Building a Just Future

Vision for the Future

• A world with equal access to resources: Clean water, nutritious food, housing, education, basic income, and a caring community.
• Meaningful work for everyone: Elimination of inequality in access to opportunities.

Challenges to Progress

• Sacrifice Zones: Areas treated as expendable, e.g., Cancer Alley in Louisiana and Port Arthur, Texas.
  • Black, brown, and poor communities face pollution, over-policing, and mass incarceration.
• Big Lies that Hinder Progress:
  • Extracting people from their communities improves safety.
  • Tradeoffs are necessary for progression, e.g., pollution in exchange for jobs.
  • Massive spending on extractive industries like oil and prisons is essential.
  • Resources are insufficient to meet all community needs.

Hidden Truths

• Abundance of Resources: Both nature and human collaboration are abundant.
• Misuse by the Powerful: Leads to mass incarceration, climate crisis, violence.

Community Experiences

• Fence Line Communities: Plagued by refineries and segregation.
  • Examples: Appalachia's joblessness, Texas prisons during storms, California prisons during fires.
• Need for Transformation: Shared struggles and linked futures necessitate systemic change.

Collective Actions & Achievements

• Divestment from Zero-Sum Narratives: Communities must unite against oppressive systems.
• Successful Movements:
  • Immigrants and formerly incarcerated defeating jail expansions in California.
  • Indigenous and military demanding the closure of Red Hill fuel facility in Hawaii.

Empowerment and Liberation

• Collective Power: Building a community free from oppression.
• Vision for a Just World: Interconnected liberation and thriving communities.

Call to Action

• Join the Movement: Engage in actions that move towards a just and equitable world.
• Empower Each Other: Water the roses and liberate one another towards a common vision.