Asian Pacific Environmental Network

The antidote to fear is grassroots organizing.

In the weeks since the disastrous results of the 2024 election were announced, I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and strategize with grassroots leaders across movements for climate, environmental justice, and indigenous liberation, among others.

In space after space, something beautiful is happening: instead of isolating or playing the blame game, people in our movements are turning toward each other. In the face of violence and repression, what is heartening to me is how we keep coming back to our values and our connections with one another.

In the coming years, all of us will need to deepen our connections and practice solidarity to build strong, resilient movements that can defeat the far right and keep our communities safe. At APEN, building solidarity and connection across people and movements is at the core of our work.

APEN members at our Leaders Advance last month. Photo by Joyce Xi.

One place I’ve found strength and hope these last few weeks is in the herstories and resilience of our communities — from my own family to our APEN members.

When the future seems dark, I remember our Asian immigrant and refugee ancestors. I think of my own family — from my parents, who experienced and eventually fled the Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines to my cousins, who live there today under a new and brutally repressive regime yet keep showing up for their families and communities even when it puts their own lives at risk.

I think of our members who fled war, repression, and refugee camps to build a new life in California, only to face racism, pollution and displacement here. Who found each other in this new country and helped each other find housing, buy groceries and get their kids to school. Who have shown up again and again—from testifying at city council to running community meetings and marching in the street—to fight for a world where all of us have what we need to thrive.

It’s no secret that the threats we face are growing. Far-right politicians have weaponized fear, isolation, and misinformation to turn people against each other. Now, they are preparing to dismantle our few remaining environmental and climate protections while threatening deportation on a scale that would tear apart immigrant and refugee communities like ours.

But here’s the thing: our members know the antidote to fear. The antidote to fear is grassroots organizing.

Organizing is simply the practice of building power through connection across difference. Organizing is about having intentional conversations with your neighbor or coworker, even if you don’t agree with them about everything – because you know that through connection, you can find shared values and begin to work toward a shared vision for the future. Our organizers help members with housing applications, know their cousins’ names and their favorite boba spots, and check in to make sure our members are safe when there is a flaring incident or heat wave. 

As law-and-order rhetoric flooded the media in Oakland this year, our organizers responded by listening to and building deep relationships with working-class elders in Chinatown who felt unsafe in their neighborhood. We listened to what makes people feel safe, developed trust, and built support for real, community-led solutions – which we’re excited to share more about in the coming weeks.

We know that grassroots organizing works – because we’ve seen it happen. This year, our members and other communities living near the Chevron refinery in Richmond won a historic $550 million settlement from Chevron – building on decades of grassroots organizing in the community and becoming a model for refinery communities across the country.

APEN members at our Leaders Advance last month. Photo by Joyce Xi.

The years ahead will be tough, but this is how we will get through them: by investing in grassroots organizing and building solidarity for the long haul. 

To do that, we need your support. Your donation will help us hire organizers, pay for food and supplies at member meetings, and bring our members to Sacramento.

In the words of our Richmond member Richelle, who spoke at APEN’s 30th anniversary celebration this year:

Since joining APEN, I find myself feeling consistently supported and valued by other APEN leaders and have felt called to step into my own leadership, to use my voice and unique skill sets to create ripples towards a healthier future for Richmond.

Donate TODAY to help us fight back against the far right and invest in grassroots organizing for the long haul.

 

DONATE

Christine Cordero is one of APEN’s two Co-Directors. Raised by a Filipino immigrant family in the working class town of Pittsburg (no “h”), CA, Christine acts from the deep belief that we are stronger together and can go farther together than we ever could alone.

The post The antidote to fear is grassroots organizing. appeared first on Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

Land is Life: Three Lessons from Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan and the Lumad Community

October 2024. Here we are: one full year since the genocide in Gaza ignited, the presidential elections are a month away, and people across the country are grieving and rebuilding in the wake of life-threatening wild fires and hurricanes.

Some days, I feel overwhelmed by devastation after devastation, injustice after injustice. It feels like nothing we do is enough to make a difference.

In times like this, I look to my kapwa, family and community in the Philippines.

Our people have prevailed against land grabs by colonial powers and big corporations, periods of martial law declared by authoritarian presidents, and horrific climate disasters sweeping our homes and villages. This year, we celebrated the 38th Anniversary of the EDSA People Power Revolution where kasamas, students, workers, people of faith, families, activists, rallied to end the 20 year dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

We are courageous in the face of adversity. We take care of one another. Together, we create new possibilities for our future.

