Guest post by Robert Tohe and Andy Bessler
Sierra Club Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships organizers
Flagstaff, Arizona
Recent events in the Southwest show that building strong partnerships with diverse communities is critical to withstand the negative tactics of the coal industry and move forward towards a clean energy future.
In our work to fight off new coal plants, we work to clean up and transition from old coal plants towards clean energy. As a leader, it is important to understand the power dynamics of the diverse communities that live around these polluting plants and to work in a principled way with leaders within these communities. If all our Sierra Club groups, chapters and other entities can work with communities and community leaders in building a real transition from dirty coal to a clean energy future, we can stop global warming and help build a more sustainable economy with real green jobs for generations to come.
The Sierra Club is a proud partner of the Navajo Green Economy Coalition shown here. Photo courtesy of the Black Mesa Water Coalition
Sierra Club was recently targeted along with other national organizations in recent headlines here: http://tinyurl.com/yz882sn. The Hopi Tribal Council approved a formal resolution that was in effect a symbolic ‘ban” from the Hopi reservation of the Sierra Club due to our work in opposing coal in the region. Navajo President Joe Shirley soon jumped on the bandwagon and shows how far the coal industry will go to stop our work.
Building solid partnerships with grassroots Navajo and Hopi leaders has shown how important it really is to take the time to develop relationships with diverse communities. A good response in the media that we worked on was sent to the AZ Republic found here: http://tinyurl.com/ykkkx2p
Shortly after the pro-Peabody Coal Hopi Tribal Council released the news of their symbolic ban, grassroots leaders took action and spoke out against the actions by the Hopi Tribe and Navajo President Joe Shirley. You can find our news release for this issue here http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=134141.0
Lessons Learned
The advice below will help if you get questions from reporters and, most importantly, will help you build a clean energy future in partnership with diverse communities.
To help build partnerships with diverse and/or tribal communities dealing with coal or other dirty fuels, here are some tips for you as you negotiate the landscape of your campaign to transition towards a clean energy future.
- Familiarize yourself with our principles of environmental justice organizing found at http://www.sierraclub.org/ej/resources.aspx .
- Take the time to become familiar with the history and culture of nearby communities in how they define themselves and what is important to them.
- Make extra steps to be inclusive of community non-governmental organizations, traditional leaders and groups, especially if your situations require a rapid response.
- Obtain a better understanding of tribal government that you may interact with in your work. What kind of government do they have? How do the traditional leaders interact with the tribal government?
- Determine if there are any on-going green job initiatives or clean energy projects in these communities. We need to do better at linking our work at stopping coal with bringing green jobs through a clean energy future.
- Have contacts and working relationships with indigenous leaders and groups on energy issues. This is the essential base that often takes years to fully develop into partnerships built on trust.
- Develop lists of projects on which we have worked successfully together with tribes or indigenous leaders for reference in your area.
- When news breaks and you need help, call our media and communications department immediately for help and advice with response.
- Respond within the first news cycle to make sure our side gets into the story
- Avoid finger pointing and accusations, but take the higher road of advancing our overall message of a new way to a clean energy economy versus the unhealthy old path of fossil fuels
- Include indigenous voices to indicate their leadership on these issues
- For following news cycles, consider writing an op-ed with our viewpoint jointly signed with Sierra Club and an indigenous leader if possible
If you need some advice on building relationships with the tribal or other diverse communities in your neck of the woods, please feel free to call Andy Bessler or Robert Tohe if you have any questions.
For media questions please contact:
Oliver Bernstein
Sierra Club Deputy Press Secretary for Diversity Programs
Phone: 512.477.2152
[email protected]
Any other questions, please contact either of us in the Flagstaff office:
Robert Tohe and Andy Bessler
928-774-6103
[email protected]
[email protected]
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