Snapshot: Alliances for Just Transitions in Calhoun County, TX

Formosa Plastics is a vertically-integrated, Taiwanese multinational corporation with a long record of malfeasance. Political commentators have compared its behavior as “mafia-like”. Transnational alliances are necessary to push against the corporation. 

In recent years, activists in Formosa plant communities in Taiwan, Vietnam and the United States have extended the ways they work together for corporate accountability. Nearly 8,000 fisher people affected by a toxic-release disaster caused by a Formosa-owned steel mill in Vietnam have taken legal action in Taiwan. The legal action is supported by a vast network of diasporic Vietnamese who work closely with lawyers and activists in Taiwan, academics, and activists in the United States, and a prominent human rights lawyer in Montreal

Environmental advocates like Diane Wilson collaborate with Formosa activists in Taiwan, Louisiana, and in response to Formosa’s 2016 marine disaster in Vietnam to show solidarity. This pushes against fragmentation of environmental governance. 

Referring to plastics as “the new coal”, cross-generational alliances of environmental activists are now working together on issues that were dealt with quite separately just a few years ago (ocean garbage and production of basic petrochemicals, for example).  Plastic activists are working with a wide array of data types (leaked company records and community air monitoring outputs, for example), knowledge infrastructures (government datasets and community archives, for example), and organizations (museums and schools, for example). Together, they are developing new ways of understanding, visualizing, and collectively representing next-generation environmental problems. 

The anti-plastics movement has given Wilson both a new language and new connections – beyond those she built over the years working against the “the petrochemical industry.” In Seadrift, it helps draw out connections between Formosa Corp and Union Carbide, which produces ethylene oxide, a carcinogen and plastics building block. It also connects Seadrift globally, alongside other Formosa communities, in the path of the massive surge in plastics production expected in coming years, fueled by shale gas.

Despite many alliances and new ways of seeing the problem, a persistent challenge is simultaneously navigating the diverse array of hazards and problems. Sometimes, environmental activism opposing steel production can clash with activism targeting plastics and fossil fuels, as laws and strategies vary, such as advocating for a plastic ban or targeting investors in Formosa’s expansion projects. Organizer Nancy Bui humorously noted that the two campaigns against Formosa share only one commonality – their impact on the environment.

 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

• Why are transnational alliances important for addressing environmental justice today? 

• How have activists working in different countries come together to hold Formosa Corp accountable?

• Why do we need to talk about plastics differently today? 

• What kinds of data are anti-plastic activists generating and why? How do you think these types of data can be used effectively for environmental governance and advocacy?