We Confronted CERA Week in Houston: Read Our Report-Back And Learn What We're Building Next
- zoeyyucraft
- Apr 1
- 5 min read
YUCCA has spent the past week learning, organizing, and taking to the streets alongside our allies from the Gulf South and beyond in Houston, Texas, where 10,000+ polluters, industry insiders, financiers, and their allies have spent the past few days gathering to plan the next phase of extraction at CERA Week.
Now, we're returning home ready to carry everything we learned and built together back into our work on the ground in New Mexico – work that will begin in April as the YUCCA team takes intentional time to strategize alongside our community and prepare for the fights that still lie ahead.
Read on to learn more about how we showed up at CERA Week and what comes next – and join us in this important work in April by plugging into our virtual We Got Us Network Meetings on Mondays at 5:30 pm, where we'll share what we've learned, ground ourselves in the work ahead, and strategize to meet this moment together.
BREAK THE SYSTEM, BUILD THE FUTURE: YUCCA JOINS ALLIES FROM THE GULF SOUTH AND BEYOND TO CONFRONT CERA WEEK
From March 23-27th, thousands of polluters, industry executives, and their allies in positions of power gathered at CERA Week in Houston to discuss what they call "the future of energy". But we know what that really means.
It means deciding whose children will be poisoned by the next refinery, whose lands will be carved up by the next pipeline, whose communities will be forced to breathe toxic emissions from the next petrochemical plant, and whose lives are treated as disposable in the name of industry profits.
That's why the YUCCA team traveled to Houston to stand in solidarity with our movement allies from the Gulf South and across the country as we came together to confront the fossil fuel billionaires profiting off of climate collapse and prove that another future is possible – one that exists outside of the systems of extraction that have harmed our communities for generations.
We kicked off our time in Houston with a powerful day of creative resistance as we joined our allies for an all-day art build where we created banners, hand signs, and screen prints to bring into the streets with us during the Confronting CERA Week March and Rally.
During the art build, the YUCCA team was honored to help facilitate the screen printing station as we learned new skills, created art and community together, and spent the day working alongside organizers who came together in Houston from every corner of the country – from the Gulf South to Washington D.C. – to fight for a future beyond fossil fuels.
We carried that energy into the following day, where YUCCA Fellow Zain Dixon facilitated the "Fighting for Rights of Nature" panel during a day of connection and community-building at Mason Park.
During the panel, YUCCA Campaign Organizer Jonathan Juárez joined Indigenous leaders organizing for the future we know is possible as he spoke to the importance of our relationship to the land – and to outline clearly why Indigenous communities on the frontlines of the fight for climate justice are calling on our movement to push beyond incremental change within extractive systems.
While the corporations driving the climate crisis convened in Houston to shape greenwashed narratives and plan how they'll continue to plunder the Earth for profit, Jonathan reminded us of a truth that Indigenous-led movements have always held: land, water, and air are not resources to be commodified or controlled, and we're not asking for reform within the same systems that have harmed us for generations.
Instead, we have a responsibility to fight for Land Back, an end to extraction, and a world where our lives, communities, and ecosystem are protected – not exploited for corporate profits.
Later in the week, we spent the day learning from the communities and organizations leading the fight against extraction in the Gulf South and beyond through a day of tours, interactive workshops, and trainings designed to help organizers prepare to take further action long after the close of CERA Week.
From witnessing the harm that frontline communities in Houston have been forced to carry as a result of the decisions made in spaces like CERA Week during a Solidarity Tour led by our allies at Fenceline Watch, to workshops focused on boycotting Chevron and opposing the role Citi Bank plays in financing fossil fuel imperialism, we spent the day deepening our analysis of what we're up against and what it will take to fight back.
On our final day in Houston, we brought the art, connections, strategy, and solidarity we'd spent the past 3 days building into the streets for the Confronting CERA Week Rally and March, where organizers from across regions and struggles held a powerful rally at City Hall before marching to the CERA Week conference to confront the fossil fuel executives inside.
During the rally, YUCCA Campaign Organizer joined Christa Mancias-Zapata (Carrizo Comecrudo) and Waniya Locke (Standing Rock Sioux) to speak to attendees as the crowd prepared to take to the streets, grounding our community in the truth that we are on stolen land – and that naming it alone changes nothing.
Because land acknowledgements without action are meaningless. Speeches that name the harm without material change are nothing more than empty words. And the future we are building won't come from symbolic statements of support. It will come when we are willing to put our bodies, our resources, and our comfort on the line to stand alongside the communities who have stewarded these lands for generations – and join them in the fight for what they've been demanding all along.
PREPARING FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF THE FIGHT: STRATEGIZING AND BUILDING POWER TOGETHER IN APRIL
Now, we're ready to carry everything we learned and built together in Houston back into our work on the ground in New Mexico – starting in April, when the YUCCA team will take intentional time to strategize and prepare for the next phase of the fights that lie ahead – from stopping private equity takeovers like Blackstone's buyout of PNM, to sounding the alarm about AI data center buildouts and Project Jupiter's mega-emissions, to fighting back against the use of produced water off the oilfield, and continuing to organize alongside our communities for the future that we know is possible.
Right now, we're facing the escalating impacts of the climate crisis alongside rising fascism, unchecked corporate greed, continued violence against our communities at the hands of ICE, and the continued harm of U.S. imperialism and militarism abroad.
None of this is accidental. It's a result of the systems of harm that were never built to serve us. And if that's what we're up against, we have to organize accordingly – with the clarity, strategy, and intention that this moment requires.
That's why during April, we'll be pressing pause on our weekly e-blasts and daily social media posts as we gear up to deepen our work in the months and years that lie ahead and spend this next month working behind the scenes to lay the groundwork for what comes next, alongside our community.
We hope you'll register to join us for our Virtual We Got Us Network Meetings at 5:30 pm on Mondays in April to be a part of that work.
We'll see you on Zoom, and we'll be back in your inbox in May, ready to keep building power together.
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