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In honor of Earth Day, we’re taking a moment to share more about CCC’s commitment to environmental justice (EJ) and the role it plays in our daily lives. Read on to get to know our EJ team in a Q&A below.What is CCC’s mission and goals for achieving environmental justice? 

Our team’s mission is centered around elevating the community knowledge and lived experience of frontline communities — those who experience the first and worst impacts of the climate crisis and other environmental injustices — in policy and planning efforts. We work to broaden the understanding of environmental justice as a holistic and tangible issue. Extreme heat waves, wildfires, and rising utility costs are among just a few of many environmental justice issues that our communities are contending with. Ultimately, we seek to shift power to the most impacted and lessen burdens and increase benefits for frontline communities.

Taren Evans, Environmental Justice Director 

Why are you personally passionate about environmental justice?

I appreciate how holistic environmental justice is; it considers all the ways in which people are interconnected with the world and the systems around us. From the buildings we work and live in, and the energy we use throughout our day, to the way we get around, the water we drink, and the parks we play in — environmental justice touches almost every part of our daily lives. I am grateful to be able to work on policies and processes to ensure that everyone has access to the resources they need to survive and thrive! 

Nikita Daryanani, Climate and Energy Policy Manager 

Can you share a success story or project that your team has accomplished and the impact it had on the community? 

Our EJ team played a critical role in bringing a unique government planning model to Multnomah County. We partnered with the Multnomah County Office of Sustainability, the Health Department, and community partners to create the county's first community-driven climate justice plan. Our main focus was on ensuring that underrepresented voices were heard throughout the multi-year planning process by engaging community members. We’re proud to be contributing authors of the climate justice planning framework as well as the climate justice storytelling and data zine that highlights the strength of communities of color and the combination of quantitative and qualitative data.

Santi Sanchez, Health and Climate Coordinator

Strengthen our impact this Earth Day: your donation of $10 today will support EJ efforts in our community. Donate today!

“Earth Day to May Day” Marcha Campesina, Skagit County, WA.  Photo credit: David Bacon

Happy Earth Day!

Started in 1970, the original Earth Day is often credited to Wisconsin Governor/Senator Gaylord Nelson, but there is actually a lot more grassroots action behind this story.  Spurred by the warnings of Silent Spring and 1969 catastrophes such as the Santa Barbara offshore oil spill and the Cuyahoga River catching fire, the young environmental movement organized a national day of campus teach-ins, mass demonstrations, and public school activities such as tree planting and beach cleanup.  An estimated 20 million people participated.  Given the tenor of the counterculture and anti-war movement at that time, a protest that focused on affirmative, solution-oriented actions was widely embraced by all – a little known fact is that the United Auto Workers (UAW) were the single largest financial supporter of the first Earth Day.

Earth Day actions led to the creation of the EPA, Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  Over 50 years the idea has spread to nearly every country in the world.  But now, it has mostly lost the fierce and urgent edge that it once had.  If you attended Earth Day events over the weekend, you likely saw a pavilion with Exxon plastered on it or a stage sponsored by Chevron.  Every channel shows ads implying that “BP” stands for “Beyond Petroleum” (to that we say: “BS”).  Corporate co-optation and disinformation have neutered and ruined Earth Day, to the point where many in the environmental justice movement ignore it.

But EJ needs to reclaim Earth Day, to make it once again a day of protest, to exceed its inoffensive image by engaging in direct action and demanding the necessary policy changes and redistribution of resources to the grassroots communities and local economies that are fighting to protect their lived environments while also building real solutions from the bottom up.

Next week we will celebrate another holiday that is very important to our movements.  May Day has a much longer history, and over the centuries it has become complex and multi-faceted.  Originally a fertility ritual rooted in pre-Christian European cultures, May Day was a signal of the beginning of the planting season, and therefore it is inherently “green.”  In the 1880’s it gained its “red” aspect after May 1st was declared an international day of demonstration for all workers to demand respect and dignity, and it became firmly entrenched in the early labor movement as a commemoration of the Haymarket martyrs.  Ironically, International Workers’ Day has been pretty effectively suppressed in the United States where it originated, but it is a cherished reprieve from work and a vibrant day of action in many other countries.  Beginning in 2006, May Day became also “brown” after immigrant workers, mostly Latino and many undocumented, organized marches all over the US declaring that they were unafraid and demanding the human rights they deserved. To this day, our comrades at Familias Unidas por la Justicia organize an annual Marcha Campesina to call attention to farmworkers’ rights.

This “green/red/brown” vision of May Day is so important to us at the Just Transition Alliance.  It vibes perfectly with our history and our perspective.  We seek to bring together Labor and EJ movements, to center the voices of those on the frontlines and fencelines of production, and to build grassroots power as we restore health to the workers and families who keep our economies running, repair relationships with our neighbors and comrades in struggle, and regenerate thriving ecosystems in the places we call home.

Let’s make “Earth Day to May Day” a continuous ten-day festival.  A festival of action and organizing to make a better world possible.  A festival of resistance where we raise our voices, not allowing anyone to go on complacently accepting business as usual, where we demonstrate our visions by celebrating our grassroots solutions, and where we recognize our strength by joining together from many perspectives to become unified in our shared need to transcend beyond colonization, extractivism, and oppression.

Content Earth Day to May Day 2024 appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

Job Announcement: Research Associate

Applications are now closed.

The Coalition of Communities of Color’s (CCC) Research Justice Institute seeks an outstanding researcher to join our team as a Research Associate. 

The Research Associate will help lead and support a wide range of research projects and activities, such as collecting and analyzing qualitative data, directly engaging community members, and drafting reports and literature reviews. Our research encompasses a wide range of topics related to racial justice, including health, environmental justice, education, transportation, and beyond. 

In addition to the core work of research and data analysis, the Research Associate will also build out the public presence of the Research Justice Institute by launching and creating our new blog, drafting research briefs accessible to our communities, and convening a network of BIPOC researchers. 

The ideal candidate will have strong writing and communication skills and be committed to working with communities of color. Experience using and analyzing qualitative data and outstanding writing skills are essential for this role. This position is a unique opportunity to build expertise in community data and research justice for BIPOC communities. 

The Research Associate’s work will contribute to CCC’s efforts for systems change as we take on urgent issues, build capacity among our BIPOC partners and community members, and use our research to move policymakers and institutions toward racial equity.

For full details on this position, please visit www.coalitioncommunitiescolor.org/jobs.

Research and Analysis: Your role will focus on a wide range of research projects and data analysis, all in close collaboration with the research team. Your work will help power our research projects by:

• Co-constructing every aspect of the research process, from project design and data collection methods to community involvement and sharing our research with key audiences

• Leading or co-leading parts of the components of the research and data lifecycle

• Conducting qualitative analysis for research projects 

• Drafting elements of our research reports

• Completing literature reviews and searching for data on topics to inform our current and upcoming research projects 

• Engaging and recruiting community members and partners to participate in our research and data collection efforts

Building the Research Justice Institute’s public presence: You will increase the impact of our work and amplify the visibility of our research by:

• Launching and leading our new Research Justice Institute blog, generating original content addressing key research justice and equity issues

• Drafting new community briefs to more effectively communicate our research projects to the public, the communities we serve, and the broader public

Leading CCC’s BIPOC Research Network: You will build and strengthen relationships between CCC and BIPOC researchers, data workers, evaluators, students, and community outreach/engagement experts across Oregon by:

• Managing and administering the new CCC BIPOC Researcher Network, including establishing a member database

• Regularly communicating to the network and public through our website content 

• Convening members of the network at annual gatherings 

Qualifications

A successful candidate will have the following qualifications:

• Bachelors or Masters degree in a social science or humanities discipline and/or 2–4 years of work experience leading and supporting research projects that engage the public and, in particular, communities of color

• Clear, concise, and accessible research writing, with the ability to produce high-quality research reports

• Excellent project management skills with the ability to lead the implementation of major projects and work on multiple projects simultaneously

• An understanding of how institutional use of data and research can benefit or harm communities of color

• Ability to effectively communicate with partners verbally and in writing

• Ability to work closely with colleagues in a dynamic environment

• Commitment to racial justice and building power for communities of color

These qualifications are a plus:

• Familiarity with quantitative data systems methods and analysis as well as the role of community-based data

• Knowledge of conducting, visualizing, and explaining qualitative data analysis 

• An understanding of how institutional use of data and research can benefit or harm communities of color

• Experience working with culturally specific community-based organizations, local government, and nonprofit partners

Compensation:

This is a full-time, exempt position with a salary range of $65,386–$74,467. CCC works to provide our staff with support for their health and well-being and recognize the value of their work through the following benefits:

• Paid time off: 15 days paid vacation in the first year of employment, increasing with tenure at the organization; 10 days of paid sick leave; 12 paid holidays and a one week office closure in December.

