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Вміст надано Jim Hightower. Весь вміст подкастів, включаючи епізоди, графіку та описи подкастів, завантажується та надається безпосередньо компанією Jim Hightower або його партнером по платформі подкастів. Якщо ви вважаєте, що хтось використовує ваш захищений авторським правом твір без вашого дозволу, ви можете виконати процедуру, описану тут https://uk.player.fm/legal.
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Yes, You Can Fight the Bastards… and Win!

 
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Manage episode 462795614 series 56780
Вміст надано Jim Hightower. Весь вміст подкастів, включаючи епізоди, графіку та описи подкастів, завантажується та надається безпосередньо компанією Jim Hightower або його партнером по платформі подкастів. Якщо ви вважаєте, що хтось використовує ваш захищений авторським правом твір без вашого дозволу, ви можете виконати процедуру, описану тут https://uk.player.fm/legal.
Diane Wilson outside her home in Seadrift in December 2024. Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

It’s been my honor to know a few real heroes – people who’ve selflessly dared to fight greed and oppression to advance the common good. Diane Wilson, for example.

For forty years, this fiery, fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast has battled tenaciously for the rights and very survival of the area’s hardscrabble fishing families. She and her grassroots allies have taken on Formosa Plastics, a $250 billion, global corporate beast that has routinely dumped its chemical waste around Matagorda Bay, poisoning life and livelihoods.

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But in 2019, in a lawsuit based on massive evidence collected by Wilson and her armada of volunteer kayakers, she won a stunning court victory, forcing the contaminator to pay $50 million for its malfeasance.

Wilson’s fight was not just for her, and she did not get a penny from the Formosa settlement. But she won something richer than money – “It felt like justice,” she said of the court’s judgement.

Importantly, the court didn’t award the $50 million to some regulatory agency, but to a public trust administered by – guess who? – Wilson’s allies! So she has been working tenaciously ever since to make sure the money directly benefits the poor families Formosa ran over. Especially promising is the trust’s major grant to create the people’s own Matagorda Bay Fishing Cooperative. It will provide dock space, supply contracts, processing ability, local jobs… and the power for local people to forge their own future.

Why fight against overpowering odds for 40 years? Because of her strong principles… and sheer stubbornness. “It’s my home,” Wilson says of the bay and its working-class community, “and I completely refuse to give it to that company to ruin.”


Learn more about Diane and support her work:

Leave a comment

Share

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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683 епізодів

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Yes, You Can Fight the Bastards… and Win!

Jim Hightower's Lowdown

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Manage episode 462795614 series 56780
Вміст надано Jim Hightower. Весь вміст подкастів, включаючи епізоди, графіку та описи подкастів, завантажується та надається безпосередньо компанією Jim Hightower або його партнером по платформі подкастів. Якщо ви вважаєте, що хтось використовує ваш захищений авторським правом твір без вашого дозволу, ви можете виконати процедуру, описану тут https://uk.player.fm/legal.
Diane Wilson outside her home in Seadrift in December 2024. Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

It’s been my honor to know a few real heroes – people who’ve selflessly dared to fight greed and oppression to advance the common good. Diane Wilson, for example.

For forty years, this fiery, fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast has battled tenaciously for the rights and very survival of the area’s hardscrabble fishing families. She and her grassroots allies have taken on Formosa Plastics, a $250 billion, global corporate beast that has routinely dumped its chemical waste around Matagorda Bay, poisoning life and livelihoods.

Upgrade your subscription

But in 2019, in a lawsuit based on massive evidence collected by Wilson and her armada of volunteer kayakers, she won a stunning court victory, forcing the contaminator to pay $50 million for its malfeasance.

Wilson’s fight was not just for her, and she did not get a penny from the Formosa settlement. But she won something richer than money – “It felt like justice,” she said of the court’s judgement.

Importantly, the court didn’t award the $50 million to some regulatory agency, but to a public trust administered by – guess who? – Wilson’s allies! So she has been working tenaciously ever since to make sure the money directly benefits the poor families Formosa ran over. Especially promising is the trust’s major grant to create the people’s own Matagorda Bay Fishing Cooperative. It will provide dock space, supply contracts, processing ability, local jobs… and the power for local people to forge their own future.

Why fight against overpowering odds for 40 years? Because of her strong principles… and sheer stubbornness. “It’s my home,” Wilson says of the bay and its working-class community, “and I completely refuse to give it to that company to ruin.”


Learn more about Diane and support her work:

Leave a comment

Share

Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

  continue reading

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