 

Bai Bibyaon Quote, from Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women’s Instagram

This Filipino American History Month, I honor the revolutionary legacy of Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay, the first woman chieftain of the Lumad Talaingod Manobo tribe. The Lumad people span many different sectors and language backgrounds — 18 tribes all throughout Mindanao, the southern region of the Philippines. Bai Bibyaon helped unify the tribes during the 1986 Assembly of the Mindanao Peoples Federation.

She passed away November of last year but has left an undeniable mark in my homeland’s history. She fought against the logging of the ancestral lands, advocated for the self-determination and rights of the indigenous, and reshaped the future of not only the Lumad women and children but of all of the Philippines.

These are three lessons I‘ve learned from Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan and the Lumad Community:

1. Land is Life

The Lumad people continue to be stewards of the land. They cultivate their own crops and make food from their harvest. They practice many sustainability measures in their agriculture: from using coconut husks to slope the land to recycled bottles for insect attractants with molasses and vinegar.

Excerpts from Scent of Rain, Sun and Soil: Stories of Agroecology by Lumad Youth in The Philippines, design by Ali Wright

I am in awe of their partnership with nature, their surrounding environment. Working in the South Bay & Harbor Region of Los Angeles, I am saddened by how the residents here are not able to access their own coasts and beaches. The Ports of Long Beach and LA instead pollute the area alongside the refineries of Marathon, Phillips 66, and Valero. The Lumad fight to protect their land against logging and mining by companies such as Alcantara & Sons. They make their own fertilizers, tend to the seedlings daily, and not only preserve the land, but strengthen its nutrients and fruits. How can we do the same?

“Everything that we need to create a sustainable future is already here. We have to learn to build with nature and not against it.” — Mai Thi, APEN LA Academy 2023 participant and APEN Action Statewide Member

Mai’s words remind me of our work to clean neighborhoods and decommission refineries. How we can protect our land, water, and people. How we can foster an accessible, affordable and green community. How we are doing this work with our members and coalition partners all throughout the state.

2. Culture is a Source of Strength

T’boli, Bisaya, Cebuano, Manobo, and Subanen are just some of the many languages that the Lumad tribes speak. They come together to share recipes on how to make delicious Filipino dishes such as Tinola and Pinakbet. They have beautiful intricate colors and patterns in their clothing. They show great pride in their traditions, and their culture is a source of strength in resisting the increasing land grabs, militarization, and policing of their people.

I wish I was taught more and knew more about my own indigenous roots. I moved from the Philippines when I was 11. Like so many Asian immigrants and refugees in the Los Angeles area, my parents wanted me to have a brighter future here in America, to have more job opportunities. But those opportunities meant separating from our family and community in the Philippines, and it was hard to know that while we were building a life here, our relatives back home were struggling to get their basic needs met. For the Philippine government, Overseas Filipino Workers are seen as commodities, exported to generate money to send back home. In Filipino communities here, working for a better life often means losing connection to the land and ways of living that sustained our communities historically.

By learning from our culture, we can return to practices that build stability and resilience in our neighborhoods.

When I was young, my mom would make food for our whole block of neighbors, we would deliver food to each of them, and we would check in on how they were doing. A beautiful practice I had learned growing up in Mindanao.

In our APEN LA organizing, we experience great joy in sharing our cultures during our member meetings. We envision a future for our neighborhoods where all people have what they need, where our cultural foods and practices are celebrated, and there are community cultural centers and spaces to continue these traditions.

Here are some snapshots of what APEN LA members have shared as part of their vision for the future of their communities:

3. Youth are Our Future

Bai Bibyaon and the Lumad people built entire educational systems for the Lumad youth. At a time when the Philippine government was trying to rewrite history to prop up the existing power structure, the Lumad people established over two hundred schools where young people could learn about their history as indigenous people, and build the skills they would need to sustain land and life in their communities. The Community Technical College of Southeastern Mindanao (CTCSM) was the biggest in Mindanao, graduated over 90 midwives, teachers, healthworkers, and farmers, and educated over 300 elementary to high school students.

Sadly the schools have been raided and shut down by the government. Students like Kuni Cuba a Dulangan Monobo have been killed by paramilitary forces and many others have been jailed like the Talaingod 18.

