From corporate polluters to political bosses, power elites try to create a myth of inevitability to make workaday people feel too helpless to change the injustices of the system. “Don’t bother” is their message.
But the feisty residents of Boxtown, Tennessee, definitely did bother when they learned that profiteering fossil fuel giants were targeting them. Boxtown, a historic Black neighborhood in Memphis settled 160 years ago by formerly enslaved people, was considered by Valero Energy and Plains All American Pipeline to be politically powerless, so when these multibillion-dollar petro-powers decided to ram a dirty and dangerous pipeline through the Memphis area, Boxtown was their chosen route. The rich Texas oil barons even sneeringly called the lower-income community the “point of least resistance.”
Boy did they get that wrong! Those “small” people of Boxtown resisted fiercely and smartly. Most flat-out refused to sell their family land at the thieving prices offered by the oil slicks. They forged a unified grassroots coalition called Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (now Memphis Community Against Pollution), reached out to other neighborhoods, and educated locals about the terrible safety records of the two corporate plunderers.
It’s a long story, with many ups and downs, but the inspiring essence is that local “nobodies” defeated the big money and raw racist arrogance of a powerhouse duo of absentee corporate elites that disrespected—and misjudged—them. We’re not helpless or too small; remember this: Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building!
It gets little national media attention, but regular grassroots coalitions are mounting—and winning—gutsy fights against corporate and political exploiters all across America. Start with this: tuition-free higher education for all residents. While President Joe Biden gave up on his pledge to provide access to free community college for all Americans, New Mexico has done that, and more, by enacting and funding a bipartisan program to cover tuition and fees at all public colleges, universities, community colleges, and tribal colleges. Yes, bipartisan. The state seems to be blessed with a gutsy governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, and some Republican legislators who have been persuaded that education, not extremist ideology, is the real path for people’s progress.
It gets little national media attention, but regular grassroots coalitions are mounting—and winning—gutsy fights against corporate and political exploiters all across America.
And how about this: New Mexico, which is ranked as one of the poorest states in the country, has prioritized free child care as an essential need and a common good for families, the economy, and the state’s future. The product of a decade-long grassroots push by groups like New Mexico Voices for Children, the program aims to provide decent pay, too—starting at $18 an hour—to attract quality caregivers and instructors. The “Land of Enchantment” has become the “Land of Can Do.”
Political reform doesn’t come by saying “pretty please” to the power structure, but rather by steadily organizing to gain enough force for you to jettison the powers that be. You could ask Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, about it. He’s a one-man political steamroller in Washington, D.C.—except when he’s not, which is most of the time. The multimillionaire coal executive is the darling of fossil fuel lobbyists, as well as Republican opponents of progressive Democratic policies. He’s funded by Republican billionaires.
But lobbyists and billionaires are not the only source of political power that allows him to hold office and block little “d” democratic policies that the American majority wants and needs. Back home, Joe has maintained a tight, authoritarian grip on West Virginia’s Democratic Party structure, rigging the rules to put Little Joes in every party position. In turn, this has given Boss Manchin control over who gets to run as a Democrat for down-ballot elected offices in the Mountain State.
Until June 18, that is. That’s when a statewide democratic rebellion that had been organizing for six years elected a slate of more than fifty candidates to oust the Manchinites on the West Virginia Democratic Party’s executive committee, replacing all but one of the top party officers with grassroots activists. It truly was a diverse, people-run victory.
Selina Vickers, a social worker, was the chief strategist, and Mike Pushkin, a cab driver, is now the party chair. Danielle Walker, the committee’s vice chair and the first person of color in the state’s history to sit on the party’s governing body, summed up the significance of this turnaround, telling The Intercept: “There’s a new beacon of light shining down on the government with people energized and ready to strategize with a return to the democratic process.”