2004 Environmental Justice projects all peoples power summit - plan puebla panama - globalization news monitors - sacred peaks - toxic-free homes - mining - clean air - geothermal energy

All Peoples Power Summit

Young people from environmental justice communities around the U.S. and abroad converged in Flagstaff, Arizona at the base of the sacred mountain known as the San Francisco Peaks for the ALL PEOPLES POWER SUMMIT: Building Communities of Hope, Strength, and Sustainability in July. Hosted by the Black Mesa Water Coalition, a grassroots coalition of Navajo and Hopi youths and young adults working together for environmental justice, the Summit took place at the site of one of the most heated sacred land-protection struggles in North America today.

DataCenter's Environmental Justice Team, with support from the Youth Strategy Project, helped plan, outreach, as well as conduct workshops to build youth leaders' capacities to wage effective actions to fight for environmental justice in their home communities. The three days of programs included trainings, discussions, dancing, hip-hop, poetry, and cultural sharing.

Keynote speaker Winona Laduke emphasized the importance of information in the hands of our communities fighting for environmental justice. At a DataCenter popular education workshop "research-for-action: Building an Effective Campaign to Win!," participants practiced developing a research plan rooted in a community environmental justice agenda. A power mapping workshop also led by DataCenter helped participants visualize the power relations that must be altered through their campaigns.

The DataCenter provides research and strategic campaign planning support for the Navajo community-led efforts around the campaign to save the San Francisco Peaks. For more information about the campaign, please see www.savethepeaks.org.

Related stories:
Skiing vs Native Rights
The Secwepemc Struggle to Stay Free and On the Land, by Kanahus Pellkey

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Plan Puebla Panama - Battle over the future of Mesoamerica

Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is a controversial $10 billion, 10-25 year megaproject to establish industrial corridors that link important ports, "free trade zones" and transportation routes from Puebla, Mexico all the way through Central America to Panama. PPP objectives include privatization, foreign investment, export-dependency, and shifting from locally to corporate owned forms of agriculture, forestry and industry.

The project represents one of the greatest threats to the social, economic and ecological integrity of MesoAmerica. Local, national, regional and global networks of social movements are building grassroots cross-border resistance and alternatives to the PPP.

A collection of essays from Mexico, Guatemala, and the U.S., Plan Puebla Panama—Battle over the future of Mesoamerica, second edition, unmasks the lies of "development" that the PPP promises and reports on key struggles that have been successful in stopping parts of the plan. Produced by Network Opposed to Plan Puebla Panama (No-PPP), including DataCenter. $4.00 (mailed within U.S.)

read excerpt (10 pages, PDF, requires free Adobe Acrobat®Reader)

To order call Celia Davis at 800.735.3741 x.305 or order online.

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Globalization News Monitors

DataCenter provides two news monitoring services to help keep grassroots global justice networks up-to-date on corporate globalization projects and impacts.

The Border Worker Justice News Monitoring Service is a weekly email service in English providing timely news about key issues on the United States/Mexico border region, including immigration, the environment, NAFTA meetings and economic developments. Produced jointly by DataCenter's Economic and Environmental Justice Programs, the Border Worker Justice Monitor is distributed to members of Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ).

The International Press Monitoring Service on Mesoamerica and the Plan Puebla Panama (PPP) is a monthly news service in Spanish. The Plan Puebla Panama is a regional integration project to create and interconnect transportation routes, industrial corridors and a variety of infrastructure projects throughout Mesoamerica that firmly roots the global "free trade" agenda in the region. The PPP has the approval of the Mexican and Central American Presidents and strong backing from the Inter American Development Bank (IDB). Created at the request of indigenous group GTCI (Grupo de Trabajo Colectivo del Istmo/Collective Working Group of the Isthmus), affiliated with UCIZONI, a strong indigenous organization based in southern Oaxaca, the PPP news monitor is distributed to organizations in the Mesoamerican region as well as organizations outside of the region that are struggling against the PPP. Produced by the Environmental Justice Program.

