Let me say this about that
—By Gene Klare
...Goodsell’s career
(From Page 1)
award from the ILPA. He published a number of special editions of the Labor
Press devoted entirely to the strike and printed hundreds of thousands of copies
which were delivered door-to-door by teams of strikers. This helped the striking
unions to persuade tens of thousands of people to cancel their subscriptions to the
struck-but-still-publishing newspapers which were produced by strikebreakers.
JIM SERVED as an ILPA vice president and executive council member from
1958 to 1965. He was
a member of Portland
Newspaper Guild Lo-
cal 165 and Portland
Machinists Lodge 63.
In his years in Port-
land, Goodsell served
on the governing
boards of the mayor-
appointed Commis-
sion on Public Docks,
the City Club, the Ur-
ban League, the Ore-
gon chapter of the
American Civil Liber-
ties Union, the Junior
Symphony Associa-
tion and the Press
Club of Oregon. He
JIM GOODSELL
also was a member of
a blue-ribbon citizens
committee that produced a change-making report on racial policies in the Port-
land Public Schools.
JAMES W. GOODSELL was born on March 7, 1920 in Madison, Wiscon-
sin. His father was the Reverend Henry Guy Goodsell, a Methodist pastor; his
mother was Anna Catherine (Tyler) Goodsell.
Jim spent his early years in Denver and Colorado Springs, Colorado, places
where his father’s career took the family. In 1934, the Rev. Guy Goodsell moved
his family to Portland when he accepted the pulpit of the First Methodist Church
where he stayed until retiring in 1946.
JIM ATTENDED Lincoln High School when it was in a building that later
became part of Portland State University and is called Lincoln Hall. He served as
editor of the student newspaper and president of the student body. After gradu-
ating in 1937, he studied for a year at Willamette University in Salem, which
was connected with the Methodist Church. He won a scholarship to Columbia
College in New York City and studied there for three years. At Columbia he was
elected editor of the campus literary magazine, the Columbia Review.
BEFORE PEARL HARBOR, Goodsell worked at a plant in Pasadena,
Calif., that made parts for the B-24 bomber. After the Japanese attack that brought
the U.S. into World War II, Jim joined the U.S. Army Air Corps and saw duty as
a sergeant with the Air Transport Command in India and China.
After the war, Goodsell took a job as a reporter for the Astorian-Budget daily
newspaper in Astoria on the North Oregon Coast and next became news editor of
radio station KAST in Astoria. He was elected chairman of the Clatsop County
Democratic Party in 1948. That quickly led to him being hired as the Portland-
based executive secretary of the Democratic Party of Oregon. During his tenure,
the Democrats became Oregon’s majority party in voter registration for the first
time. This led to the victories of Democratic candidates for state and federal of-
fices in the elections later in the 1950s after Jim had moved to the Labor Press.
One of those winning Democrats was Richard Neuberger, Jim’s brother-in-law,
(Turn to Page 11)
PAGE 2
Labor, greens come together
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
If unions could join forces politically
with environmental groups, what could
they achieve together? Maybe good jobs
and a clean environment?
Neither camp has close ties to the
majority party in Congress right now,
but state by state, such an alliance has
potential, leaders in both movements
say.
In June, the 850,000-member union
United Steelworkers and the 750,000-
member environmental group Sierra
Club announced the formation of a
“Blue-Green Alliance” to work on a
joint political agenda.
“Good jobs and a clean environment
are important to American workers,”
said Steelworkers President Leo Gerard
in a statement accompanying the an-
nouncement. “We cannot have one with-
out the other.”
The Steelworkers have a history of
working with environmentalists dating
back to the 1970 passage of the Clean
Air Act, and are a part of several other
such alliances.
One that shows potential is the
Apollo Alliance, founded in 2003,
which has been endorsed by 20 environ-
mental groups, 19 international unions,
and 10 state federations and central la-
bor councils of the AFL-CIO. Apollo
brings together business and community
groups as well, who are interested in its
focus on public investment in energy
conservation and alternative energy.
Apollo takes no position on nuclear
energy, which green groups oppose, or
action to limit global warming, which
some labor groups have yet to endorse.
Instead, it sticks to a unifying agenda all
sides can agree with: energy independ-
ence, energy efficiency, clean energy,
and good jobs.
Rich Feldman, Apollo coordinator
for the state of Washington, says people
who are concerned about global warm-
ing are already on board with Apollo’s
proposals, while those who aren’t still
see the value of weaning the U.S. from
dependence on foreign fuel supplies.
Apollo takes its name from the
Apollo project, the challenge laid down
by John F. Kennedy that America could
send a manned vessel to the moon
within a decade if it put its mind to the
task. Similarly, say Apollo Alliance
founders, America can found a new era
of high efficiency and renewable energy
if it’s willing to invest in it. Apollo says
developing bio-fuels, wind, solar and
other new technologies could create 3
million new jobs in the agricultural
economy, construction and industry.
In Washington, an active Apollo
chapter helped pass legislation this
March to require that diesel and gaso-
line sold in the state contain minimum
percentages of biodiesel and ethanol.
The bill was fought hard by petroleum
companies, but passed with bipartisan
support. The law took effect July 1, and
the goal is for gas to contain at least 2
percent ethanol and diesel to contain 2
percent biodiesel, within two-and-a-half
years. Those requirements would rise to
10 percent and 5 percent respectively
when the state Department of Agricul-
ture determines that there’s enough
seed-crushing and feedstock capacity in
Washington to meet demand. Bio-
diesel is diesel fuel produced from re-
newable resources, including recycled
cooking oils, animal fats, and soybean
and canola oils.
Thanks to the demand created by the
law, Seattle-based Imperium Renew-
ables expects to break ground in early
September in Grays Harbor on one of
the largest biofuels plants in America.
The work will be done by a union-sig-
natory general contractor, JH Kelly, and
construction will take about a year. The
$40 million plant is slated to create 250
to 350 jobs during construction and 50
permanent jobs once it’s running. The
plant will manufacture biodiesel using
palm oil from Malaysia and soybean oil
from the United States.
The Portland City Council passed a
local ordinance July 12, without any
prompting from the Apollo Alliance or
other groups. Commissioner Randy
Leonard, a former Fire Fighters Union
leader, authored the ordinance. The or-
dinance requires that within a year all
gas stations within the city limits offer
gasoline that includes 10 percent
ethanol. In addition, all diesel sold will
have to include 5 percent biodiesel.
The Apollo Alliance is looking to
build momentum in Oregon, and is as-
signing a full-time organizer, Jeremy
Hays, to the task. Oregon AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Byrd says
discussions are under way about
whether to start a formal chapter of the
Apollo Alliance in Oregon. Backers
would hope to develop a legislative
agenda in the next few months.
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