October 10th 2008—Global Experiences Illuminating Local Struggles and Interconnectivity

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Jacqui
About Jacqui

October 16, 2008

I started my day at a session on climate change/climate justice which was led by four women of color from the Western United States. The discussion focused both on how US government and corporate policies and practices are exacerbating climate change, with particularly damaging effects in communities of color including indigenous communities, as well as what we can do about it as individuals and members of activist groups.

Jill is from San Antonio and is with the Southwest Worker’s Union working in economic and environmental justice. Jihan is with the Indigenous Environmental Network in Fort Defiance Arizona.

Chelsea is from Arizona and is Navajo. The Black Mesa where she resides has a land base that is larger than Rhode Island and the land touches both Navajo and Hopi reservations. In the 70s, the US government relocated hundreds of indigenous people because they wanted the land they inhabited. Chelsea’s father had 100 horses, 100 sheep, and 100 cows and was forced to leave his land and all of his possessions. He was given money to build a house elsewhere. However, even that was problematic because in their new community some were given money and others weren’t, which resulted in resentment and divisions amongst the community members. Yet another of many examples of government policies and practices driving wedges in communities.

Chelsea also spoke of the work that many on the reservations do in the coal and uranium mines. Many of the men who work in the uranium mines contaminate their families with radiation they bring home from the work sites.

Kandy, who is from a North Dakota reservation, shared her experience in having cancer at the age of 20, which is all too common in her community. She spoke of the toxic emissions from the factories to which the high rates of cancer are attributed. Kandy also spoke of the contamination of water from oil refineries, gasification plants, etc. and she shared the resulting damaging effects of these industries on the health of the community members. Additionally, many of the men on the reservation take jobs on the oil rigs as they are enticed by high pay of $25/hour compared to minimum wage work for unskilled labor. However, the oil rig positions offer no health or other benefits. Given the negative health impacts of working on oil rigs, the combination of having no health benefits to deal with the effects of contact with toxins, is literally a deadly one.

She also spoke of how tar sands are taken from the land of native people in Canada and piped to the land of native people North Dakota to be refined and then the energy is shipped off to be used elsewhere. This extractive abuse of native lands is a pattern that is repeated time and time again. People come in with damaging practices and their extractive industries take from the land, and then they return with waste to be dumped in landfills. All of this occurs disproportionately in communities of color including indigenous lands.

Kandy also noted that there is enough wind (ie clean energy) in North Dakota to power the entire United States. However, people are unwilling to change their practices and systems of profit to utilize this natural resource which would be a safe and clean alternative to currently expensive, toxic and climate damaging methods of producing energy. She noted that neither Presidential candidate has been bold enough to propose a dramatic shift in energy sources to truly clean energy.

One participant, from the Third World Coalition shared some of the intergenerational work that is taking place in communities of color in the US. He observed that technology is taking us from our roots and our relationship with the earth even in very basic ways such as how kids are staying indoors more instead of experiencing nature and playing outside.

He also spoke of the need to shift how we live and the perception of well-being because one of the damaging aspects of society is the quest for the poor to live like the rich and what “the rich” is emulating are negative practices that are being perpetuated. With the US as the icon of “rich” which, for better or worse, others are trying to replicate, we are setting a very poor example indeed.

According to the workshop organizers, there are simple things we can do to improve the environment, like reduce waste generation and recycle, as well as engaging in more involved approaches like nonviolent direct action, driving a hybrid vehicle, etc. For more information on steps we can take, one can visit www.ienearth.org or www.climatechallenge.org

At the conclusion of the session I had the great fortune to interview the four presenters as part of the 41 Million Strong Campaign. To my great delight, all were involved in galvanizing civic participation in their communities, so they had rich perspectives to share, both on why civic engagement is critical as well as on how they have participated in encouraging civic participation. To hear what they have to say, please return to this space to look for the video upload.

As part of my role in the “Observatorio” (a process by which Las Petateras were gathering views from folks attending the conference on how feminist/women’s rights issues perspectives were included) I interviewed Kim, a woman who was from Grandbeat, Connecticut, but who has been working for almost 2 years in El Salvador. Our conversation ran the gambit but I’ll try to summarize here because her observations and perspective were important.

Kim went to a session organized by Allianza Nacionale Communidades Latino Americanas y Caribenas where they were examining the 2008 elections and speculating on its impact on immigration policy. They spoke about how, between the Republicans and the Democrats, there was not much difference in their platforms because neither party is bold enough to put forth an agenda for progressive immigration reform. The reforms that are on the table focus on increasing border control, surveillance, and increasing funding for detention. The proposed “guest worker program” cannot be characterize as progress because it would result in a situation where workers would have no rights to unionize or organize.

The session talked about the importance of the Latino bloc of voters. They provided statistics saying that 70% of Latinos are citizens and spoke of how by 2030 1/3 of the population will be Latino. They also spoke of the healthy fear of this specter by the dominant population. Currently there are 26 million Latinos living in the United States, which totals about 15% of the population. 18.2 million Latinos are of voting age. 12 million are registered to vote and it is estimated that 10 million will vote. Particularly in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Florida, Latinos are a critical voting bloc that could swing the vote as many Latinos are neither particularly right, nor left, in their politics.

Otherwise, we spoke of how for Kim, the Americas Social Forum is a continuation of her learning about the region and the impact of US foreign policy and practices here. She spoke specifically massacres that had occurred in El Salvador and elsewhere as a result of US intervention. As an example, she described her first hand experience accompanying a community in El Salvador. On the anniversary of one of the massacres, they exhumed the bodies of 22 people and had the funeral those loved ones never had, decades later. Approximately 75,000 people died during that massacre and most people in the United States have no idea of what travesty their tax dollars were funding. Kim spoke of how much she learned not only about what’s happening abroad but that her experience overseas opened her eyes to what is happening right Northern Connecticut in communities of color as the patterns of systematic oppression are so similar, as are the results. She realized how blind and insulated members of the white middle class can be from the rest of reality and is committed to doing her part to bring about enlightenment and change, if only in Grandbeat! I very much appreciated the opportunity to chat with Kim and we plan to keep in touch.

Las Petateras ended the day with a reception hosted by the United States Social Forum organizers. www.2007ussf.orgFolks were there from the Grassroots Global Justice Delegation including Project South, Domestic Workers United, and others. I distributed “I’m a Woman of Color and I VOTE” buttons which, to my delight, were received with eagerness. After a long day, we didn’t stay long, but I did have the fortune of a good chat with a woman from the Audre Lorde Project on LGBTQQI rights for women of color www.alp.org and I look forward to following up with her.