Welcome to the “How Philly Thrive Won Back Our Right to Breathe” video archive.
Philly Thrive’s Right to Breathe Campaign (2015-2020) won the permanent closure of the East Coast’s largest and oldest oil refinery, bringing an end to over 150 years of deadly pollution. Prior to its shuttering, the South Philly oil refinery produced more than 300,000 gallons of petroleum products each day. For generations, communities at the fenceline of the refinery site suffered from high rates of asthma, cancer, heart disease, and lung disease, caused by chemicals the refinery emitted. This unrelenting toxic pollution killed generations of South Philadelphians – our mothers, daughters, grandsons, teachers, neighbors, and friends. Meanwhile, the corporations responsible for these deaths denied harm and wrongdoing.
Through community organizing, in February 2020, Philly Thrive brought about the end to more than 150 years of environmental racism! Across generation, neighborhood, race, and gender, we organized ourselves and took bold non-violent direct action to directly disrupt the injustice that was occurring, engaging in robust media work, and relentlessly telling our stories, to demand the permanent closure of the oil refinery. Ultimately, we succeeded – in February 2020 the 1300- acre site was sold to Hilco, a company that committed to no longer operate an oil refinery on the land.
In this video series, we will share 5 key lessons from the Right to Breathe Campaign, as told by the members of Philly Thrive who were active in building the movement.