• Insurance: CCC pays 100% of premiums for medical, dental, vision, short- and long-term disability, and life insurance for the employee.

• Additional benefits include a flexible Spending Account (health savings and daycare), a Transportation Savings Account, an Employee Assistance Program, monthly phone and transportation stipends, and full reimbursements for the employee’s Paid Leave Oregon contributions. Employees may enroll in a matching 401k retirement plan after one year of employment.

• CCC also provides resources to support our staff’s training, skill-building, and professional development.

Work Environment: CCC has a hybrid work schedule, with our office located in downtown Portland. You must live in or be willing to move within commuting distance of the office.

To Apply: Please send a cover letter (no more than two pages) and resume to HR@coalitioncommunitiescolor.org, with the subject line “Research Associate — [your name].” Applications are now closed. You will be contacted if selected for an interview. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thacker Pass Protectors File First-Ever “Biodiversity Necessity Defense” in Nevada Court Also pursuing “Climate Necessity Defense” and making allegations that mining company has violated their rights. Attorney: “They’re not criminals; they’re heroes.”

WINNEMUCCA, NV — In a first for the American legal system, the lawyers for six people sued by Lithium Nevada Corporation for protesting the Thacker Pass mine are arguing a ‘biodiversity necessity defense.’

The necessity defense is a legal argument used to justify breaking the law when a greater harm is being prevented; for example, breaking a car window to save an infant locked inside on a stifling hot day, or breaking down a door to help someone screaming inside a locked home. In these cases, trespassing is justified to save a life.

This week’s filing states that “Defendants possessed an actual belief that their acts of protest were necessary to prevent the present, continuing harms and evils of ecocide and irreversible climate change.”

“We’re in the midst of the 6th mass extinction of life on Earth, and it’s being caused by human activities like mining,” said attorney Terry Lodge, who is representing the protesters. “Our lives are made possible by biodiversity and ecosystems. Protecting our children from pollution and biodiversity collapse isn’t criminal, it’s heroic.”

Currently Earth is experiencing one of the most rapid and widespread extinction events in the planet’s 4-billion-year history.

Biologists report that habitat destruction, like the bulldozing of nearly 6,000 acres of biodiverse sagebrush steppe for the Thacker Pass mine, is the main cause of this “6th Mass Extinction.”

Permitting documents for the Thacker Pass mine show the project will harm or kill pronghorn antelope, golden eagles, mule deer, migratory birds, burrowing owls, bobcats, roughly a dozen bat species, various rare plants, and hundreds of other species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently being sued by environmental groups in an attempt to secure protection for a rare snail species who lives in Thacker Pass and who are threatened with extinction.

“Our ancestors fought and died for the land at Peehee Mu’huh,” says Dean Barlese, an elder and spiritual leader from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe who is one of the defendants in the case. “We’ve acted for the coming generations to protect Mother Earth.”

In their court filing earlier this week, Lodge and the other attorneys working on the case made several additional legal arguments, including invoking the doctrine ‘unclean hands,’ asserting that Lithium Nevada Corporation has “engaged in serious misconduct including violating the Defendants’ human rights, Defendants’ civil rights, misleading the public about the impacts of lithium mining and how lithium mining contributes to climate change and biodiversity collapse, and conducting the inherently dangerous and ecologically-destructive practice of surface mining at the Thacker Pass mine”.

They’re also arguing the “climate necessity defense,” reasoning that by attempting to stop a major mine that will produce significant greenhouse gas emissions, the protesters were acting to reduce emissions and stop a bigger harm: climate change.

According to permitting documents, the Thacker Pass lithium mine is expected to produce more than 150,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, roughly equivalent to the emissions of a small city and amounting to 2.3 tons of carbon for every ton of lithium that will be produced.

This legal strategy has been used by many fossil fuel protesters around the world for roughly a decade (and has been successful in a few cases), but this is the first time the same argument has been applied to a ‘green technology’ minerals mining project.

“Lithium Nevada, a mining corporation benefiting from the violence used to conquer Native peoples, is trying to bully peaceful protestors opposing the destruction of that massacre site,” said Will Falk, an attorney and one of the defendants in the case.

“People need to understand that lithium mining companies—like coal or gold mining companies—use racist and violent tactics to intimidate opposition.”

“The Indian wars are continuing in 2023, right here,” Barlese says. “America and the corporations who control it should have finished off the ethnic genocide, because we’re still here. My great-great-grandfather fought for this land in the Snake War and we will continue to defend the sacred. Lithium Nevada is a greedy corporation telling green lies.”

Bethany Sam:
“Our people couldn’t return to Thacker Pass for fear of being killed in 1865, and now in 2023 we can’t return or we’ll be arrested. Meanwhile, bulldozers are digging our ancestors graves up. This is what Indigenous peoples continue to endure. That’s why I stood in prayer with our elders leading the way.”

Bhie-Cie Zahn-Nahtzu:
“Lithium Nevada is a greedy corporation on the wrong side of history when it comes to environmental racism and desecration of sacred sites. It’s ironic to me that I’m the trespasser because I want to see my ancestral land preserved.”

“It is truly outrageous that we live in a society where our Supreme Court has granted constitutional rights to resource extraction corporations, making their destructive activities fully legal and virtually immune from oversight by We the People. Even their right to sue us is a corporate personhood right,” said defendant Paul Cienfuegos, founding director of Community Rights US.

“Lithium mining for electric vehicles and batteries isn’t green, it’s greenwashing,” says Max Wilbert, co-founder of Protect Thacker Pass and author of the book Bright Green Lies: How the Environmental Movement Lost Its Way and What We Can Do About It. “It’s not green, it’s greed. Global warming is a serious problem and we cannot continue burning fossil fuels, but destroying mountains for lithium is just as bad as destroying mountains for coal. You can’t blow up a mountain and call it green.”

Earlier this month, the judge presiding over the case dismissed an “unjust enrichment” charge filed against the protesters, but allowed five other charges to move forward. The case is expected to continue for months.

About the Case

The lawsuit against the protestors was filed in May 2023 following a month of non-violent protests on the site of the Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada. Thacker Pass is known as Peehee Mu’huh in Paiute, and is a sacred site to regional Native American tribes. It’s also habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife.

Analysts say the lawsuit is similar to what is called a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” or SLAPP suit, aimed at shutting down Constitutionally-protected free speech and protest. It aims to ban the water protectors from the area and force them to pay monetary damages.

On September 12th, 1865, federal soldiers murdered at least 31 Paiute men, women, and children in Thacker Pass during “The Snake War.”

This massacre and other culturally important factors have made the Thacker Pass mine extremely controversial in the Native American community. Dozens of tribes have spoken out against the project, and four — the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Winnemucca Indian Colony — battled in court to stop the Thacker Pass mine. The National Congress of American Indians has also passed several resolutions opposing the project.

But despite ongoing criticism, lawsuits, and lobbying from tribes as well as environmental groups, ranchers, the Nevada State Historic Preservation Society, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, both Lithium Nevada Corporation and the Bureau of Land Management have refused to stop construction or change any aspect of the Thacker Pass mine.

In February 2023, the Bureau of Land Management recognized Thacker Pass as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as a “Traditional Cultural District,” or a landscape that’s very important to tribes. But the very day before, they issued Lithium Nevada’s final bond, allowing the Canadian multinational to begin full-scale mining operations.

###

The short legislative session ran just over a month. Although the “short session” usually sees less momentous legislation, this session we saw many of the Coalition’s endorsed legislation and budget investments pass, particularly those for economic opportunity and language access. Other landmark issues were the passage of state campaign finance limits that will begin to address money in politics and major investments in housing across the state. However, the highest profile issue of the session—Measure 110 reform—ended with the recriminalization of drug possession, a rollback that will disproportionately impact Black and brown Oregonians through convictions and incarceration. Our excitement at the overall success of our priorities is tempered by the impact HB 4002 will have on our BIPOC communities.  

See our original legislative agenda here and read on for highlights below.

2024 CCC Legislative Highlights:Economic Opportunity

Two existing programs to advance economic opportunity received new infusions of funding. The Economic Equity Investment Program received $8 million; this investment was the top priority for the BIPOC Caucus. This program provides grants and technical assistance to community-based programs. At a time where Oregon’s racial wealth gap is increasing, we must make ongoing investments to build generational wealth for the BIPOC Oregonians who have faced systemic discrimination in employment and asset-building.

