At least 200 people and representatives from more than 60 social and environment justice groups gathered Saturday to demand an end to environmental racism they see plaguing both San Francisco and communities across the globe. In an event that combined cultural celebration, political education and sign-toting, slogan-chanting protest, activists called for our city to shut down a local power plant and for mayors across the country to begin seriously addressing environmental racism in their home towns. The rally’s tremendous racial and cultural diversity revealed a heartening glimpse of what could be the future of the environmental movement in the Bay Area – one in which social, environmental and racial justice advocates can recognize their commonalities and unite to achieve their goals.
The rally took place at Civic Center Plaza, across from City Hall where a variety of national dignitaries were convened for World Environment Day. Many protestors took note of the fact that as political leaders discusses climate change and signed environmental pacts that would affect millions of people, a group representing the nation’s disenfranchised stood right outside, left out of the discussion of their future.
“While they’re discussing urban planning in there, we’re laying the real groundwork for a movement out here,” said Marie Harrison of Greenaction, the environmental and social justice advocacy group that organized the event.
Harrison also noted the rally’s particularly strong showing of folks from Bayview-Hunters Point, where many locals charge a PG&E plant is causing asthma and other diseases to residents. Tessie Ester, a mother who lives right next to the power plant, attending the protest with several of her children and grandchildren.
“All my children here have asthma,” said Ester. “The get constant nosebleeds, and my granddaughter is on two inhalers.”
The rally’s organizers used the situation in Bayview-Hunters point as local example of a world-wide problem, in which low-income communities and communities of color must often bear a disproportionate burden of modern-day society’s polluting ways. The trend can be seen in uninsured farm workers picking pesticide-laden grapes for a living, low-income housing being built next to carbon-monoxide rich freeways and on toxic soil, and cancer rates being far higher among people of color due in large part to the environmental pollutants they must live with.
Following a spirited set of chants, marching, and a cultural performance from a local youth club, a long list of speakers voiced their hopes for a future in which true environmental justice exists, one in which all communities can enjoy clean air and food.
A broad away of organizations sponsored the event, ranging from ANSWER to Amazon Watch, the Green Party to the Chester Street Book Club, and PODER to the Gray Panthers. Local groups including the Chinese Progressive Association, SFPeople, and the Coalition for Transit Justice also co-sponsored the event.
