Organizing: Reflection and Action 

by Chad Horsford

Executive Summary:

When you are seeking justice there is often pressure to act without critically reflecting on what you’re experiencing or whether the action you are taking is actually accomplishing your goals. However the concept of Praxis introduces the idea that one needs to be constantly integrating theory and action into cycles of action and reflection, each building upon the other. Through my internship with the Inland Empire Sponsoring Committee I was able to be part of an organization which valued praxis as a core part of what it was doing. Through the group exercising praxis I came to value the grounding that  reflection  gave to action pursued by the group, and the critical reflection which helped hone future action.   The following represents one practical example of how praxis was part of the work done by the Inland Empire Sponsoring Committee.

Paper:

The first IESC event I attended as part of my internship was a meeting of the First Presbyterian Church of Pomona’s Core Team. The Core team is comprised of members of the church actively involved in the organizing work going on through IESC (the Inland Empire Sponsoring Committee), and many of the individuals there had taken the lead on congregation wide as well as IESC events. After Church service, six of us met around a small oval table in a local office. The group was starting to discuss a new issue. One of the members recapped what was happening in Pomona, as the group had recently learned about a Waste Transfer Station proposed for south Pomona. Just a year ago IESC had helped to organize community residents to have their voices heard regarding the expansion of another waste transfer station in the same part of the city. Community members from a diverse set of backgrounds had gotten together and spoken out in opposition to the proposal and convinced the city council to reject the proposal. Now the community was faced with another waste transfer station proposal, this time the proposal having gone through the initial Environmental Impact Review period with little public knowledge or input on the project. Another member of the group had previously combed through the Environmental Impact Review, condensing the 600 page document into a list of 10 points and critiques. In those critiques were shocking statistics on the environmental impact the site would have on the surrounding communities; the station would generate 610 daily truck trips in and out of the site contributing to a tremendous increase in diesel particulate matter as well as Nitrogen Oxide in the surrounding community. Both substances lead to increased risk in respiratory as well as pulmonary illness. Even more frightening was that both substances have a greater effect on children and there are 9 schools within a one-mile radius of the proposed site.

Coming from an Environmental Justice background I grasped the severity of what was being said, and as each word was being said felt the need for action building up in me. To my surprise, one of the group’s members started leading a dialogue on the group’s mission.  Still acknowledge the raw emotions that myself and probably others in the group were still feeling, the group was instead forced to step back and reflect on why as Christians and members of IESC they sought to engage with this issue. Rather than simply being mad about the placement of the waste transfer station, the group reflected on its desire for true community in the Pomona region and articulated a desire that the community they sought must come out of mutual respect between citizens and government, believing that the government shouldn’t just be allowed to push through this project without citizen input. This drastically shifted the paradigm from which I viewed things, as I was use to environmental justice critiques of communities taken advantage of by political powers who expected little resistance and had in the past organized to stop specific plans, but here this group had just adopted that perspective and had taken it to the next level by tying in the government disrespect for community input into a larger critique of how democracy was functioning in the city. Due to this reflection the group decided to pursue a course of action in which they sought to inform residents of what was proposed and facilitate space for engagement.

Part of this vision was enacted two weeks later at a general IESC meeting, in which the Pomona Presbyterian group enacted part of the action plan they had created during that initial meeting. The group conducted a PowerPoint presentation of what had been happening with the Waste Transfer Station, fielded Q&A, and facilitated a group discussion on what was happening. At the end of the meeting members of each IESC institution came together to reflect on what had  happened at that meeting, and asking for honest critique on the presentation, how it could be improved, and talking about further steps to be take in light of this reflection.

Throughout the course of the coming weeks, the group reached out to other organizations within IESC as well as allies with whom they had built relationships throughout the years. These groups began to disseminate information about the Waste Transfer Station to their members, while mobilizing their members as well as community members to attend a community forum organized by the group from Pomona Presbyterian. The community forum offered a space for community members to come together and share their own views on the EIR project as well as hear from their neighbors how the proposed plan would affect them. Out of the actions taken at those meetings over 1,000 letters were written by residents and sent to the city planning department.

The idea of praxis was a central concept in the work action undertaken by the IESC in these series of events. Praxis is the idea of active reflection, where one purposefully engages in action and reflection and each builds upon one another. This idea is based on the belief that reflection or knowledge devoid of action is limited as it has little to base itself upon, and action devoid of purposeful reflection is also limited as it does not learn from itself. Therefore the idea of praxis proposes that both action and reflection need one another to reach their full potential.

In the example of the Waste Transfer Station, Praxis is demonstrated at two stages within the planning process. First, during the initial meeting with the Pomona Presbyterian Core Team, the group took time to reflect on the information they were processing about the Waste Transfer Station in light of their beliefs and membership in IESC. This lead to a refined set of actions as the group articulated a desire for true democratic engagement and therefore crafted their subsequent action plan around that, rather than just responding to the environmental effects of the proposal. This is not to say that environmental or environmental justice organizing is unrefined but for this particular group, their mission and values lead them a different way of thinking and it was through this reflection that they were able to center their action on those values and be effective according to their goals.

Another point of praxis in this process was after the IESC meeting where representative of the IESC came together at the end to debrief the meeting. This represents another point in praxis process; the individuals meeting were reflecting on an action just completed in light of their goals for their action as well as what they experienced during the process. This reflection led to some honest critique of the presentation and overall meeting, but also led to discussion and suggestion on how to improve both by making it more reflective of what they wanted to accomplish. This highlights that praxis in not just an abstract ideal but at its best action and reflection dynamically play off each other with action leading to more to critically reflect upon, and reflection helping to hone action. Bob Linthicum states, “no action is ever undertaken without considerable reflection beforehand. No action, once undertaken, is complete until a full evaluation of it has occurred so that success can be celebrated and mistakes can be identified and corrected”.[1] The actions around the Waste Transfer Station offer a clear example of this put into praxis.

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