The Oregon Individual Development Account Initiative was allocated $5 million, an investment that increased the overall amount of funds so IDA providers statewide can enroll more savers this year. IDAs are a powerful tool to economic prosperity for BIPOC Oregonians with low incomes. These matched savings accounts enable participants to work toward their own financial goals, such as homeownership or higher education. Many of CCC’s member organizations provide IDAs with culturally specific and relevant financial education, helping support the long term economic prosperity for savers. We will continue to advocate for ongoing investments in IDAs and the Economic Equity Investment Program as key strategies to address Oregon’s racial wealth gap.

Economic opportunity for Oregon families also relies on quality, affordable child care for all children. This year, key bills and investments will help stabilize and prepare Oregon’s child care supply for expansion. The Employment Related Daycare (ERDC) program received $171.2 million, helping to ensure stability for families enrolled in the program. With the passage of HB 4098 and a $5 million allocation, Oregon is also better prepared to expand child care capacity when seeking federal funds through the CHIPS Act by adapting existing state programs to increase child care supply in priority areas.

While legislation to create a Child Care Infrastructure Fund - HB 4158 did not pass, $1.5 million was allocated to the Provider Services Fund, helping continue their support of family care providers. While much remains to be done to meet Oregon families’ child care needs, the Child Care for Oregon coalition continues to build momentum and move policymakers toward meaningful action and investments in this critical system.

Our final endorsed piece of legislation that was passed in economic opportunity was The Family Financial Protection Act - SB 1595. The business practices of the debt collection industry worsen the racial wealth gap and can devastate Oregonians by putting their homes and savings at risk. This legislation will strengthen protections for Oregonians who are sued by debt collectors that garnish their wages or bank accounts, or place liens on their home and imperil their financial stability. With the passage of this bill, consumers will be better equipped to fight back against unfair debt proceedings and maintain their financial stability.

Immigrant Justice and Language Access

In the arena of immigrant justice and language access, SB 1533 increased the number of languages for the Voters’ Pamphlet to the top ten languages spoken statewide, up from just five. Counties will also be required to include any language that has over 100 speakers. These changes will enable thousands more Oregonians to make informed decisions when they vote and opportunities for greater democratic participation.

Another new policy to advance immigrant justice and language access was Healthcare Interpreter Reform - SB 1578. Quality care requires in-language communication, which is often provided by medical interpreters. This legislation will expand access to health care interpreters and make the system more equitable for interpreters—many of whom are BIPOC immigrants themselves—increasing their earning potential. This legislation is awaiting the Governor’s signature.

Finally, the Immigrant and Refugee Student Success plan - SB 1532 passed, directing the Department of Education to develop a plan for our education system to better meet the needs of immigrant and refugee students and set them on a path to educational success. Student Success Plans have been developed to support Black, Indigenous, Latine, Pacific Islander students, and our schools should be similarly equipped with strategies to support learning for immigrant and refugee students.

Reflections on the 2024 Legislative Session

Much of the session was dominated by HB 4002, which rolled back key provisions of Measure 110 and recriminalized possession of drugs; the legislation is expected to be signed by Governor Kotek. We know that this return to the War on Drugs will have a disproportionate impact on Black and brown communities, resulting in thousands of convictions and jailings of people struggling with substance use. Many of CCC’s member organizations engaged in fierce advocacy and showed the power of community voices, mobilizing hundreds of BIPOC Oregonians to show up and weigh in on this legislation. We are grateful to Unite Oregon and Imagine Black for their leadership in this movement and the many CCC organizations who played a critical role. While the legislature ultimately did not heed this message, we will look to implementation to mitigate the harm this measure will cause and maximize investments toward real treatment and services.

While we were deeply disappointed by the passage of HB 4002, the Legislature did finally address the longstanding issue of money in politics, imposing campaign finance limits. These reforms will help more diverse candidates run on a level playing field and limit the corrupting influence of wealthy donors. This legislation earned the support of a diverse range of advocates, meaning that there will not be any campaign finance measures on the ballot in November. We were also heartened to see an investment of over $350 million to address our state’s housing crisis, particularly the $7 million allocation to support our member the Urban League of Portland in their work to provide homelessness prevention services.

What’s next? CCC is now looking to prepare for the November election and to the 2025 legislative session to develop new policy priorities, advocate for critical investments, and take up unfinished business from previous sessions. You can learn more about missed opportunities from the 2023 legislative session in our recap here. We look forward to working with our coalition and many partners to advance racial equity and justice in Oregon.

Today, Protect Thacker Pass is announcing the release of a new comprehensive report, “How Mining Hurts Communities.”

The report focuses on the growth of mining and especially rapidly growing demand for lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and other metals for use in “green technologies.” According to the report, at least 384 new mines for minerals such as graphite, lithium, nickel, and cobalt will need to be built in the next decade to meet projected 2035 demand for batteries.

“Mining may impact your community sooner than you think,” says lead author Elisabeth Robson. “We are on the brink of the biggest expansion of mining in history.”

The report includes information about:

• Projected mining industry growth
• How mining harms ecosystems
• Eight mining and extraction case studies from around the world
• The scale of mining globally
• The relationship between indigenous communities and the mining industry
• Links between extractive industries, violence against women, and other crimes
• Analysis of mining law
• The relationship between fossil fuel industries and mining

Mining has a long history in the western U.S., and especially in Nevada, known as the “Silver State” for the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States in 1859. Silver and gold were mined to enrich prospectors; copper, lead, and iron to supply the military; and of course oil and gas to fuel the modern economy.

Today, we are seeing a new “green rush” for so-called “critical minerals” to supply industry, including uranium for nuclear power; lithium, copper, nickel, and more for electric vehicle and grid storage batteries, iron and nickel for steel to make wind turbines; silver, cadmium, lead and more to make solar panels; and copper, iron, and nickel to make high voltage grid lines.

“Most people do not understand the impact that mines and the mining industry have on communities, in part because mining usually takes place in rural areas and has the most impact on poor and rural communities,” says Protect Thacker Pass co-founder Max Wilbert, who assisted with the report. “These harms include destruction of land culturally and historically important to communities; violence, especially to women and girls; and pollution that impacts both human and non-human communities who depend on the land, clean water, and clean air.”

Robson says the goal of this report is to educate and empower people to fight the mining industry, and to challenge the idea of “green growth.”

“We’ve put together this report to inform people concerned about mining’s impacts in their communities, around the state of Nevada, and throughout the country and the world,” she said. “We show how mining companies stifle dissent, how the law sides unjustly with corporations, how mining pollutes the land, air, and water, and how mining destroys the ecosystems we all depend on for life.”

You can download the report for:
1) Reading on a computer screen
2) Printing (we recommend printing double sided and stapling along the edge)

Contact us for more information here: https://www.protectthackerpass.org/contact-us/

For ideas for a future without mining and extraction, you can read our Solutions here: https://www.protectthackerpass.org/solutions/

To donate to Protect Thacker Pass and help us educate communities, or contribute to our legal defense fund, click here: https://www.protectthackerpass.org/donations-and-funding/

About Protect Thacker Pass

Protect Thacker Pass is a grassroots community organization that was originally established to oppose the Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada. It’s mission has since expanded to include opposing the Jindalee lithium mine proposed just north of Thacker Pass and to include advocating for nature over mining more broadly.

JTA’s José Bravo with trainers Edgar Franks of Familias Unidas por la Justicia and Elizabeth Martinez of Comunidades Aliadas Tomando Acción.  Photo credit: José Bravo

We are so pleased to celebrate our first two trainings of 2024, using our newly updated and expanded program Tools for Systemic Change Toward a People’s Economy.  Our talented new cadre of popular education trainers are working together fabulously and raising the bar for engaging participant-driven education.

In February, Familias Unidas por la Justicia hosted a training in Mt. Vernon, WA.  And just last week Inland Communities for Immigrant Justice held one in San Bernadino, CA.  We have lots more trainings planned throughout the year, so stay tuned for updates!

Scenes from the training with Familias Unidas por la Justicia.  Photo credits: José Bravo

Scenes from the training with Inland Communities for Immigrant Justice.  Photo credits: José Bravo and Elizabeth Martinez

Content Successful Trainings with JTA Partners appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

Mar 15, 2020 – Canada is an empire of feelings w/ Audra Simpson

Reconciliation is dead. But how and why did it start in Canada? Kahnawake Mohawk scholar Audra Simpson argues reconciliation between settlers and Indigenous was meant only to heal the settler and to forever suspend the question of Indigenous revolution.