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Skiing vs Native Rights

In February, the DataCenter participated in a weekend-long training in Flagstaff, Arizona exclusively for Navajo community leaders and members. About thirty participants from all corners of the Navajo reservation and beyond came together to develop effective strategies to protect their traditional territories and sacred lands. They work on a variety of issues affecting the Navajo community, but are united under the single banner of Dine Bidziil Coalition (which means "Navajo Strength"), comprised of 24 grassroots Navajo organizations. In our workshop, an intergenerational audience worked together on power-mapping exercises designed to help them strategize around the Save the Peaks campaign. Save the Peaks aims to prevent the expansion of the Arizona Snowbowl Ski Resort on San Francisco Peaks, a mountain sacred to the Navajo and Hopi, as well as at least 13 other native tribes in the region. In the training, we also discussed the distinction between data and facts needed to defend one's position, and traditional wisdom and knowledge necessary to inform approaches and strategies that are culturally appropriate for the Navajo community.

PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is the most common plastic product used in construction, and one of the most toxic. Vinyl chloride, a flammable gas that goes into making PVC, is a known human carcinogen. People who breathe vinyl chloride for long periods of time can have permanent liver damage, immune reactions, nerve damage and liver cancer. CertainTeed Corp is a vinyl manufacturer with a plant outside of Buffalo, NY. They want to expand and move to a new location in Buffalo itself. Citizens Environmental Coalition and a growing coalition of groups in New York and across the country are opposing the relocation and pushing for safer alternatives.

Western New York Meets Mossville, Louisiana - Derrick M. Byrd of WNY's Toxic Waste Lupus Coalition, Mossville activist Edgar Mouton, and Jay Burney of WNY's Learning Sustainability Campaign

In April, CEC went as part of a delegation of New York activists to Louisiana to learn about Mossville's PVC pollution problems. Louisiana is home to the largest concentration of vinyl producers in the country. Mossville, a predominately African-American town, is plagued by four PVC facilities, including one owned by CertainTeed. CEC also visited a PVC-free Habitat for Humanity house being built in New Orleans. Greenpeace is funding construction of the house to show that affordable alternative materials are available. CEC would like to see CertainTeed phase out PVC products and produce safer materials like those being used in the house. The Greenpeace house has infuriated the Vinyl Institute, the main trade group for vinyl manufacturers. VI has worked with Habitat since 1995 and formed Vinyl Partners for Humanity, which made a five-year, $1 million commitment to Habitat in Louisiana. The DataCenter provided a profile of CertainTeed to CEC, which used it to create a fact sheet for press conferences held in conjunction with its trip to Louisiana, as well as for other campaign activities.

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East Oakland Residents Demand Clean Air

Check out our new air toxics research guide!

In East Oakland, where residents have elevated asthma rates and other respiratory infections, "neighbor" most often refers to an industrial facility. To better understand what these factories are putting into the air, we are doing a collaborative research project with the Center for Environmental Health and the Alameda County Department of Environmental Health. The campaign for clean air is being led by the community organization People United for a Better Oakland. Their goals are to hold polluters accountable, reduce air pollution in Oakland, and to guarantee community leadership and participation in decisions that affect Oakland residents. Armed with the initial results of our research, PUEBLO kicked off their campaign with an event the day before Halloween.

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Protecting Western Shoshone Land

We are continuing our work to support the Western Shoshone people's fight to protect their ancestral lands in Nevada. Our previous work was helping them fight a congressional bill that would forcibly buy out their land (see Summer 2003 projects). We are now continuing our work with the Western Shoshone Defense Project on a new front. The Western Shoshone have already experienced a history of exploitative resource extraction on their land, and now they are confronting geothermal energy interests. Corporate interest in leasing native lands for geothermal energy development has skyrocketed since California's energy crisis. We are providing the Western Shoshone Defense Project with research to help them develop educational materials exposing the real health and environmental impacts of geothermal energy projects.