Zoe Loftus-Farren, the managing editor of Earth Island Journal, interviewed Dolores Huerta, a leading environmentalist and activist from the United States of America. The interview, held shortly before Huerta’s 94th birthday, discussed how varying justice movements are fundamentally interconnected. Huerta has dedicated her life to women’s rights, farmworkers, labor, and environmental movements, pushing for improved working conditions, fair wages, and a farmworker’s collective organization. Among her decades of community organizing, she played an integral role in the establishment of the United Farm Workers Association and spearheaded the Dolores Huerta Foundation to engage marginalized communities through educational initiatives and civic engagement. She recognizes that farmworkers are on the frontlines of the climate crisis, facing deep marginalization and systemic violence, while simultaneously stewarding the land, feeding our world, and sowing the foundations of some of the most powerful and engaged organizing across movements. This is exacerbated in both regards for women farmworkers who face unique struggles but are consistently leaders fighting for cross-sectional justice. Looking to the future, Huerta implores environmentalists to organize at the community level, with some calls to action including engaging more closely with labor organizations, recognizing the importance of monitoring climate funding, and fulfilling their obligation to reject fascism at the ballot box. Huerta shows us the transformative potential of collective action in the creation of significant outcomes.
