Introduction
At nearly 80 years old, Diane Wilson would have rather stayed home. A retired shrimper with a high school education, she agreed to come to Taipei without thinking too much, as usual. That’s how she does things.
Wilson spent all of March camped outside a chemical plant on a hunger strike near her small Gulf Coast town in Texas, and now she was on a dock in Taiwan listening to a gray-haired oysterman speak in Mandarin.
The Fight Against Formosa Plastics
Wilson liked the man, named Lin Chun Lan. She smiled as she discovered how much they had in common. As fisherfolk, they shared a reverence for the bounty of the ocean and a stubborn refusal to abandon its pursuit. That’s what drove them both to fight the same multi-billion-dollar company, Formosa Plastics Corp.
At home, almost 40 years of radical activism left Wilson branded as an extremist, an environmentalist with few friends in a political system devoted to economic growth. But outside the system, she counts plenty of allies, especially since she received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2023 for her landmark lawsuit and $50 million settlement agreement with Formosa Plastics on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
The Trip to Taipei
Now she had crossed 13 time zones to confront Formosa’s leadership on its home turf, at its annual shareholder meeting in Taipei, and two of her strongest allies joined her: Sharon Lavigne, 76, a retired special education teacher from Louisiana’s St. James Parish, who also won the Goldman Prize for her fight against Formosa’s plans to build in her community; and Nancy Bui, 72, a former Vietnamese refugee in Texas, whose organization is suing Formosa in Taiwanese court over a 2016 disaster in Vietnam.
Wilson didn’t expect to change the minds of Formosa’s board and chairman or to otherwise win concessions on this trip to Taiwan. That wasn’t the point. She believes it’s important to stay in their face. She traveled all this way to show Formosa that, even at 78, she isn’t going away and, with Bui and Lavigne beside her, isn’t alone.
Conclusion
Diane Wilson’s fight against Formosa Plastics is an example of how determination and perseverance can lead to significant changes. Although the battle is long and difficult, it’s essential to stay firm and continue to fight for environmental and social justice.
Source / Reference: Inside Climate News