Listen to The Red Nation Podcast on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. Listen and download for free on Libsyn. 

The Red Nation Podcast is produced by Red Media and is sustained by comrades and supporters like you, power our work here: www.patreon.com/redmediapr

@therednationpodcast #Throwback ♬ original sound – The Red Nation Podcast

The post The Red Nation Podcast #Throwback appeared first on The Red Nation.

Recently closed Covanta incinerator in Long Beach, CA.  Photo credit: East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice

EJ Communities force California’s last two waste incinerators to shut down

These are historic times. As the world wakes up to the intersectional nature of environmental racism, climate chaos, genocide and war, thousands of frontline communities continue to engage in pitched battle against those who are destroying people and planet. And while stepping up efforts to stop colonial genocide, we also need to take the time to acknowledge some of our hard-fought movement victories against common foes.

This year marks a couple of historic victories for environmental justice (EJ) communities in the US. After over three decades of struggle, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice (EYCEJ) and Valley Improvement Projects (VIP), in collaboration with numerous allies, have forced the closure of California’s two remaining waste incinerators. This marks a turning point in an age-old battle with an industry that still operates scores of garbage burning facilities that dump high levels of dioxins, heavy metals, acid gasses and particulate matter in Black, Brown, migrant and poor communities around the US.

Since the 1980s, EJ communities have been hugely successful in thwarting the waste incinerator industry, stopping hundreds of proposals to build these dioxin factories. Still, over a 100 were built in the late 80s and early 90s, predominantly in racialized and poor communities. Despite the severe lack of philanthropic support for EJ groups over the years, our struggles persisted. Between 2000 and 2023, our movement has been able to shut down a number of these incinerators, leveraging a growing public awareness that zero waste alternatives creates far more jobs for a fraction of the cost of building and running a billion dollar incinerator.

Detroit EJ groups and Michigan Teamsters protest the Detroit Incinerator, which was shut down in 2019.  Photo credit: Brooke Anderson

In the early 2000s, in a desperate bid to survive such losses, the incinerator industry launched a clever campaign – rebranding their trash burners as “Waste to Energy” (WtE) facilities. This greenwashing ploy allowed the industry to access public subsidies by duping lawmakers into believing they produced renewable energy (RE). Despite the fact that these WtE incinerators are some of the most toxic, carbon intensive and costly energy facilities in the world, the industry has been able to keep over 66 incinerators burning, buoyed by RE subsidies from the federal government and a number of states.

Fifteen years ago, when I worked with the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), I facilitated a workshop for EYCEJ who (at the time) were a relatively young collective of community organizers committed to EJ principles and serving their communities in East Los Angeles and the City of Commerce, CA. At this workshop we discussed the state and federal subsidies that had propped up the incinerator industry, and how Covanta, the largest incinerator company in the US, had been accessing energy and waste policy subsidies by targeting gullible lawmakers and even big green NGOs. East Yard organizers had long been inspired by campaigns led by veteran EJ groups, such as the Mothers of East Los Angeles, who had successfully stopped a number of incinerator proposals back in the day. Some East Yard organizer’s mothers and grandmothers had led these campaigns, so they were inspired to carry on the struggle against polluting corporations like Covanta. A similar story was playing out in Stanislaus County, where a decades-long fight against a Covanta waste incinerator had been taken up in recent years by a young EJ formation – VIP.

The intergenerational leadership of our EJ movement: Juana Beatriz Gutiérrez of the Mothers of East Los Angeles and grandson mark! Lopez, organizing to protect their communities for over 4 decades.  Photo credit: mark! Lopez

In 2018, EYCEJ, GAIA and other allies were able to stop the State of California from providing RE credits to incinerators, which forced the closure of the Commerce incinerator. Then, in 2022, EYCEJ, VIP, EarthJustice and other allies, successfully passed a state bill (AB 1857) that removed waste diversion credits from the last two incinerators in Long Beach and Stanislaus County. This removal of state subsidies has forced Covanta to announce the closure of these final two facilities this year. This is a huge win for EJ communities everywhere, and a highly instructive victory, especially since 26 of the 42 state Renewable Portfolio Standards continue to incentivize waste burning.

If EJ groups and their allies in these states were to go after those perverse subsidies, we could see this dinosaur fleet of toxic smoke stacks finally toppled in the coming years! And along with reducing these pollution burdens, this direction could see communities working with local governments and waste and recycling workers to build reuse, recycling and composting infrastructure that could provide millions of well-paying jobs through local, regenerative, zero waste economies. EYCEJ and VIP and other EJ communities are presently leading the way, by working with allies to develop zero waste plans to move away from burning precious resources and move towards long-term community solutions. Now, elected officials and government agencies need to stop giving public dollars to such polluting corporations, and start following the lead of communities and workers on the frontlines of such transformative change!

Content From Burning to Building Our Future appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

In 2022, JTA joined a toxic tour of the Adelanto immigrant detention facility organized by the Shut Down Adelanto (SDA) coalition where we learned about the use of a toxic pesticide called HDQ neutral inside the facility and the myriad chronic health conditions afflicting those exposed. According to SDA’s quarterly report from May 2022, “Advocates, the California Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General have documented the long list of human rights abuses at Adelanto, including inadequate health care, sexual assault, use of solitary confinement, and mistreatment.”

As of January 17th, 2024, ICE decided to extend their decision on the Adelanto facility contract to June 19th, 2024. At that point, they can either decide to close the facility or file for another extension through the end of this year. The move to extend the decision comes as a result of a court injunction (Roman v. Wolf) against GEO Group (which operates the Adelanto ICE facility) led by Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) and others: GEO hopes to buy more time for the court to potentially lift this court order. The injunction has prevented GEO from transferring people in or out of Adelanto and facilitated the release of 60,000 people around the country. Because of the injunction, the number of immigrants detained at the Adelanto ICE facility has dwindled to six according to Eddie Torres, Policy Coordinator for ICIJ.

Following the article we published last year detailing their work to close the Adelanto ICE facility, ICIJ and other members of SDA have seized upon the opportunity that the injunction presents. SDA found an ally in congresswoman Judy Chu, who is leading a sign on letter which 24 congressional members have endorsed. In June of 2023, the Dignity Not Detention (DND) coalition (which includes ICIJ) passed HEAL, a California budget initiative which “dedicates 5 million dollars to incentivize California localities to divest from immigration detention by providing them funding to invest in new industries and jobs.” What started as a bright idea in a San Diego retreat space blossomed into a just transition incentivization program to support the local workforce through the facility’s closure. In addition, ICIJ continues to advance its Participatory Action Research project, led by Movement Strategy Associate Esmeralda Santos, to document the community’s vision for a just transition. The community group also intends to strengthen collaborations with local officials aimed around backing alternative solutions to the private prison economy.

We can achieve a just transition for Adelanto by pushing for the closure of its ICE facility and supporting SDA’s efforts to cultivate a vibrant, regenerative local economy. If you’d like to support, ICIJ will host virtual Power Hours in March, April, and May to provide education on this issue and walk through 4 actions:

1) Call Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas at 202-456-1111

2) Email Secretary Mayorkas at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

3) Call representatives who haven’t signed on to Judy Chu’s letter. Find your local representative here.

4) Post about the issue on social media. Stay up to date by following @shutdownadelanto on Instagram.

Join Faith Power Hour–a collaboration between ICIJ and Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity–to advocate for closure and halt the incarceration of those seeking protection and the right to remain with their families.

Event Details:

• Date: March 22, 2024
• Time: 12 Noon – Pacific Time (US and Canada)
• Platform: Zoom Meeting
• REGISTER HERE

Please join us in calling on President Biden to release the last six men inside the center and the Secretary of Homeland Security and California Congressmembers to shut down the center. ACT TODAY and stay involved with ICIJ to learn more about how you can help.

Power Hour at 12pm, March 22 on Zoom; Register at bit.ly/PowerHourRSVP

Content Exciting Developments in Building a Just Transition for Adelanto appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

Episode 349 of The Red Nation Podcast

The return of our miniseries YOTED! Jen and Justine discuss the New Age settler spiritualism to alt-right pipeline. The documentaries mentioned are Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God (2023) and You Can’t Kill Meme (2021).

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel

Listen on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. Listen and download for free on Libsyn!

