The Role of Environmental NGOs: Russian Challenges, American Lessons Proceedings of a Workshop (2001) / Chapter Skim
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6 Organizing in Directly Impacted Communities: The SOCM Story
6 Organizing in Directly Impacted Communities: The SOCM Story
Pages 27-32
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From page 27... ...
In 1971 in five rural mountain counties of Tennessee where at that time 90 percent of the coal in the state was mined, conditions were very difficult for the retired underground miners, subsistence farmers, and other low-income and working class people who lived there. · Ten large land companies, most of them from out of state and one from London, England, owned 80 percent of the mineral land and paid no taxes on their mineral holdings.
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From page 28... ...
Members learned how to research issues and how to think through a comprehensive strategy. They developed stronger skills in running their own meetings, talking with the media, recruiting new members, and conducting grassroots fund raising.
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From page 29... ...
· To show that reclamation seldom works when mining in very toxic coal seams (in Tennessee the most toxic is the Sewanee coal seam) , SOCM interns field tested water quality coming off areas that enforcement agencies called
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From page 30... ...
That research was used as SOCM pressed for and won precedent-setting rulings about the need for special kinds of toxic material handling plans when mining the Sewanee seam. · To show that the state regulatory agency was not enforcing the state strip mine law, SOCM researched hundreds of files of enforcement actions in state agency offices and prepared an "Enforcement Study," a documented expose of poor enforcement.
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From page 31... ...
Lawsuits as a Strategy of Last Resort When other strategies fail, SOCM has used lawsuits as a strategy. Here are two instances: · SOCM forced the state of Tennessee to implement its own water quality law and to set up a division of surface mining · Along with another organization, SOCM forced the federal government to collect fines and set up a system to track down violators of the federal surface .
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From page 32... ...
Just as important, however, was seeing Landon Medley, a factory worker from Doyle, Tennessee, and chair of SOCM's strip mine issue committee, speak eloquently about the power of citizen efforts in bringing about the victory. There are many community organizations like SOCM in the United States in virtually every state and working with virtually every ethnic group and race in the country.
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