25 JUNE 2012 – ELEANOR DAY and the beginning of a

NEW WEB 2.0 GREEN DEAL DAY ? By COGEO CONSULTING at the Press Club of France (www.pressclub.fr) Philippe Porta – CEO – COGEO CONSULTING ( OSHA – EMS – CSR ) (www.cogeoconsulting.com) Florian Gomart - CORPORATE ECOLOGIST at COGEO and Legal International Advisor for NGO and “Ni Putes Ni Soumises” directed by Fadela Amara (florian.gomart@laposte.net) Mathieu Rochat, and Team members – WEBO CONFERENCE (www.weboconference.com) GREEN COLLAR GUYS AND WOMEN are today changing the World for a better future for our childrens…. In the New Green Web 2.0 Business, they create the conditions against social, environmental and economic crisis… The Web 2.0 Green solution is perhaps the good solution even in Germany, Angela Merkel decided to kill some Green Business to preserve the budget of the German Federal Government. We are thinking, we need all Green Collar Guys and Women, all over the Word, to realize our Dreams – a Safe World, peace and wellbeing for people living in every country… So I remembered Georges Frèche: he was my Teacher on American History at the University of Montpellier (France) in 82-84’ period. Once upon an Eleanor Day on 25 June, he told us about ER and the big influence she had during The New Deal….. Today, I have a thought for every woman, just because all woman could be an ER!

1932 – USA – THE NEW DEAL ( ROOSEVELT – ER – and Keynes) 2012 – FRANCE – THE NEW WEB 2.0 GREEN NEW DEAL – With COGEO CONSULTING Philippe Porta – Florian Gomart – Mathieu Rochat They are influencing the World for a Better Life !

Question: What New Deal Policies did Eleanor Roosevelt influence?

Answer:

Although she worried at first that her life as first lady

would end her freedom to speak out and act for the causes

she cared so deeply about, ER soon found ways of

exerting her influence in her new role. She began holding

press conferences open only to women reporters. She

worked successfully with Molly Dewsonto increase the

number of women appointments in the Roosevelt

administration. She argued that women should be able to

hold their jobs even if their husbands were employed, and

made sure there were relief programs for women ("She-

She-She Camps"), as well as for men. She pressed for the

creation of youth programs, encouraging the

establishment of the National Youth Administration. She

befriended black leaders Mary McLeod

Bethune and Walter White, became a champion of civil

rights, lobbied against the poll tax, supported

the Southern Tenant Farmer's Union, and pushed for the

inclusion of blacks in government programs. Housing

became one of her special concerns and she worked with

the Housing Division of the Public Works

Administration and the Washington Housing Authority to support planned communities

("greenbelt towns") and slum clearance projects. She enthusiastically supported federal aid to

the arts, played a key role in establishing the Federal Arts Projects, and defended the projects

against congressional attacks. She took a special interest in the communities built by the

Roosevelt administration for displaced workers, particularly the one at Arthurdale, West

Virginia, which she visited frequently. A strong supporter of workers' rights, she lobbied for

theNational Labor Relations Act, championed the concept of a living wage, and urged the

passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

She visited coal mines, migrant camps, and the homes of sharecroppers and slum-dwellers.

She inspected government programs and projects. Through her tireless travels throughout the

country and the heavy volume of mail she received from people desperately seeking help, she

placed herself more personally and directly in touch with the conditions under which people

lived during the Depression than any member of FDR's administration. She employed this

knowledge in her articles, speeches, radio talks, and the "My Day" column she began writing

six days a week in 1936, urging the adoption of measures to address the needs of the

American people. She sent some of the letters she received from people seeking help to

government officials with a note asking if something could be done. She reported to FDR on

conditions during theDepression, on the success or failure of New Deal programs, passed on

letters asking for help, lobbied for specific policy initiatives, and urged him to act.

As Rexford Tugwell, one of the original members of FDR's Brains Trust, described ER's

attempts to lobby FDR, "No one who ever saw Eleanor Roosevelt sit down facing her

husband, and, holding his eye firmly, say to him, 'Franklin, I think you should . . .' or,

'Franklin, surely you will not . . .' will ever forget the experience. . . . It would be impossible

to say how often and to what extent American governmental processes have been turned in

new directions because of her determination."(1)

Notes:

1. Rexford Tugwell, "Remarks," Roosevelt Day Dinner Journal, Americans for Democratic Action, January 31, 1963.

Sources:

Black, Allida M. Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar

Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996, 23-49.

Cook, Blanche Wiesen. Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume Two, The Defining Years, 1933-

1938. New York: Penguin Books, 1999, 70-91, 130-189, 233-334, 389-434, 508-537.

Lash, Joseph P. Eleanor and Franklin. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1971, 366-

433, 452-472, 511-554.