@therednationpodcast

Episode 349 of The Red Nation Podcast YOTED: The settler spirituality to alt-right pipeline The return of our miniseries YOTED! Jen and Justine discuss the New Age settler spiritualism to alt-right pipeline. The documentaries mentioned are Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God (2023) and You Can’t Kill Meme (2021). Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel! Listen on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. Listen and download for free on Libsyn! The Red Nation Podcast is produced by Red Media and is sustained by comrades and supporters like you. Power our work here: www.patreon.com/redmediapr https://therednation.org/the-red-nation-podcast-yoted-the-settler-spirituality-to-alt-right-pipeline/ Links in bio!

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The Red Nation Podcast: YOTED: The settler spirituality to alt-right pipeline Jen and Justine explain the meaning of YOTED and why it’s the title of our miniseries. Listen to The Red Nation Podcast on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. Listen and download for free on Libsyn. https://therednation.org/the-red-nation-podcast-yoted-the-settler-spirituality-to-alt-right-pipeline/ The Red Nation Podcast is sustained by comrades and supporters like you. Power our work here: https://www.patreon.com/redmediapr Links in bio!

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The Red Nation Podcast is produced by Red Media and is sustained by comrades and supporters like you. Power our work here: www.patreon.com/redmediapr

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Judge Tosses One Claim Against Thacker Pass Protectors Rejects “Unjust Enrichment” Claim, But Five Other Claims Proceed in Ongoing Lawsuit Over Spring 2023 Protests

WINNEMUCCA, NV — A judge has dismissed an “unjust enrichment” charge filed against seven people sued for protesting the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, but allowed five other charges to move forward.

District Judge Michael R. Montero rejected Lithium Nevada Corporation’s claims that protesters had engaged in unjust enrichment by writing online messages encouraging supporters to donate, ruling that these messages are “protected speech under the First Amendment.”

“This is a very significant win for my clients and a rebuke to Lithium Nevada,” says Terry Lodge, an attorney representing six of the protesters. “But,” Lodge says, “we’ve still got a long way to go in this case.”

“It isn’t illegal or wrong to fundraise for community organizing and for our legal defense,” says Max Wilbert, one of the defendants.

While one portion of Montero’s ruling was favorable to the protesters, other portions were not. Judge Montero issued a prelimary ruling in Lithium Nevada’s favor on five other claims. But, Lodge says that at this stage, the judge was not determining whether Lithium Nevada’s claims are true or not. He was simply reviewing Lithium Nevada’s allegations, taking them as true, and determining whether those allegations were violations of Nevada law.

These five other claims will now move into the next stage in the ongoing suit. During the “discovery” stage, both Lithium Nevada and the defendants will have an opportunity to gather evidence.

Native Land Claims “Frivolous”

In another part of his ruling, Judge Montero called arguments that a Paiute protester has a right to access the September 12, 1865 Thacker Pass massacre site within Lithium Nevada’s mine site to pray for massacred Paiute ancestors “frivolous”. The ruling states that recognizing traditional native land claims “would unequivocally undermine each and every property owner’s rights” and concludes that “[t]his is a Pandora’s box the Court is unwilling to open.”

The defendants are seeking monetary donations to their legal defense fund. You can donate via credit or debit card, PayPal (please include a note that your donation is for Thacker Pass legal defense), or by check.

Arlo Crutcher Removed at Fort McDermitt

In other news, Fort McDermitt Tribal Chairman Arlo Crutcher has been voted off the tribal council after attacking and choking a tribal youth in mid-January.

Crutcher was the key figure behind the Fort McDermitt Tribe’s cooperation with Lithium Nevada Corporation.

The January attack took place as the youth — a mine opponent — attempted to film Crutcher and other tribal leaders meeting with Lithium Americas employees Tim Crowley (VP of Government and External Affairs) and Maria Anderson (Community Relations Director).

Mine opponents blame this violence on Lithium Nevada’s “divide and conquer” techniques.

About the Case

The suit was filed in May 2023 following a month of non-violent protests on the site of the Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada. Thacker Pass is known as Peehee Mu’huh in Paiute, and is a sacred site to regional Native American tribes. It’s also habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife.

Analysts say the lawsuit is similar to what is called a “Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,” or SLAPP suit, aimed at shutting down Constitutionally-protected free speech and protest. It aims to ban the water protectors from the area and force them to pay monetary damages.

“Our ancestors fought and died for the land at Peehee Mu’huh,” says Dean Barlese, an elder and spiritual leader from the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe who is one of the defendants in the case. “We’ve acted for the coming generations to protect Mother Earth.”
On September 12th, 1865, federal soldiers murdered at least 31 Paiute men, women, and children in Thacker Pass during “The Snake War.”

This massacre and other culturally important factors have made the Thacker Pass mine extremely controversial in the Native American community. Dozens of tribes have spoken out against the project, and four — the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, Summit Lake Paiute Tribe, Burns Paiute Tribe, and Winnemucca Indian Colony — battled in court to stop the Thacker Pass mine. The National Congress of American Indians has also passed several resolutions opposing the project.

But despite ongoing criticism, lawsuits, and lobbying from tribes as well as environmental groups, ranchers, the Nevada State Historic Preservation Society, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, both Lithium Nevada Corporation and the Bureau of Land Management have refused to stop construction or change any aspect of the Thacker Pass mine.

In February 2023, the Bureau of Land Management recognized Thacker Pass as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as a “Traditional Cultural District,” or a landscape that’s very important to tribes. But the very day before, they issued Lithium Nevada’s final bond, allowing the Canadian multinational to begin full-scale mining operations.

###

Our comrade Jacqui Patterson, of the Chisholm Legacy Project, was recently recognized by Time Magazine for her role as an outstanding Environmental Justice and Climate Justice champion. Jacqui has certainly been one of the most tireless and dedicated changemakers I have witnessed serving our movements over the years

It’s worth noting that Time Magazine recognized the “revolutionary” nature of her intersectional practice, an approach our EJ movement has always espoused as essential to serving communities on the frontlines of multiple and intertwined forms of harm. Honoring the quiet, selfless way that Jacqui has served impacted communities over the years, I thought I’d share some pivotal moments when she helped lift up the hundreds of organizations that make up our community-rooted movement:

Nearly two decades ago, when she discovered that a climate funders group was hosting a national strategy summit on coal power without inviting any of the communities most impacted by coal mining and power plants, Jacqui convinced these funders to host their first ever panel of EJ leaders from the Navajo Nation, Chicago, New York and Appalachia, whose groups had been effectively organizing and taking direct action against these dirty energy and mining industries.

Then in 2013, Jacqui, drew the attention of environmental funders to the massive, racialized funding disparity between the $billions given to a handful of big green policy NGOs versus the pittance scattered across tens of thousands of grassroots groups working on a myriad of environmental struggles across the US. This exploration helped pave the way for the launch of Building Equity & Alignment for EJ, one of the few participatory grant-making initiatives that continues to bridge the funding gap today.

Following the People’s Climate March in NYC, when a large, new funder emerged to engage big greens in a market-based model for regulating climate pollution, Jacqui (once again) helped open doors for EJ groups to get involved and prevent another “cap and trade” debacle. Working quietly in the background, she helped us push this climate funder to support a wide array of grassroots alliances and networks to carry on our core work, while allowing us to draw some of the big greens into alignment with our fights against various climate false solutions.

Working quietly and diligently in these ways to serve the broader landscape of those first and most harmed, Jacqui has embodied the principles of environmental justice in all aspects of her practice. Thanks Jacqui – for being such an inspiration!

