Constructing Identities in Mexican-American Political Organizations: Choosing Issues, Taking Sides

3. Voces Unidas: The Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice

3. Voces Unidas The Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice We are a multicultural, multinational, grassroots network. We are respectful, compassionate and loving towards one another. We celebrate cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves. We believe that this understanding represents our best hope for unity for all people. Our focus is to address the fact that communities of color, as well as economically oppressed communities, suffer disproportionately from toxic contamination. We refuse to accept being deliberately targeted through past and continuing genocide of indigenous peoples, the threatening of future generations, racism, sexism, and a lack of economic, social, and environmental justice. —SNEEJ first annual gathering, September –,  The Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ) is a network of organizations created in  by activists working with the SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP) in Albuquerque , New Mexico. SWOP had been created ten years earlier by former Chicano Movement activists, individuals affiliated with the Brown Berets and land rights movements, and other activists committed to land-rights issues and militant racial politics. SWOP activists saw the need to expand the scope of their work by creating a network of Chicano, Indian Rights, and Black Power activists (R. Moore b). In April  SWOP convened a gathering of over  environmental activists from New Mexico, Texas, Arizona , Colorado, California, Utah, Nevada, and Oklahoma (Gauna ). They came from organizations such as Neighbors for a Toxic Free Community in Denver, Native Americans for a Clean Environment of Oklahoma, and the West County Toxics Coalition of Richmond, California. Havasupai representatives from the Grand 26 Mexican-American Political Organizations Canyon, the Navajo of Utah, and the Western Shoshone of Nevada were also present (Moore ). The following year,  activists representing  environmental organizations, labor unions, Native American tribes, and churches attended (SNEEJ a). By March  SNEEJ employed a staff of six at its regional headquarters in Albuquerque and claimed a membership of seventy groups in six U.S. states, three Mexican states (Baja California, Chihuahua, and Coahuila), and fifteen Native American tribes (Martinez b). Today the SNEEJ network is composed of eighty independent organizations in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, California, and Nevada that exchange information and utilize SNEEJ training facilities (Martinez ; Chang and Hwang ). The first SNEEJ meetings established a commitment to racial and ethnic diversity in the movement. Asian, Mexican-American, African-American, and Native American environmental activists from Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma , and Texas were present. The activists raised long-standing issues: ground and surface water contamination, pesticide use, desecration of Native American sacred sites, waste dumps, cancer clusters, environmental regulations, free-trade agreements, nuclear testing and weapons production, women’s rights, cultural preservation , corporate responsibility, garment and farm workers’ rights, and voter registration drives (SNEEJ , a). SNEEJ established a network of communications and an activist training institute which would ‘‘reflect the uniqueness of the Southwest—historically and culturally’’ (R. Moore a). The network’s greatest successes have taken place in MexicanAmerican neighborhoods, where SNEEJ activists have demonstrated an ability to ameliorate the problem of environmental contamination through the existing legal and regulatory system. With a combination of protest, petition, and litigation, they have stopped the construction of hazardous waste dumps in their neighborhoods, removed environmental threats, and held long-time polluters accountable for injuries inflicted on local populations. They have changed the character of environmental politics by attacking the complacency of mainstream environmental groups when it came to pollution, unemployment, low wages, and corporate power. Finally, SNEEJ activists believe racism and economic policy are closely related ; low wages, hiring practices, community development, and corporate subsidies are all part of a state-supported, racially strati- fied social system. Voces Unidas 27 The Struggle for Environmental Justice The oldest continuously active member of the SNEEJ network is SWOP in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In  SWOP launched its first major environmental justice campaign when it organized residents of northwest Albuquerque against Ponderosa Products, a local particle-board plant. Sawmill residents complained of chemically laced sawdust in the air, noxious odors, a contaminated water supply, and loud noises continuing late into the night (Martinez ; SWOP ; Kimball a). Executing a carefully planned strategy, organizers from SWOP polled residents, conducted house meetings, documented instances of environmental pollution, and helped local activists create their own neighborhood organization, the Sawmill Advisory Council (Guerrero ; Head ). The Sawmill Advisory Council petitioned Ponderosa Products and pressured local government to enforce existing environmental law...