“We Refuse to Die” Is Another Way of Saying “We Intend to Fight” -- Environmental Activism in NE Ohio and SW Pennsylvania

Still from We Refuse to Die video

It’s a chilling statement: “We Refuse to Die.” And it makes an even deeper impression when it’s associated with 6-8 foot wooden sculptures called Externality monuments, which have been carved from a tree killed in a climate-change-fueled Pacific Northwest wildfire. The Externality monument installed in Clairton, Pennsylvania, on November 11 has a haunting face and a resolute expression. (See photos by Mark Dixon.) Melanie Meade, who is a fellow for the Black Appalachian Coalition, now hosts the carving on her land where it can bear witness to the toxic emissions pouring from U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, which is considered to be the worst air polluter in Allegheny County. The Externality monument in Clairton was the first such sculpture to be installed, though there will soon be more of them in the yards of residents in other cities. "We Refuse to Die" is an ongoing campaign to connect communities in Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley to the Gulf South, calling attention to the fossil fuel and petrochemical companies that are polluting the air, land, and water. 

Last year I read about a power outage at the Clairton Coke Works that "required" the plant to flare coke oven gases from its stacks. At the time Matthew Mehalik, Executive Director of the Breathe Project, described the scene as so unpleasant it could stand in for "Sunrise Over Mordor" in a Hollywood film. A Clairton resident said the smell gave her a migraine, but she added, “You have to put up with it or move. There’s nothing you can do. We can’t shut the mill down. We shut the mill down, we’re gonna be a ghost town. We’re already half ghost town." But Melanie Meade, who has since 2011 lost many members of her family to heart conditions and cancer, has a different perspective. She says, "When I first saw the ‘We Refuse to Die’ carvings, I was elated... because this is exactly what the people need. They are unhealed and hurt, and they aren’t even aware that there’s a possibility for hope."  And she adds, “If I’m going to die, it best be for something. So I’m not going down without a fight. We Refuse to Die means you're taking action. You're not going down. We refuse to die when we stand up and say something, when we identify with our pain and speak to what we need to heal.”

The “We Refuse to Die” campaign shows how art and activism can reinforce each other and is currently a part of an exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art called "Unsettling Matter, Gaining Ground.” In a pamphlet produced for the exhibit, community activism is referenced on almost every page, and this is certainly true in the discussion between conservation ecologist Nicole Heller and two cofounders of the art collective Not An Alternative, which created the “We Refuse to Die” campaign. They discuss, among other things, the fact that residents often feel that they have to choose between a clean environment and a functioning economy, and they discuss how “art practices” can heal some of the divides in the region. Heller asks, "What kind of resources do we have, specifically to help the community here in Western Pennsylvania talk about climate change and talk about an alternative future? Particularly in Western Pennsylvania because of the long history of being part of the fossil fuel economy. People feel really uncomfortable talking about getting off fossil fuels because it feels like a threat to their own family, their own community, to their neighbor."

Beka Economopoulos, cofounder of Not An Alternative, says, "What we need to be doing is redefining and renegotiating our political alliances so that it is not in terms of left and right, but rather us and them, as in the few who are exploiting the many. Within that frame, I think the proud history of the steel workers and the farmers and the multigenerational communities in Southwest Pennsylvania is something that can be not just recuperated but celebrated, because it casts these communities in the role of hero. Their ancestors participated, perhaps, in one wave of extraction, but even more recently, fought for workers’ rights and brought unions, four-day work weeks, safer working conditions, and OSHA regulations to protect our families and communities’ health. That is what we have to build upon and fortify...”

The “We Refuse to Die” project also offers Toxic Tours, which depart from the Carnegie Museum and take visitors to places like fracking drill pads and petrochemical plants. These tours are led by people in the affected communities and health professionals, and they draw attention to “sacrifice zones,” where people are directly in harm’s way. I'm sorry I missed a chance to go on one of these tours, but during our time in Youngstown last summer, I decided that I wanted to go on a toxic tour of my own. So after we’d been there for a week, Greg drove my friend Kathy and me to some of the places where the environment is being disrupted by fossil fuels and toxic chemicals. We drove past the Shell cracker plant and saw its gleaming metallic pipework--though we didn’t see the nerve-wracking sight of the flaring that goes on there regularly as waste gases burn bright against the sky. We also stopped in East Palestine (I described that visit in my previous post), where we were reminded of the silent and invisible menace that has been haunting that community since the train carrying vinyl chloride derailed on February 3.  And I haven’t forgotten about it since I’ve been back in Arizona.