Content Serving Frontline Communities with Humility and Grace appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

[ENG below] Frauen, Lesben, Inter*-, NichtBinäre, Trans- und AgenderPersonen! (FLI*NTA‘s/ Frauen*) Wir, die FLI*NTA‘s der IWW Innsbruck, rufen auf den 8.März gemeinsam, kämpferisch und solidarisch zu begehen! Freitag 8.März 2024 in Innsbruck: Ab 12:00 Aktionstag bei der Annasäule Ab 17:00 Demonstration durch die Stadt → kommt in den Antifaschistischen und Antiimperalistischen Block beim gelben Hochtranspi! Nie wieder Faschismus! Nie wieder Krieg! Demoende bis 22:00 : Bestärkendes Zusammensein bei Live-Musik und Getränken am Ni Una Menos Platz (Platz vor dem Landestheater) Allein in Österreich sind im Jahr 2024 bereits 8 Frauen* und Mädchen* durch von Männern verübte Gewalttaten gestorben. Unzählige mehr sind es weltweit. Unzählige weitere sind es, die diese Gewalt überleben und mit den Folgen allein gelassen werden. Weil sie vor der von Männern geschaffenen und dominierten Struktur aus Politik, Justiz und Polizei gezwungen sind ihre Erfahrungen zu rechtfertigen. Weil sie keinen Zugang zu Sozialleistungen und dem Gesundheitssystem haben. Weil sie keinen Zugang zu Macht, Geld und Eigentum haben. Vor allem dann, wenn sie Schwarze-, Indigene- oder Frauen* of Colour sind. Deshalb: Lasst uns alle zusammen kommen! Lasst uns zeigen, dass wir nicht alleine sind! Lasst uns zeigen, dass wir viele sind! Lasst uns unsere Trauer und unsere Wut auf die Straße bringen! Streik dem Patriarchat! Alerta Queerfeminista! Ni Una Menos – Keine* einzige* weniger! Solidarity forever! Women, Lesbians, Inter*-, NonBinary, Trans- and AgenderPersons! (Women*/ Women and Genderqueer Persons) We, the Women and Genderqueer Persons of the IWW in Innsbruck, call you together on the 8th of March and to commit it militantly and in solidarity. Friday 8th of March 2024 in Innsbruck: From 12am action day at the Annasäule From 5pm Demonstration through the city → join the anti-fascist and anti-imperalist bloc at the yellow HighBanner(Hochtranspi)! Never again fascism! No more war! After the Demonstration until 22:00: Invigorating get-together with live music and drinks at Ni Una Menos Platz (square in front of the Landestheater) In Austria alone, 8 women* and girls* have died this year through male violence. There are countless more worldwide. Countless more have survived these acts of violence and are left alone with their consequences. Because they are forced to justify their experiences before the male-made and dominated structure of politics, justice and police. Because they do not have access to social services and the health care system. Because they don’t have access to power, money and property. Especially if they are Black, Indigenous or Women* of Colour. Therefore: Let’s all come together! Let us show that we are not alone! Let us show that we are many! Let’s take our grief and anger to the streets! Strike the Patriarchate! Alerta Queerfeminista! Ni Una Menos – Not one* less! Solidarity forever!

Mar 06, 2022 – No war, no NATO in Ukraine w/ Onyesonwu Chatoyer and Austin Gonzalez

TRN Podcast hosts Nick Estes and Jen Marley are joined by Onyesonwu Chatoyer from  Hood Communist and the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party and Austin Gonzalez from the DSA’s International Committee to discuss the Ukraine war.

Watch on Youtube:

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Episode 348 of The Red Nation Podcast

TRN Podcast co-host Jen Marley speaks to filmmaker and organizer Mikey (@karaokecomputer) on the overlapping histories of military occupation between Hawai’i and Palestine.

Watch the video edition on The Red Nation Podcast YouTube channel

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The Red Nation Podcast is produced by Red Media and is sustained by comrades and supporters like you. Power our work here: www.patreon.com/redmediapr

The post The Red Nation Podcast – From Hawai’i to Palestine, occupation is a crime w/ Mikey appeared first on The Red Nation.

JTA congratulates our comrade Chris Furino on their promotion to Co-Executive Director of Central Florida Jobs with Justice (CFJWJ)!

CFJWJ coalesces the power of labor unions, community based organizations, faith based and student groups to organize for worker rights. Our work with CFJWJ began through collaborative strategies to bring the Just Transition framework to climate organizing in Florida and then through delegations around the United Nations climate conference. Since then, Chris has joined our all-star team of Just Transition trainers. Chris and their Co-Director Jonathan Alingu have huge plans in the works, and we’re excited to deepen our collaboration to support workers and communities on the frontlines and fencelines of toxic production.

Even before becoming staff with the organization in 2018, Chris had found their organizing home in CFJWJ. They flourished under the mentorship of Jonathan and Denise Diaz (CFJWJ’s founder) and grew through election work and campaigns focused on building grassroots leadership capacity, earning them the role of CFJWJ’s lead organizer. When Chris joined us in Egypt as part of the just transition delegation to COP27, this constituted a major step in the progression of their training for co-executive directorship. After gaining a variety of politicizing experience through their organizing over the years, Chris became Co-Executive Director in January of 2024.

According to Chris, CFJWJ’s trajectory for the coming years supports a massive strengthening in labor and just transition organizing in Florida. The organization started the year with a momentous win: Orange County allocated 4.5 million to CFJWJ’s medical debt forgiveness project, and CFJWJ continues to push their initial request for 8.7 million. Over the coming years, CFJWJ will prioritize coalition building across Florida, primarily in the state’s south. The organization plans to build with labor around key program areas–including climate, health care, and education–and continue to develop grassroots leaders through their campaigns. Moreover, CFJWJ recently hired a Just Transition Organizer to cultivate allied rank-and-file leadership within the building trades, and the organization also plans to build community-labor, co-led energy and utility campaigns.

Chris’ intentions for their new role inspire our radical imaginations around just transition: “I believe a lot in Florida. I don’t want to give up on it. We can shift the trajectory of our state and power and how power is wielded in it to create a world where everyone’s needs are met and people are able to thrive. This position is a way to make that vision a reality,” they shared. Their visionary thinking aligns perfectly with our conception of just transition as a body of principles and practices which supports collective thriving in safe living and working environments. Chris is excited for JTA’s new training curriculum (which they improved through revisions), and they’re gearing up to host a just transition training in Florida, possibly later this year.

Given the strong alignment between our missions, JTA and CFJWJ have many opportunities to collaboratively sharpen our assessments of the labor and environmental justice movements, share our experiences around organizing at the intersection of labor and EJ, and strategize against petrochemical production in the Florida panhandle. We congratulate our friend Chris on this invigorating new chapter in their organizing and look forward to engaging together in the work ahead.

Content Meet Chris Furino, Central Florida Jobs with Justice’s Newest Co-Executive Director! appears first in Just Transition Alliance.

The Red Nation joined the international day of action with the Southwest Coalition For Palestine in Albuquerque, NM.

Via Shutitdown4palestine.org

“On March 2, millions across the world will march for Gaza! The Israeli government is planning to have a full-scale invasion of Rafah one week later, on March 9, one day before the start of Ramadan. Today, the United States vetoed a UN resolution that insisted that Israel immediately cease its mass killing spree in Gaza.  

Now is the time to act! People around the world are going into the streets in cities and towns, including in the United States, as part of the global day of protest on Saturday, March 2.  

Gaza is facing famine, its hospitals are besieged, threats of ground invasion in Rafah loom near, and Israel continues its onslaught on the over 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

The mass movement for Palestine has led to the isolation of the US and Israel on the world stage. With growing internal divisions and heightened political pressure on Israel and the United States, it’s time to push even harder. Our mobilizations at this moment can be more decisive than ever, and we must show our full strength now to ensure a lasting ceasefire and an end to the siege on Gaza.

Act now, and mobilize in your communities and institutions, everyone must be on the streets on March 2nd! All out for Rafah! All out for Gaza! Stop the genocide!”

Hands off Rafa march for Palestine: @therednationpodcast

Hands off Rafa march for Palestine The Red Nation joined the international day of action with the Southwest Coalition For Palestine in Albuquerque, NM.

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Feb 21, 2021 – The myth of “sex work” w/ Esperanza Fonseca and Khara Jabola-Carolus

Jabola-CarolusEsperanza Fonseca and Khara Jabola-Carolus from AF3IRM join host Jen Marley to discuss the relationship between the sex trade, militarization, and global imperialism. 

Listen to The Red Nation Podcast on Spotify, SoundCloud, and Apple Podcasts. Listen and download for free on Libsyn. Watch on The Red Nation Youtube Channel.

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Signs warning of contaminated water and fish, Houston Ship Channel.  Photo credit: Lauren Murphy, Amnesty International

Last month, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch released reports about human rights abuses perpetrated by the petrochemical industry in the Gulf Coast.  The AI report is titled The Cost of Doing Business? and addresses the impacts on urban communities around the Houston Ship Channel. The HRW report “We’re Dying Here” looks at rural communities in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley.

The USA is the world’s largest oil and gas producer and accounts for more than a third of global oil and gas expansions planned through 2050. Much of these fossil feedstocks will go to the rapidly growing plastics and petrochemical industries in the region between Houston and New Orleans, the “sacrifice zone” that already contains the highest concentration of petrochem plants in the country.

