=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #153
—October 31, 1989—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
==========
The Back issues and Index
are available
here.
The official RACHEL archive is here.
It’s updated constantly.
To subscribe, send E-mail to rachel-
weekly-
request@world.std.com
with the single word SUBSCRIBE in the message. It’s free.
===Previous Issue==========================================Next Issue===
HOW TO WIN ENVIRONMENTAL FIGHTS IN A CONSERVATIVE, RURAL STATE.
How can grass roots people win victories in rural, conservative
states? ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS, LESSONS FROM THE GRASSROOTS–a
short book on grassroots victories–provides intelligent,
inspiring and practical answers to that question. Although it is
focused on victories in a single state (North Carolina), the
strategies and tactics described in this book can work anywhere.
The book is organized into 11 chapters, 10 of them case studies
of successful local fights waged against great odds by ordinary
people, plus a summary called “Lessons From the Grassroots,”
which draws conclusions from the 10 case studies and answers the
question, “What are the keys for successful organizing in a
conservative state?” Here we outline some of the main points from
that summary chapter, but we urge you to get and read the entire
book (122 pages). Our summary omits the human stories, the rich
detail, and the specific tactics that produced victories in North
Carolina.
1) Select the best way to reach, educate and motivate people in
your local area. Marches and rallies may not be the best way to
contact people; maybe a barbecue, or a gospel sing makes more
sense in your locale. And choose your words carefully… for
example, people understand “conservation” because it goes back to
New Deal days, but “environmental” may connote outsiders who
don’t understand local issues or people.
2) Connect your “environmental” issue to its broader (a) public
health, (b) economic and/or (c) recreational consequences for a
specific community or constituency.
“In virtually every situation we studied, the original activists
were made to feel hopeless and isolated by the powers-that-be
(elected officials, the media, regulatory agencies, etc.) to whom
they took their problems. They were put on the defensive,
ignored, or called troublemakers; sometimes they were called
liars or a ‘fringe element’ or irrational, or were otherwise
personally attacked and had their motives questioned. They were
frequently told nothing could be done to change the problem they
wanted corrected (stopping an expressway from coming through a
Durham neighborhood, blocking the siting of a radioactive waste
incinerator in Bladen County) or that everything possible was
already being done to ensure that the problem was solved (the
development on Permuda Island would not pollute the surrounding
shellfish waters, the evacuation plan for the Shearon Harris
Nuclear Plant was totally adequate).
“Only the right mix of patience and persistence allowed the early
‘troublemakers’ in these struggles to demonstrate that what some
considered to be a private grievance was in reality a matter of
grave public concern. Ultimately, they impressed the politicians
with enough people, the bureaucrats with enough paper, and the
media with enough drama to transform themselves from isolated
victims into well-connected protectors of the American dream.
“This positive posture of protecting the public’s health or the
values of our forebears is a key ingredient in each success story
we observed. A moral undercurrent in each of these struggles was
both sustaining to its inner core of activists as well as
compelling to a larger body of supporters and the public at
large.”
3) Inspire people to believe they can win.
“Inspiring individuals to believe that they can make a difference
through collective action is critical to building the momentum
and gaining the mass support needed to prove that change can in
fact happen… Middle-class and upper-income whites are generally
confident that they can get attention for an injustice done to
them; but too often their self-confidence tricks them into
thinking they can change anything on their own without an
organization. Blacks are less tied to the system and more willing
to fight for their rights, but they get weary of being asked to
follow other people’s initiative without reciprocal support.
Lower-income, working-class whites are often hardest to get
involved…. like everyone else, they need (a) positive
reinforcement from their peers and, through the media, the larger
community; (b) fun events that keep their spirits up; and (c)
small victories that prove change can occur.”
4) Go public with the issue every way you can.
“Making the controversies highly visible and a matter of public
debate. Issues were popularized and politicized by being injected
into as many public arenas as possible. Each arena had to be
persuaded with whatever special language it understood:
politicians listen to voter power, the church to moral language
and to its members, the courts to legal arguments, the media need
drama, action and authority figures; a group of hunters, blacks
or farmers wants to hear how the issue affects its members.
5) Use the press effectively.
The mainstream press was used to publicize the issue and to
pressure decision makers to address its solution. “In general,
reporters are overworked, competitive, ignorant of the issues,
cautious about covering new or complex topics, and in need of
human drama and conflict that is news.” If possible, focus
national attention on your problem; this can cause local media to
pay closer attention.
6) Use your own public education channels to reach the people you
want to reach: get out fact sheets; hold barbecues, picnics,
auctions and concerts for fundraising but also to update and
motivate people. Letter-writing campaigns to newspapers, and talk
shows (both radio and TV) are effective. Videotapes of personal
stories, expert testimony and events that cannot be easily
duplicated, allow you to spread the word among your potential
supporters.
7) The “public hearing”–whether called by the government or by
citizens leading the opposition–can be (a) an effective place
for organizing a mass turnout; (b) a convenient place for the
media to focus on the issue; (c) an almost mandatory platform for
politicians; (d) an arena where the sponsors of ‘environmentally
risky business’ can be easily put on the defensive; (e) an
education event on neutral turf that attracts interested but
undecided people; (f) a chance for the environmental group to
exercise its outreach, public education, media, speaking,
planning and research skills.
8) Focus attention on local politicians who can in turn pressure
state and federal agencies.
9) “Understandable, well-documented technical information is
obviously another key to success, but many groups fail to realize
that information alone will not win their fight…. It is
difficult to overestimate how flexible [decision-makers] can
become in interpreting or reforming existing procedures or laws
when they are pressed by a massive and sustained public outcry.”
10) “Direct organizing, door-to-door, person-to-person is another
key ingredient in these success stories. There is no substitute
for going directly to the people who are affected by an
environmental problem and educating/mobilizing them.
“Very often environmental groups tend to identify a problem,
research it thoroughly, attempt to publicize it through the
media, and seek remedies through the appropriate government
channels. They miss the most important ingredient–the human
beings who can articulate how they are directly abused in a way
that arouses others to sympathy and/or action.”
The book talks about using the election process to advantage, and
it discusses building multi-racial coalitions to strengthen the
community while winning environmental fights.
This book is a sparkling jewel. Everyone who cares about the
Movement for Environmental Justice could benefit by reading it.
Get: Bob Hall and others, ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS: LESSONS FROM
THE GRASSROOTS (Durham, NC: Institute for Southern Studies [P.O.
Box 531, Durham, NC 27702], 1988. $7.00. Phone: (919) 688-8167.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: citizen groups; grass roots organizing;
strategy; tactics; elections; coalitions; radioactive waste;
citizen success stories; incineration; landfilling; pcbs;
wetlands; north carolina; nc; lumber river; shellfish;