On January 27th, Pushback Network conducted our first-ever webinar entitled, “The Geopolitics of an Energy Colony: Case Studies of Kentucky and New Mexico.” We used this webinar to highlight the environmental justice work within the Kentucky and New Mexico State Alliances and connect the ways in which people of color and working class communities are fighting back against environmental racism through the creation of robust, grassroots led organizing campaigns.
Presentations were made from staff and grassroots leaders of SouthWest Organizing Project, Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment, and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. In this powerful demonstration of cross state collaboration, each state linked the health and environmental effects in their own communities around uranium and coal extraction to state and federal policies based in racial and economic discrimination.
“We must look at the policy impacts with a lens that incorporates a race and class analysis to how we approach solutions for environmental justice,” said Robby Rodriguez, Executive Director of SouthWest Organizing Project.
Both Kentucky and New Mexico grounded their presentations at the local and state level. Retha Justice and Teri Blanton from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth looked at the environmental and economic impacts of the coal industry and mountain top removal. They cited the coal industry as the culprit responsible for the dire situation facing Kentucky, i.e. 25-40% of Appalachia is mined by mountain top removal, loss of union jobs, and 1,400 miles of Kentucky streams have been damaged or destroyed by valley fill practices. Moving to New Mexico, Nadine Padilla from Multicultural Alliance for a Safe Environment and Robby Rodriguez from the SouthWest Organizing Project examined the legacy of uranium mining and how the pressures for nuclear energy left their communities littered with hundreds of uranium mines, in a situation where mine workers had no compensation, and where communities were forced to drink polluted groundwater.
However, the webinar did not end at the local and state level. As is the work of the Pushback Network, we used this webinar as an opportunity to explore the various ways in which national coordination could strengthen campaigns rooted in community struggles. We used this moment as a way to build connection and intersection across states.
“Companies use the same tactics they have always used to divide communities. They get everyone fighting and take power when everyone seems to be their weakest. At this point it is so important for us to dig in our heels, become more organized, have people come together and find common ground,” Retha Justice, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
And find common ground we did.
Environmental racism reflects broader patterns of marginalization and domination that traverses states and communities. Pushback Network recognizes that our environmental justice organizing has to reach a new level of scale and coordination to defeat the destructive economic and environmental policies that are based in profit and not people. Our community organizations fighting on the front lines of this struggle are prime to win in states like New Mexico and Kentucky. And yet, to transform conditions across this country, we recognize the need to create linkages in our work and create synergy across community organizations fighting similar issues. 
The webinar was a powerful moment of identification for those grassroots organizers and community members who faced similar living conditions in their neighborhoods but did not have the opportunity to reach out across states and talk about their shared experiences. That is, up until the webinar. Through this technology, members from both states connected across geographical lines and identified how they struggled with the destruction of their land and livelihood due to environmental racism. From this point of unity, the webinar ended with a shared commitment on part of the state alliances to continue the conversation and find ways to support each others work.
Moving forward, we believe the webinar was a strong first step towards understanding how we could connect our state alliances around cross-cutting issues and aggregate our power for transformative social change. To see the presentations in more depth, please check out the powerpoint presentations below.
Environmental Justice from New Mexico
Retha Justice from KFTC Presentation
Teri Blanton from KFTC Presention