Texas – Houston Ship Channel

Amnesty International researchers detail the negative effects of over 600 petrochemical manufacturing sites concentrated around the Houston Ship Channel, a dredged waterway cut through the former Buffalo Bayou to connect East Houston industries to the Gulf of Mexico.  It is one of the busiest waterways in the world, and the surrounding metropolitan cities hold 44% of the USA’s petrochem production capacity.  Port Houston exports 59% of all US plastic resins, 73% of polyethylene (which is made into PET bottles).  Pollutants present in alarming rates throughout the area include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as benzene, 1,3-butadiene, dioxane, ethylene, toluene, styrene and xylene; greenhouse gasses such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide; and particulate matter (PM). Ozone, a secondary pollutant formed from the reaction between VOCs, oxides of nitrogen and sunlight, creates persistent toxic smog.  Formaldehyde, another secondary pollutant created by reactions from mixed chemicals, is also present at dangerous levels.

From the Amnesty International report

Negative effects on the health of workers and residents range from headaches, dizziness, and vomiting as well as acute eye and lung irritation immediately after these chemicals are released, to asthma and other chronic respiratory illnesses, miscarriages and premature births, and numerous forms of cancer from repeated exposure.  Benzene is particularly noxious – the WHO has said that exposure to benzene is “a major health concern” with no safe level of exposure.  When accidents lead to large fires, high levels of benzene may be present in the air for over two weeks.  Residents are rarely informed of chemical releases and they often struggle to access real-time information, with only unpleasant smells in the environment to tip them off to the danger.

Chemical disasters happen so frequently that they have become normalized for some residents.  The AI report states that since 2021 there have been at least 15 chemical explosions, fires and toxic releases reported along the Houston Ship Channel, resulting in at least 28 workers being injured and one death.  In 2023 alone, residents along the Houston Ship Channel experienced at least seven petrochemical disasters, including six fires.  These figures only capture high-profile chemical disasters that receive media coverage and not the many less visible chemical releases that can still have devastating impacts.

The CAPECO disaster, 2009 in Puerto Rico, another region overburdened by environmental racism.  Photo credit: US Chemical Safety Board

Hurricanes and heavy rains can also lead to catastrophic chemical spills.  Even in ordinary conditions, the industry is careless about containing leaks and discharges.  Between 2019 and 2021, nationwide 83% of refineries report violating their permitted limits on water pollutants.  Communities closest to facility fencelines face the greatest harm and have the least time to react in the event of a catastrophic release.  Those lower-income and racialized people can have up to 20 years shorter life expectancy compared to averages in the disproportionately affluent and white neighborhoods in western Houston, and much higher rates of all types of cancer.

The Houston metro area, rapidly expanding due to the burgeoning petroleum industry, is incredibly diverse but also extremely racially segregated.  A lack of zoning regulations means that industrial facilities are sited right next to residential areas, almost always communities of color.  The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has clearly shown that they prioritize industry profits over these communities.  State records show that TCEQ imposed penalties in less than 3% of cases of unpermitted pollution releases in recent years. A recent review called TCEQ commissioners “reluctant regulators” that encourage industry to “self-police.”  Companies routinely avoid penalties for pollution releases by invoking the “affirmative defense,” a loophole in Texas laws that waives enforcement for air pollution that the company reports as “unplanned and unavoidable.”

AI reports that a former air pollution investigator for the City of Houston said, “These fines, they’re hardly a drop in the bucket… They mean nothing when the companies are pulling in billions of dollars a year.”  A professor at Rice University explained, “The fines that companies pay are so small compared to the value of the petrochemical products they sell that they can be seen as a routine cost of doing business.”  Frustration over underenforcement of already weak regulations was echoed by community members: “TCEQ is so ineffectual. Their fines are so limited. If you do the math for the violations… a company gets fined less than one person who’s affected by it would spend on medical bills. So, it’s very unfair.”

Making their disregard for residents’ health insultingly clear, in June 2023 the Texas legislature passed SB 471, stipulating that TCEQ does not need to investigate or even respond to certain complaints, especially from residents who have filed multiple complaints in the past.

Smoke and flares from petrochemical plants restarting after Hurricane Ida, 2021.  Photo credit: Julie Dermansky

Louisiana – Cancer Alley

As if these stories about Houston were not appalling enough, the Human Rights Watch report about “Cancer Alley” exposes even more egregious environmental racism.

Between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the banks of the Mississippi River are clustered with over 150 industrial facilities, nearly all of which process fossil fuels.  This industry has become a defining feature of Louisiana’s identity.  The state’s first oil well was drilled in 1901, and offshore oil extraction was innovated there in 1947.  Production boomed and imports arrived as well.  Today, Louisiana oil refineries account for one-sixth of the nation’s total capacity, with refined petroleum shipped abroad or pumped through pipelines to the various petrochem plants in Cancer Alley.  The story is similar for methane gas.  The most active methane gas market center in North America, the Henry Hub in Erath, interconnects nine interstate and three intrastate pipelines.

Louisiana has the highest per-capita energy consumption in the USA, mostly because of these industries (only 7% of total energy goes to homes).  It has the worst pollution – according to an analysis of 2021 EPA data, the average Louisiana resident was exposed to four times more industrial pollutants than the average American.  The majority of air pollution is occurring in Cancer Alley, as well as the majority of non-nitrate water pollution (nitrates come from fertilizers and are by far the highest source of water pollution).  Huge amounts of toxic petrochem byproducts are leached or even dumped directly into the Mississippi River.  The EPA found in 2016 and again in 2020 that residents of Cancer Alley were exposed to more than 10 times the health risks experienced by residents living elsewhere in the state.  The most polluting operations are disproportionately concentrated within Black communities, and even more facilities are currently being built in those areas.  Most residents in Cancer Alley are descendants of formerly enslaved people who had bought small parcels of old plantations.  The industry moved in later, and many folks feel like the state prefers to let them move out or die off rather than protect their health and humanity.

Petrochemical plants right next to communities in “Cancer Alley.”  Photo credit: Julie Dermansky

The HRW research indicates that many of the plants in Cancer Alley are constantly in “significant violation” of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act.  One site that they studied had faced six enforcement actions in the last three years, but was fined a mere $300 total.  Since 2018, the EPA has required oil refineries to install air monitors that measure benzene at the fencelines of their facilities.  Data from these monitors indicate that actual emissions can be as much as 28 times the amounts reported by companies.  So far only 13 petrochem facilities nationwide have been compelled to install these monitors, and only a few have collected enough data to be useful.  Those in Cancer Alley are routinely emitting benzene well above legal limits.

But state regulators do nothing to change this situation.  Interviewees told HRW that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) was actively “hostile” to their interests, acting as a “rubber stamp” and a “revolving door” for the industry.  A 2021 audit found that LDEQ failed to adequately track facilities’ emissions reports, including facilities that failed to submit reports entirely. Penalties were not tracked, and frequently were not paid.  It takes an average of 20 months for LDEQ to issue enforcement actions after known violations.

Meanwhile, residents continue to be exposed daily to the same chemicals described above, and feel the same effects.  The planned expansions of petrochem plants and pipelines promise to worsen these conditions.  Pipelines (including carbon pipelines) are much less visible yet insidious, since they receive little attention from regulators, but have high incidences of leaks and spills caused by hurricanes as well as normal wear and tear, and their construction cuts apart and destroys sensitive bayou ecosystems, thereby amplifying all the other negative effects of the industry.

The petrochemical industry has no right to treat our community as a sacrifice zone. It is high time for regulators, legislators, NGOs, and the public to fight for the urgent needs of environmental justice communities.

– Juan Parras, TEJAS

Jeff Landry, a fossil fuel industry lawyer and now the state’s governor, has been an outspoken defender of the status quo.  It was his lawsuits that negated Obama’s Clean Power Plan and Biden’s fossil fuel leasing ban.  In early 2023, the EPA had been negotiating improvements to LDEQ’s permitting process, such as assessments of cumulative impacts from existing health hazards and racial discrimination.  But Landry sued the federal government again, making a sort of “reverse racism” argument that unless a law explicitly says that its intended purpose is to harm people of color, any claims that discrimination is occurring are politically-motivated attacks by partisan regulators “moonlight[ing] as social justice warriors.”  One month after the dispute was filed, the EPA abandoned its Title VI investigation, presumably in fear of a judge agreeing with Landry and setting a precedent which would limit their ability to use the Civil Rights Act in the future.  Recently, Landry made a highly unusual move by initiating a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit against the EPA, collecting the names and contact information of activists and journalists who have been trying for years to hold LDEQ accountable.  This is widely viewed as an aggressive intimidation tactic aimed at silencing environmental justice communities.

