Welcome to Truth and Reckoning, a podcast and newsletter from the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF). We are organizers, lawyers, and revolutionaries who educate and agitate to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s relationship with the Earth.

For more than 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate power, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-governance grounded in ecological balance. Subscribe to learn about rights of nature, environmental movement strategy, and stay updated on our work.

In this episode of the Truth and Reckoning podcast, we speak with Billy Randel, John Taylor, and Ray “Hollywood” Randall of Truckers Movement for Justice.

CELDF has been involved in the fight against fracking (hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of oil and gas) for many years. We often hear about environmental impacts of fracking, and the harms to local communities. But in this conversation, we connect with another impacted group: truckers who haul materials and toxic waste for the fracking industry, who are exposed to serious pollutants as a result, and who suffer the same abuses as all workers face: theft of wages, declining working conditions, and pressure to maximize profits at the cost of well-being.

Truckers Movement for Justice emerged in part because of these health impacts on workers, and because in addition to exploiting nature, empire also exploits labor. There is a connection between the destruction of the planet and harm to workers.

What we do to nature, we do to ourselves.

These truckers find themselves in a difficult situation, because unlike unions organizing in a physical workplace, they are always on the move. Their strategies for finding unity and solidarity and organizing across thousands of miles of road are well worth learning from.

We at CELDF also found this conversation interesting because of TMJ’s focus on succession: how they make sure that there’s leadership in the next generation beyond those that are currently in those leadership positions that are now older. We explore the grassroots efforts of Truckers Movement for Justice (TMJ) as they organize independent truck drivers to challenge industry exploitation, environmental hazards, and systemic corruption.

* The origins and evolution of Truckers Movement for Justice

* Challenges faced by independent truck drivers in organizing and advocacy

* The impact of industry practices on worker rights, wages, and health

* Environmental and health hazards in the oil, fracking, and trucking industries

* Strategies for building solidarity among isolated workers

* Historical parallels with union decline and corporate control

* Practical steps for community and worker organizing efforts

* The importance of collective action to challenge systemic oppression

Links and Resources

* Truckers Movement for Justice Facebook

* Instagram @truckers_movement_for_justice

* North American Truckers’ Movements Announce International Alliance

* Book: Petroleum 238

* Truckers Petition Feds to Enforce HAZMAT Rules on Oil and Gas Waste

This episode can also be watched on YouTube.

About the Truth and Reckoning Podcast

In this show, we learn from front-line organizers and communities fighting against environmental destruction. We explore different perspectives and innovative strategies for movement building, the potency and potential of rights of nature, and effective action in defense of our communities. And, we share inspiring stories of people working towards right relationship with the land and each other. The show is hosted by CELDF Community Resistance and Resilience Program Co-Director Max Wilbert.

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About CELDF — Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund

CELDF is a nationwide community of organizers, lawyers, and partners who educate, agitate, and organize to confront systemic injustice and restore humanity’s reciprocal relationship with the Earth. For over 30 years, we’ve helped communities resist corporate exploitation, reject regulatory false promises, and assert their right to self-govern through systems grounded in ecological balance and collective power.

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