In this episode, you’ll hear about a series of connected direct action climate campaigns that crested in 2013 (8:55), all focused on getting the Environmental Protection Agency to implement specific policies multiple organizations had been building towards for years (9:47), and what they did instead of acknowledging they were “stuck” (15:59), how the “turning on each other” she sees today feels similar to that moment (20:50) and what she wishes they had done, in hindsight, instead of “forcing something that wasn’t there” at a movement-wide strategy summit (18:42), and what West Virginia Can’t Wait is doing now to navigate a similar moment with those lessons in the foreground (22:56).

You can read more reflections about this campaign on our website and at The Forge.

For further reading about this campaign and Katey's current work:
WV Can’t Wait Awards 40 hometown heroes $2k each
Grist: What happened to the war on coal?
ACE: Community-based water-testing
Huffington Post: Protesters shut down Obama-backed mine

Katey Lauer is an organizer, facilitator, and trainer in West Virginia, with a deep love of place. She has formed and led grassroots organizations in the Appalachian mountains for fifteen years, as Coordinator of The Alliance for Appalachia, Lead Organizer of Appalachia Rising and The March on Blair Mountain, and founding Director of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum. Architect of the WV Can't Wait movement, Katey currently acts as Co-chair of this statewide formation that's out to win a people's government in the mountain state. Katey is also a Core Trainer at Training for Change.

Visit www.trainingforchange.org for workshops and training tools, or to make a donation. Follow us on social media @tfctrains. The Craft of Campaigns podcast is made possible by grassroots donors. We welcome your feedback; if you like these episodes, please consider donating, to keep the show running. This podcast is hosted by Andrew Willis Garcés and produced by Ali Roseberry-Polier.