Members of Inclusive Louisiana, RISE St. James, and Mount Triumph Baptist Church announcing a 2023 lawsuit requesting a moratorium on new oil and gas industry in St. James Parish.  Photo credit: Antonia Juhasz, Human Rights Watch

Why These Reports Matter

Framing the daily activities of the petrochem industry as human rights abuses is an important step in holding polluters accountable, as it brings various UN resolutions into the conversation, as detailed in both reports.  The communities of the Houston Ship Channel and Cancer Alley, and other overburdened communities in the USA, can be seen as the “Global South within the North” because the non-white, non-affluent residents often bear little responsibility for these harms yet struggle to live amidst the impacts.

Juan Parras of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Service (TEJAS), a close ally of JTA, responded to these reports by speaking about the experience in his neighborhood: “Manchester is the most polluted and most densely industrialized community in Houston. We are overwhelmed with the excessive burdens of environmental racism – health problems, poisoned air and water, and constant stress. We have tried numerous times to bring this to the attention of regulators, but they seem to view the situation as unfortunate yet irreversible. Although we often feel hopeless, this invocation of international human rights treaties may finally put enough pressure on government to hold companies accountable. The petrochemical industry has no right to treat our community as a sacrifice zone. It is high time for regulators, legislators, NGOs, and the public to fight for the urgent needs of environmental justice communities.”

In fact, these human rights abuses extend far beyond frontline workers and fenceline communities.  Without major reductions in the manufacturing of plastics and other petrochemicals, even 100% renewable energy cannot keep us within global emissions targets.  But this industry continues to grow exponentially.  The big oil and gas companies are counting on it to keep their profit margins high even as vehicle and power plant technologies change.  Climate chaos will have at least some effect on every part of the planet, but the Gulf Coast is one of the very most vulnerable areas, with rising sea levels, increasingly strong storms, and sweltering heat.  It is ironic that the industries located in that region are some of those chiefly responsible for the impending catastrophe.  Yet the executives and stockholders of the corporations that own these facilities live far away.  They no doubt intend to wring out as much money as possible right now, then shutter the plants when forced to make safety improvements for health or disaster readiness reasons.  The communities that have been condemned as sacrifice zones will be left behind.

Houston playground adjacent to refinery.  Photo credit: Lauren Murphy, Amnesty International

In addition to the worldwide human rights abuses which are perpetrated by those responsible for global warming, the presence of petrochem byproducts – and even those products themselves – constitute an unjust toxic trespass.  A recent report by Defend Our Health studies the numerous negative impacts of polyethylene terephthalate (PET, the substance used to make clear plastic drink bottles) from extraction, manufacturing, and waste.  The entire PET supply chain spans not only the Gulf Coast region but also many other locations around the USA.  The majority of those facilities are located in low-income communities of color.

The plastics industry has consistently lied to the public about the safety and recyclability of their products.  Another recent report by Center for Climate Integrity shows that well over 90% of plastics have been landfilled, incinerated, or leaked into waterways, ecosystems and communities.  Despite industry claims that recycling can solve the problem, evidence collected from the industry itself shows that this unacceptable trashing of our health and environments will never change.  Very few plastic products are actually recyclable, and manufacturers have a powerful profit incentive to ensure that everything they sell is single-use, driving endless demand for more production.  All their talk about new recycling technologies is deceptive nonsense – so-called “advanced recycling” means melting plastic back into oil and burning it as fuel, and the majority of the facilities designed to do this have not been profitable and have closed a few years after swindling public money out of lucrative municipal contracts.  Despite decades of PR campaigns fooling people into thinking that they just need to “do their part” by placing plastic containers into curbside recycling bins, plastics pollution has become one of our most serious crises, with microplastics found even in clouds.

Small-scale plastic recycling in Indonesia, one of the countries to which Global North waste management companies send plastic trash when it cannot be recycled at a profit.  The man in the foreground is cooling melted plastic into bricks which can be sold to manufacturers, inhaling toxic fumes in the process.  Photo credit: Focusfeel [wikimedia commons]

EJ Communities Need a Just Transition

We must stop making all this plastic junk designed expressly to become garbage as quickly as possible.  While there may be some limited defensible uses of plastics in the fields of medicine and electronics, nearly all of the products being made today are completely unnecessary.  Plastics cause so much more harm than good.

We need to uplift the voices of those fighting for their lives in the face of environmental racism and toxic trespass, supporting them to come together, frontline workers and fenceline communities united in creative problem-solving, finding real solutions that can build regenerative solidarity economies that move them toward a healthy and dignified future.  These frontliners are already advocating numerous policy solutions.  First, subsidies that currently prop up fossil fuel extraction and petrochemical production must be reallocated to research and new facilities for benign, sustainable chemistry.  And then, an option that would be easy to achieve immediately would be to expand and replicate existing “orphaned well programs” in which governments and companies collaborate to pay local workers to safely clean up abandoned wellsites and restore ecosystems (the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included $4.7 billion to do just this, a tiny baby step toward plugging the estimated 300,000-800,000 unidentified orphaned wells across the USA).  State legislators should provide funds for additional just transition initiatives similar to California’s HEAL initiative.  Federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act should grow community resilience by building locally-controlled small-scale renewable energy and public transportation.  A union-led initiative called the Texas Climate Jobs Project is organizing efforts to do exactly that as the basis for a truly transformative just transition.  Their study shows that this transition can create 1.1 million jobs in Texas alone (and cites other researchers’ estimate of 25 million jobs nationwide).

The great potential of a just transition is true not only in Texas, but everywhere, and it goes far beyond job creation.  An illuminating report by the Tellus Institute, now over a decade old but more relevant than ever, demonstrates how transitioning our waste management systems to keep materials out of landfills and incinerators by reusing and repurposing as much as possible could create 2.3 million jobs nationwide, as well as reduce emissions and, crucially, slash production of toxic plastics, leading to health improvements in countless communities.  California’s Recology is at the leading edge of this increasingly popular transition toward “zero waste.”

Workers sort recyclables at Recology facility, Davis CA.  Photo credit: Recology

At every level of public discourse and governance we must debunk the industry lies about “plastics circularity” and demonstrate real circular economies, based on principles of zero waste, localized production, traditional ecological knowledge, and grassroots democracy.  One way that JTA is trying to do so is by engaging with the ongoing negotiations to create a UN Treaty on Plastics Pollution, fighting to maintain the integrity of the “just transition” vision in the face of mounting corporate cooptation.  Another is working with the Environmental Justice Communities Against Plastics (EJCAP) coalition to push California lawmakers and regulators to close loopholes and improve effectiveness in recent plastic waste reduction law SB 54.

Other groups are beginning to find success with tactics that apply pressure upstream from the manufacturers, pushing pension funds, universities and banks to divest from polluters, demanding that insurance companies revoke policies for facilities that endanger the planet, and organizing the labor sector within predatory private equity firms that own many of the worst offenders.

An additional path that surely will be pursued by states, municipalities and advocacy groups is litigation demanding payments from the offending corporations, both in terms of damages to victims and compensation for the mounting costs of disposal.  The fossil fuel companies should be legally restricted and financially reprimanded the same way that big tobacco companies were handled.  In tandem with this top-down approach, concerned citizens can advocate for the bottom-up demand to change our laws to roll back the suite of unfair court rulings collectively known as “corporate rights” and to ensure rights for communities and environments (the movement to establish “legal rights for rivers” is succeeding around the world).

The Mississippi River.  Photo credit: Ken Lund [wikimedia commons]

Fossil fuel companies have seen record profits in the years since the pandemic began.  These profits belie the excuse that inflation is caused by supply chain disruptions.  It has become increasingly clear that this lying, cheating, psychopathic industry is at the climax of its abusive behavior of hoovering up heaps of cash by extracting the wealth of the earth while externalizing all the costs onto EJ communities and ecosystems.

We must not let oil and gas corporations continue their human rights abuses by allowing them to sidestep into equally harmful plastics and petrochemicals.  We must work together to change our economic systems into something life-giving and holistic, respecting our neighbors and environments, repairing our past harms, and regenerating our relations.  We must build the best alternatives by cultivating community power and grassroots democracy.  Please take the terrible findings of these reports and transform them, not into passive hopes and prayers for the unfortunate folks on the frontlines and fencelines, but a strong motivation and vigilant commitment to struggle with the workers and communities organizing for a just transition.  Remember, “Transitions are inevitable. Justice is not.”

Content Petrochemical Industry Impunity Must Be Stopped appears first in Just Transition Alliance.