From New Mexico to D.C. and Beyond: We're Fighting Back and Building Power

Whether it's in Santa Fe or Washington, we're watching the same pattern play out in real time: polluters writing the rules, their allies in positions of power siding with industry over the people, and our communities being shut out of the decisions that shape our futures.

From the EPA's attempt to repeal the bedrock 2009 Endangerment Finding to the oil and gas industry's ongoing push to block real accountability here in New Mexico, it's clear that we're living in a system built to serve polluters, not the people. And it's choosing profit every time, no matter the cost to our health, our futures, and our planet.

But from New Mexico to California and D.C., our young people and communities are fighting back – organizing across movements, across geographies, and across every line that's been drawn to divide us, all while holding tight to the values that have guided us from the beginning.

We're carrying those values into every fight we're taking on today: from standing in solidarity with our community leaders against corporate complicity in detention and deportation, to building with allies across the country, and preparing to take our vision and resistance to New York City Climate Week.

Our futures are on the line — and we need your support to make sure our voices are impossible to ignore. Read on to learn how you can take action.

NEW EPISODES OF YAPPING WITH YUCCA: HOW IT STARTED AND WHERE WE'RE HEADED

In our two latest episodes of Yapping with YUCCA, we're going back to our roots – with staff and Steering Committee members reflecting on how YUCCA came to be, the values that guide us, and the day-to-day organizing it takes to keep this work alive.

In The Foundations of Youth United for Climate Crisis Action and Threading the Needle, we dive into why YUCCA was founded by and for young people, how we're fighting for a just transition in one of the most extractive states in the country, and what it means to build a powerful, youth-led movement grounded in community, care, and the wisdom of both our generation and the leaders who came before us.

But our values don't just live in our origin story – they're showing up in how we're organizing right now. This past month, we've been traveling across the country to build with movement leaders, taking action alongside our communities to challenge the systems that harm us, and showing up across movements to fight for the people-powered future we know is possible.

Tune in on Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Podcasts to hear from the folks behind the work – then read on to see how we're carrying it forward today.

FROM NEW MEXICO TO CALIFORNIA AND D.C.: SHARING STRATEGIES, BUILDING POWER

Last week, YUCCA Campaign Organizer Zephyr Jaramillo and Policy Campaign Manager Ennedith López had the chance to travel to Carson, California to participate in Training of Trainers workshops hosted by the Just Transition Alliance – a powerful convening designed to support workers, organizers, and community members in building grassroots power and intersectional coalitions for a true just transition and people’s economy. 

The workshops brought together frontline organizers and workers from across the country to dive deep into the realities of climate capitalism and explore what it really takes to build a just transition from the ground up. Over the course of two days, Zephyr and Ennedith participated in comprehensive training sessions centering environmental justice, the dangers of false solutions, the shared struggles of workers and frontline communities, and strategies for developing just transition campaigns grounded in their leadership. 

Our struggles don’t exist in silos, and neither should our organizing.  These trainings underscored the deep connections between toxic production and environmental injustice – and why it’s critical for workers, organizers, and frontline communities to organize together, not apart. We’re up against the same extractive systems, and building real power means building together – across movements, across communities, and across every manufactured division designed to keep us isolated and protect the status quo.

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Earlier this month, Ennedith and YUCCA Steering Committee Member Feleecia Guillen also brought YUCCA's work to Washington, D.C. at the Institute for Policy Studies' 2nd Annual Henry A. Wallace Symposium–joining members of Congress, grassroots organizers, and movement leaders from organizations across the country to strategize across generations and movements about the shared struggles we're facing and the bold action we need.

During the symposium, Ennedith and Feleecia led a breakout session on activating youth for climate justice as they dove into our work to build power with young people across New Mexico, broke down the colonial systems driving the climate crisis, and uplifted the generations of resistance our people have led in the fight for a livable and just future.

From the frontlines to California and D.C., our team has been building with workers, movement allies, and community leaders who share our vision for a just and livable future grounded in solidarity, care, and community power. Now, we're bringing everything we've learned back home – integrating these tools, strategies and lessons into our day-to-day work on the ground as we continue organizing to hold polluters and lawmakers accountable for pollution while fighting for a just transition that centers our voices, our needs, and our futures.

CALLING OUT ICE AND CORPORATE COMPLICITY: WE TOOK TO THE STREETS TO DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY

Photo Credit: Leila & Paloma Chapa, The Daily Lobo

Last month, we also teamed up with our friends at Workers Over Billionaires, SouthWest Solidarity Network, Veterans For Peace Albuquerque, Albuquerque Mutual Aid, Millions for Prisoners New Mexico, and Save the Kids from Incarceration to demand accountability from Walmart after ICE agents abducted Deivi Jose Molina-Pena, a Spark delivery driver, from inside the Walmart on Coors and I-40 in Albuquerque on July 7th.

Over 300 people took to the streets with us – calling on Walmart to stop collaborating with ICE, adopt real policies that protect workers, and end their complicity in the criminalization of our communities.

Photo Credit: Leila & Paloma Chapa, The Daily Lobo

During the action, grassroots organizers delivered a set of urgent demands to store management, including:

🔒 Designate employee-only areas where workers have a constitutional right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment.

⛔ Deny ICE permission to enter private areas, unless they have a signed judicial warrant.

🗣️ Train workers not to interact with ICE agents.

🛑 Decline to provide information on who is working, or identify specific individuals.

🚫 Object to agents searching any area without a signed judicial warrant.

📷 Record what ICE does at the workplace.

✊ Train workers to exercise their right to stay silent and ask for an attorney.

We showed up because climate justice and migrant justice are not separate struggles — they're deeply intertwined.

The same systems of violence that force our communities to migrate — including U.S.-backed extraction, militarism, colonialism, and exploitation — are the ones disappearing them into a system of criminalization, detention, and deportation once they arrive.

And the same corporations gaining astronomical profits off the backs of working families are the ones polluting our lands, allowing their own workers to be criminalized and torn from their families, and dodging accountability at every turn. We'll keep showing up to link arms with our communities – because this fight is bigger than just one store. It's about building a world where every young person, worker, and family can go to work, get groceries, spend time with their loved ones, and simply exist without fear of raids, separation, or criminalization.

SEPTEMBER 6TH: HELP SEND THE NM NO FALSE SOLUTIONS COALITION TO NYC CLIMATE WEEK!

This September, we have the chance to bring our community's resistance and vision to one of the biggest climate gatherings of the year.

The New Mexico No False Solutions Coalition is fighting back against corporate greenwashing, false promises, and industry-driven policies that put profit over people. We're organizing for real, community-driven solutions that address the root causes of the climate crisis – and we're ready to bring that vision to New York City Climate Week this September.

But this fight has always been powered by our community, and we can't get there without you.

On Saturday, September 6th, join YUCCA and our fellow coalition members for an evening of music, food, and climate justice at Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque as we raise funds to take our fight for a just and livable future to New York City Climate Week.

This isn't your average fundraiser. With a $10-15 suggested donation (no one will be turned away), you can support organizers from across New Mexico fighting for real climate solutions while you enjoy:

🌶️ A frito pie and fry bread sale

🎵 Cumbias by DJ La Ruda and DJ RootzRocka

🥳 Piñatas, raffles, games, and a photobooth

📣 Community, connection, and info on how you can join the fight against false climate solutions

Don't forget to mark your calendars – we can't wait to see you there!