However, the Lumad tribes continue to fight for their young people. They have successfully gotten charges dropped against Lumad leader Datu Benito from a raid on Lumad Bakwit School Cebu, held more paralegal and rights trainings to protect further persecution of their communities, and are reporting abuses to United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Importantly, more and more Sabokahan Lumad youth are graduating from the national universities and shedding light on the Philippine government’s oppression of the country’s indigenous peoples.

Lumad youth are shaping the future of their tribes and demanding an education that serves their communities.

As we build our environmentally just future here in LA, we are learning from the Lumad peoples.

Our members have developed a values statement that will shape our future projects and campaigns:

The Los Angeles South Bay & Harbor area is and will be an abundant, and tenacious community that shares culture through food, stories, traditional knowledge and joy. This community centers family, trust, and sustainability that honors our uniqueness, creates fun community spaces, and connects with the land and water. It will be an accessible, affordable and green community where immigrants, refugees, workers, students and people of all ages feel safe, resourced and cared for.

We honor Bai Bibyaon’s legacy by defending the land and growing our community.

APEN LA and Richmond youth members exchange February 2024.

Join us and be a part of the movement for environmental justice in LA!

Get Involved with APEN LA

More resources and information:

• More about CTCSM and Scent of Rain, Sun, and Soil
• Listen to a radio interview with a delegation of Lumad People on KPFA
• More about Lumad Youth’s Recent Graduation from the University of the Philippines
• Lumad’s Solidarity with Palestine
• More about Filipino American History Month and the Filipino Migrant Center’s Current Campaigns
• List of Hurricane Helene Relief & Mutual Aid
• Bai Bibyaon and other Asian notable icons featured in our APEN LA Mural

Janielle Torregosa is APEN’s Los Angeles Community Organizer. She is mixed Filipina, Chinese, and Spanish and moved here from Ozamiz City, Philippines. She graduated from CSULB with a Spanish major and International Studies minor.

The post Land is Life: Three Lessons from Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan and the Lumad Community appeared first on Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

Our 2024 Ballot Measure Endorsements

This election, the stakes couldn’t be higher.

While the presidential election is top of mind for many voters, in California working-class communities of color are leading bold campaigns for a better future – a future where all of us have the resources we need to thrive.

This election, we have an opportunity to invest in affordable housing, schools, and climate justice. To finally end slavery in California. To expand rent control and keep people in their homes.

However, the rich and powerful are trying to use this election to buy our democracy and turn back the clock on so much of what our communities have fought for.

Super-rich donors, landlords, and big corporations are funding ballot measures that would expand mass incarceration, cut funding for housing and mental health services, unfairly target progressive organizations, and skew future elections toward candidates with more money in their pockets.

Luckily, they don’t decide California’s future – we do. 

That’s why we are excited to share APEN’s endorsements for key ballot measures in the Bay Area, Los Angeles and across California this year.

California Los Angeles Oakland Richmond

Photo by Joyce Xi Photography

CALIFORNIA NO POSITION on Proposition 2 Your Title Goes Here

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$10 billion for public schools

This $10 billion bond would pay for repairs and upgrades at CA public school buildings, some of which have languished with rot, mold, leaks, and other hazards due to lack of funds. K-12 schools would receive $8.5 billion and $1.5 billion would go to community colleges.

Vote YES on Proposition 3 Your Title Goes Here

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Reaffirm the right of same-sex couples to marry

This constitutional amendment would remove outdated language from Proposition 8, passed by voters in 2008, that characterizes marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Vote YES on Proposition 4 Your Title Goes Here

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$10 billion for climate programs

This $10 billion bond would pay for water projects (to provide safe drinking water, recycle wastewater, store groundwater, control floods), wildfire protection, protection from sea level rise, create parks, protect wildlife and habitats, and address extreme heat events.

Vote YES on Proposition 5 Your Title Goes Here

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Lower approval requirements for housing & infrastructure

This would lower the supermajority vote requirement from two-thirds (66.67%) vote to 55% for local jurisdictions to issue bonds or impose special taxes for affordable housing and public infrastructure projects.

Vote YES on Proposition 6 Your Title Goes Here

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Ban slavery in state prisons

This constitutional amendment would end indentured servitude in state prisons, one of the last remnants of slavery.

Vote YES on Proposition 32 Your Title Goes Here

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Raise the state minimum wage to $18/hr

This would increase the state minimum wage to $18/hr from $15/hr for all employees in California.

Vote YES on Proposition 33 Your Title Goes Here

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Allow local governments to impose rent controls

This would repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act (1995) which prevents cities and counties from limiting rents in many properties in California.