The Shell cracker plant in Beaver County, PA;
photo by Kathy Wozniak

On November 14, I attended a virtual screening of "Small Town Explosion," hosted by Beyond Plastics and other groups. This short film about the train derailment that took place in East Palestine and the activism it has inspired shows people from the East Palestine Unity Council and other groups fighting the lack of appropriate response from Norfolk Southern and government agencies. Jami Wallace of Unity Council and Daniel Winston of River Valley Organizing are shown speaking eloquently about the "controlled burn" of vinyl chloride and the health problems they have suffered since then, but even more significantly, the film shows them at the Ohio State Capitol disrupting a legislative session as protestors carry signs that say "State of Emergency Now," "Clean Water Now," and "DeWine Declare Disaster." The people chant and hold up their signs, then are evicted from the legislative chamber. They also march to meet with the governor, but he will not see them. Judith Enck of Beyond Plastics says, "I'm really impressed with the activists in East Palestine and also Pennsylvania. They're doing exactly what they need to do, and they need to be really persistent. It shouldn't have to be that way, but that's how things work in the United States of America today on environmental issues." 

It's appropriate that, because these activists continue to stand up for themselves in a way that is commemorated by the sculptures that are part of “We Refuse to Die," an Externality monument is also planned for East Palestine. It will face the tracks on which the Norfolk Southern train passed through town and derailed, causing misery for the town’s residents.

Still from the film Small Town Explosion

Like Judith Enck, I'm impressed with the growth of awareness and engagement in East Palestine, but other places in Northeastern Ohio are experiencing an upsurge of citizen activism, too. Earlier, I described the toxic tour we took during our visit to Youngstown last summer. We ended the tour at the Youngstown Thermal plant, which isn't yet a source of toxic emissions, but threatens to be. It used to be a coal-fired steam heat generating operation that provided heating and cooling for buildings in the nearby downtown. The owner of SOBE Energy Solutions has bought the property and wants to upgrade it in order to turn scrap tires and plastic waste into synthetic gas and to reclaim valuable materials like carbon black, using a process known as pyrolysis. SOBE would then use the synthetic gas to create steam heat for downtown buildings, just as Youngstown Thermal once did. But according to SOBE Concerned Citizens, a group formed to educate people on the dangers of SOBE and to fight against it, pyrolysis can release many toxins into the air, including dioxins, mercury, lead, and benzene. And because the plant is located near student housing, a jail, and other densely populated places, this kind of air pollution would be disastrous.

The Youngstown Thermal plant in July of 2023;
 photo by Greg Evans

SOBE Concerned Citizens has worked hard to inform Youngstown residents, both online and through the use of billboards, about the dangers of pyrolysis. They have appealed to the Youngstown City Council to oppose the SOBE plant and have encouraged residents to send comments to the Ohio EPA. And in a positive move, the City Council has passed a resolution, which though it is nonbinding, opposes the SOBE plant. In addition, the U.S. EPA Region 5 has sent a letter to the Ohio EPA noting that the draft permitting of the SOBE Energy plant raises "potential environmental justice concerns." This is because issuing the permit could violate the civil rights of low income people and people of color who are already living in an area that is heavily polluted. SOBE Concerned Citizens has worked hard, and the City Council and EPA Region 5 have strengthened their position, but it's too soon to tell whether or not the SOBE plant will be allowed to operate. Whatever happens, activists have made their chants of "SOBE, no way!" a memorable part of the ongoing struggle. I sincerely hope that they succeed and that the SOBE plant won't be another stop on a toxic tour in the near future.

Sign opposing SOBE plant at the Dorothy Day House
in Youngstown in July of 2023; photo by Kathy Wozniak

[More about SOBE:  In February Carolyn Harding talked with activists Sil Caggiano and Lynn Anderson about the SOBE plant on GrassRoot Ohio. Caggiano is a retired Youngstown Fire Department Battalion Chief, and Anderson is an organizer for SOBE Concerned Citizens. Note that Anderson is also a retired graphic designer, and behind her you can see some of her music-inspired paintings.]