Congress of Racial Equality

Congress of Racial Equality CORE is an African American group that played a leading role in the American civil rights movement. CORE was among the pioneers of the use of nonviolent direct action as a means of challenging segregation, including sit-ins, jail-ins, and freedom rides. However, during the 1970s CORE all but collapsed and the remnant was taken over by Roy Innis who moved the organisation to the Republican right.

His son, Niger, currently serves as CORE's National Spokesman. CORE's press release for the Greenpeace protest quoted him as saying, 'The carnage has got to end. People should be ashamed to support these fanatics and the eco-manslaughter they are perpetrating on the world's most destitute people. Today's protest is just the first step in bringing justice to the Third World.'

In September 2003 CORE was among groups, including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, taking part in pro-GM protests during the WTO summit in Cancun, Mexico.

A few months earlier, in May 2003, CORE was reported as planning a protest against Greenpeace, alleging that the environmental group had committed 'eco-manslaughter' through the impact of its policies on the developing world. Greenpeace's 'opposition to genetically modified foods' was listed by CORE as among the ways by which 'these zealots' cause 'misery and death'.

In late January 2004 CORE organised a 'Teach-In' in New York entitled, 'Eco-Imperialism: The global green movement's war on the developing world's poor'. Contributors included Patrick Moore, CS Prakash, and Roger Bate. In a press release CORE's Niger Innis, another contributor, said that after the Teach-In 'eco-imperialism' would be a household word, adding, 'We intend to stop this callous eco-manslaughter'.

Another contributor was Paul Driessen of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise (CDFE), the Godfather among lobby groups attacking the environmental movement. CDFE are also behind The Economic Human Rights Project, descibed as 'an initiative of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, in cooperation with the Congress of Racial Equality', and as a 'growing coalition... dedicated to correcting prevalent environmental myths and misguided policies that help perpetuate poverty, misery, disease and early death in developing countries.'

Niger Innis also serves as an Advisory Committee member for Project 21 an initiative of the National Center for Public Policy Research - a conservative/free market foundation with a strongly anti-environmental agenda.

Black American journalists Glen Ford and Peter Gamble describe Project 21 as a 'Black front group' and 'a network and nursery for aspiring rightwing operatives'. They are equally scathing about CORE - 'a tin cup outstretched to every Hard Right political campaign or cause that finds it convenient - or a sick joke - to hire Black cheerleaders'. They report how James Farmer, the former head of the original Congress of Racial Equality confronted Roy Innis on TV for turning 'the organization into what Farmer called a "shakedown" gang.'

Niger Innis is no stranger to 'counter protest'. The Competitive Enterprise Institute noted the involvement of Innis in reporting a counter protest outside an ExxonMobil shareholder meeting in Dallas: '...faced with the unexpected numbers of free market demonstrators the anti-corporate protestors finally left. "I think we rattled them. They're packing up their bags and they're leaving," said Niger Innis of the Congress on Racial Equality, one of the groups conducting a counter-demonstration. "Victory is sweet."'