, the state Legislative Services Agency reported that the $100 million Iowa Power Fund, launched in 2007 to create energy independence and jobs, has created only 100 new jobs to date. However, backers of the fund including Governor Chet Cutler point out that the LSA report does not include construction jobs, and that the fund [...]

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