There is a growing array of groups, agencies, and experts that offer their help to groups dealing with toxics and waste issues. Often this help is sincerely offered, gratefully received and truly helpful. Sometimes it’s not.
Too much help, or the wrong kind, can be toxic to grassroots groups. CHEJ believes almost any “helper” can really help IF your group is aware of its own needs, is clear about the helper’s agenda, and stays in control of the relationship between the “helper” and you, the “helpee.”
TYPES OF HELPERS
Helpers you are likely to find knocking at your door include:
- State, regional or national groups who say they identify with your cause and offer activities on your issues (protests, canvassing, news events).
- Potential allies who want to form coalitions with you.
- Lawyers who offer to represent you.
- Technical experts or labs who offer to sell or donate their services.
- Businesses wanting to market products or services related to your fight (e.g. water filter or bottled water dealers, vitamin sellers).
- Writers or film makers who think they can get your story sold to major media outlets.
ANY OF THESE PEOPLE COULD BE USEFUL IF…
- You have an overall plan for your group.
- What they offer fits into that plan.
- You ask the hard questions and insist on concrete, specific answers.
- You make a clear agreement with the helper.
- You follow a simple rule: MAKE SURE you come out of any relationship in better shape than when you went into it.
PRNCIPLES FOR RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LOCAL AND NATIONAL GROUPS
1. Recognize the right and necessity of each participant to survive and grow.
2. Acknowledge that it is possible to work together in ways which are based on mutual respect.
3. For this to happen, local groups need to stand up for their rights and control their own fights.
4. National groups need to be honest about their needs and what they want from local groups.
5. Since the basis of our Movement is people power, we need to keep our eyes on the prize…will this (whatever you’re considering working with another group on) bring more people into active participation?
6. One important measure of national and other coalitional activities needs to be: WILL THIS BUILD LOCAL STRENGTH?
7. Complaints and criticism are important and should be offered directly and with caring.
8. Bad mouthing is toxic.
9. To respect differences, we must first recognize them and then struggle around them but not paper them over.
QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT HELPERS
1. Who approached whom first? Did you ask for help or did the helper offer?
2. What is the helper’s agenda? What does the helper want from the deal?
3. What do you have to gain from being helped? What will it cost? Will being associated with the helper be a plus or a minus? Will the benefits outweigh the costs? Does the “help” fit into your plan? Can you do without the help?
4. Who controls the relationship?
5. Where has the helper provided this sort of help before?
6. Who’s paying for the help?
QUESTION # 1: WHO APPROACHED WHOM?
Did you ask for help, or did the helper solicit you? It’s common for a group that gets its first major media coverage to then be approached by other organizations, lawyers, technical experts, lab services, water filter dealers and radical political groups who offer to “help.” At Love Canal, Lois Gibbs had to contend with helpers who didn’t even bother to make an offer – they just parachuted in, did their thing and left her to mend the damage. It’s often better to let other groups or individuals make the first move. That way, you can control the relationship right from the start. Not everyone who comes to you unsolicited is bad – just remember, check out the helper before you accept the help.
QUESTION # 2: WHAT DOES THE HELPER GET OUT OF THIS? WHAT’S THE HELPER’S AGENDA?
Everyone has an agenda. Some helpers are sincerely altruistic. Others want to rip you off. Some are funded to provide the services they offer. Others want your money. Always ask helpers what they expect to gain. For instance, what does CHEJ want? We want to help you win locally and link you with other groups to build a movement for environmental justice. As you may know, we were founded as a result of Lois’s struggle at Love Canal and her determination to help local groups FIGHT BACK. For a long time, we did this without getting paid. Now, in addition to member support, we get funding from foundations that helps pay for our work and our salaries.
QUESTION # 3: WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO GAIN?
What exactly does the helper have to offer? How much will it cost? Will you benefit by being associated with the “helper”? Will the benefits outweigh the costs – for example, what if the helper is linked to another cause or institution that might embarrass you? How does the help fit into your plan? Can you do what you need to do, get what you need to get, without them?
QUESTION # 4: WHO CONTROLS THE RELATIONSHIP?
Here’s where we see a lot of problems: where the helper, in return for the help, starts to run the group. Examples: the lawyer who diverts the group’s energy from organizing to working on the case (from which the lawyer stands to make big bucks); the national organization that gets you working on their national issues, taking time and energy away from your local fight; the “helper” with little understanding of what your community is all about, who starts dictating strategy and tactics; or the helpers who play off one leader of the group against another, in order to manipulate the group into following their agenda.
QUESTION #5: WHERE HAS THE HELPER DONE THIS BEFORE?
What were the results? Ask for references. To be doubly sure, you can check with us to see if we know folks who have worked with that helper. For example, there are lots of characters running around who claim they helped out at Love Canal or take credit for other big toxics fights. Some really did help. Some were no help at all. Some simply happened to show up one day. Others are simply lying. You’ll never know unless you check out their references.
QUESTION #6: IF THE HELP IS BEING OFFERED AT NO CASH COST TO YOU, HOW IS THE HELP BEING FUNDED?
This is a good question people ask us all the time. The answer is CHEJ is supported by you, our members, and mostly private foundations. We take no government money and no money from corporate polluters. Some groups fund their help by canvassing your community door-to-door. This could be a big help to your community group – or it could leave the community drained of money when you try to do your own fundraising. Other organizations get grants to support their help and may want to use your story to get more foundation support. There may not be anything wrong with that provided they tell a true story and aren’t in direct competition with your own fundraising plans. In addition to membership support that’s how CHEJ funds itself.
THERE IS – NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH
We all need a helping hand from time to time. Most of us were brought up on the old saying about not biting the hand that feeds you. But we’ve learned that while you’re taking the food from the one hand, you should watch to make sure the other hand isn’t picking your pocket.The principles for relationships between local and national groups were written by the late Tom Sampson, Oakland, CA.