NO POSITION on Proposition 34 Your Title Goes Here

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Require AIDS Healthcare Foundation to use revenue from a federal prescription drug program on patient care

This is a CA Apartment Association-backed attack on AIDS Healthcare Foundation, meant to prevent the organization from funding rent control measures in the future.

NO POSITION on Proposition 35 Your Title Goes Here

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Permanent tax on managed healthcare insurance plans

This initiative is sponsored by California’s health care industry to raise more money for Medi-Cal and block lawmakers from using the money raised for purposes outside of supporting Medi-Cal.

Vote NO on Proposition 36 Your Title Goes Here

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Mass Incarceration Initiative: Increase penalties for nonviolent drug and theft crimes

This initiative would undo Prop 47, which voters decided in 2014 to reclassify nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors and redirect funds toward schools. This measure would further criminalize addiction and poverty, increase mass incarceration, and reduce funding for education, mental health, and homelessness prevention.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY Vote YES on Measure A Your Title Goes Here

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$10 billion for public schools

This $10 billion bond would pay for repairs and upgrades at CA public school buildings, some of which have languished with rot, mold, leaks, and other hazards due to lack of funds. K-12 schools would receive $8.5 billion and $1.5 billion would go to community colleges.

OAKLAND Vote YES on Measure MM Your Title Goes Here

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Wildfire Prevention Zone Tax

Creates a “wildfire protection zone” in the Oakland Hills to protect our communities from wildfires and smoke. Paid for through a parcel tax that only applies to Oakland Hills residents.

Vote YES on Measure NN Your Title Goes Here

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Citywide Violence Reduction Services

Extends and increases property and parking taxes to fund fire, police, vital violence prevention services, 911 dispatch, and more. Measure NN isn’t perfect, but our public safety services depend on it.

Vote YES on Measure OO Your Title Goes Here

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Modernize and Strengthen Ethics Oversight

Updates the procedures of the Public Ethics Commission to ensure stronger government transparency and fairness.

RICHMOND Vote NO on Measure J Your Title Goes Here

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Create Municipal Primary Elections

This measure would create municipal primaries for City of Richmond elections. This would create an extra step in our election process, allowing a smaller group of citizens voting in Primary elections to potentially decide our election outcomes. Working-class voters of color are less likely to turn out for primary elections, and adding primaries would make campaigns more costly — giving an upper-hand to corporate-backed candidates.

Vote YES on Measure L Your Title Goes Here

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Institute Ranked-Choice Voting Elections

This measure would create rank choice voting elections for Richmond, allowing voters to rank their top candidates in order of preference.

A Rank Choice Voting election process delivers more representative and equitable election outcomes, as it elects a majority-supported candidate, increases voter participation, and gives voters more power to express their preferences.

The post Our 2024 Ballot Measure Endorsements appeared first on Asian Pacific Environmental Network.

“It was always our intention to set a precedent.”

Richmond refinery communities made the front page of the internet this week with a Politico feature on our Polluters Pay campaign and the local organizing that made it possible. Read that article here.

Building on decades of organizing against Chevron, this year our communities came together behind a new idea: a #PollutersPay tax that would make big polluters pay for the damage they’ve caused.

By forcing the oil giant to offer up $550 million with the threat of losing at the ballot box, working families made history here in California.  

We got creative, and Chevron got scared — to the tune of $550 million. Together with our long-time partners Communities for a Better Environment and the city-workers’ union, SEIU 1021, our coalition fought and won a model for other refinery communities.

 

APEN youth members and Senior Youth Richmond Organizer Katherine Lee at a #PollutersPay rally. Photo by Denny Khamphanthong.

Let’s be clear: we wanted to go all the way to November. We know you were ready to knock doors, join us at phone banks, and get out the vote for the Polluters Pay campaign.

We wish we could have gone to the ballot, but we’re clear: refinery communities can take on multi-billion dollar corporations with huge results. If Richmond can do it, we know others can, as well.

From here, our Richmond team is organizing to ensure that Chevron’s millions actually invest in priorities for working families – like essential services and a fund to clean up Chevron’s toxic mess.

Can you take two actions today to amplify our work?

1. Send this article on to a friend.
2. Sign up to organize for a Richmond beyond oil.

SIGN UP NOW

The post “It was always our intention to set a precedent.” appeared first on Asian Pacific Environmental Network.