Taking On Fossil-Fueled Fascism: FFCA’s Strategic Shift

For the past 11 years, Fossil Free California has been solely focused on pushing CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from fossil fuels. We are still committed to this goal, however, we and the world have changed. As a result, Fossil Free California’s mission is also evolving to directly take on fossil fueled fascism and build a grassroots climate-labor-led just transition.

In a desperate last attempt to remain in control, the fossil fuel industry is driving the rise of authoritarianism throughout the world. Fossil fuel oligarchs and their companies have been spending enormous sums to influence national, state, and local politics—including nearly a half billion dollars for Trump’s second Presidential campaign alone.

Simultaneously, people power is growing – three of the five largest protests in US history were Hands Off/No Kings protests THIS YEAR as we’re watching previously unengaged family and friends making intentional steps to become engaged in social movements. 

And at Fossil Free California, we recognize that now more than ever, we must stand in solidarity with California workers, including the educators and state employees who have long driven FFCA’s work and who are among those facing big cuts. 

Where we started

Fossil Free California was founded in 2015 with the sole purpose of demanding that the California state pension funds divest from fossil fuels. We have attended nearly every CalPERS board meeting for a decade and over half of the CalSTRS board meetings. We lead a powerful coalition of over 200 organizations in unions in a push to pass divestment legislation. 

As a result of our organizing:

• California enacted legislation mandating that both pensions report on their climate risk every other year, 
• California enacted legislation mandating the pensions divest from thermal coal, 
• California passed a full CalPERS and CalSTRS divestment bill through the Senate,
• CalPERS launched a $100 Billion sustainable investment fund, 
• CalSTRS has moved $29.7 billion, or 20.5% of their portfolio into a low carbon transition fund (MSCI ACWI LCT) – this fund has substantially fewer fossil fuels than the standard index fund. This is a remarkable achievement of shifting ⅕ of their portfolio demonstrating they can make major shifts in their portfolio towards climate safe investment without hurting performance,
• 20 unions passed resolutions urging CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest from fossil fuels, and
• We developed a committed base of teachers, public employees, retirees, students and community members who show up consistently online and in person for climate justice. 

And now, through a three-month democratic process, our volunteers, staff, and board developed a new mission and scope of work for Fossil Free California. 

Our new mission is:

We organize workers, retirees and climate advocates to take back power from the fossil fuel industry and build a sustainable California that is healthy, democratic, and affordable.

We achieve this by:

1. Building grassroots collaborations between labor and climate organizers to end the fossil fuel industry’s power;
2. Uplifting crucial environmental justice initiatives that support community wellbeing;
3. Building the organizing capacity of workers and community members to advocate for a just transition to a fossil free California; and
4. Organizing for fossil-free public pension funds.

So what does this mean?

Fossil Free California will continue to champion state pension divestment, but we will also be adding one or two other core campaigns to our work. In 2026 this will include the Make Polluters Pay campaign and drawing attention to the fossil fuel industry’s bankrolling of global fascism. 

We see a core strength of our work to be our mobile and committed base of volunteers who have driven the bulk of our campaign and strategy work over the past decade. Notably, the majority of our volunteers are current or retired public workers and union members. Through them, we have successfully collaborated with both rank and file members and union leadership to provide a pathway for unions to deepen their engagement with key climate issues that have deep intersections with workers rights. We believe that close grassroots collaboration between the climate and labor movements is one of the keys to strengthening the essential growth of intersectional organizing. 

No issue is purely climate justice, workers rights, racial justice, gender equality, etc. It is by coming together to fight injustice and create a world that is healthy, democratic, and affordable for all that we will be able to succeed. United we fight, divided we fall.

Casting a vision for our futures

A key part of fighting against the fossil fuel industry is casting a vision for a world without the fossil fuel industry polluting our communities and without a corporate, fascist regime co-opting our democracy. Together, FFCA volunteers, staff, and the board came together to and designed a vision statement for our future:

We envision a worker- and community-led transition to a just, affordable, and fossil free California.

This vision casts a collective future we can work together to create. Especially in moments where setbacks feel more plentiful than wins, collective hope can keep us moving forward. We must continue to create for ourselves and cannot allow ourselves to fall prey to the fossil fuel industry’s lies that there is no world without them.

Who We Are

Finally, we also wrote a statement to embody who we are. Defining an us is an invitation to anyone who sees themselves as a worker or a community member in California to join the movement to lead the transition to a just, affordable, and fossil free California.

We are California workers and community members impacted by the climate crisis and dedicated to creating a worker- and community- oriented transition away from fossil fuels.

Collective Process In Creating FFCA 2.0

As a volunteer-led organization, it was crucial that the process of reimagining FFCA centered the diversity of voices who have made our campaigns successful for so long. As a result, the initial drafts of the new mission, vision, and who we are were created through a 6 week strategy intensive involving 14 people who included representatives from every campaign team, the board, myself as the Executive Director, as well as people who were involved with all the unions adjacent to FFCA. Together we spent time auditing the work we’ve done and the political landscape we’re in as well as our strengths and weaknesses.

We also held discussions with numerous community members and allies as well as all of the campaign teams to hear their insights. Through that we developed a collectively written mission, vision and who we are statement. These statements were then presented to the entire volunteer community during an organization wide meeting where members shared detailed feedback on our new direction. During a final strategy session, the initial team reviewed feedback and incorporated it into the final statements. These final mission, vision, and who we are statements were voted on by our entire community with a threshold of members on average falling between agree and strongly agree on a 5 point scale. Lastly, the Board of Directors who were involved throughout the community process reviewed the proposed statements a final time and ratified them.

Ultimately, this process was crucial to developing collective vision and leadership. The outcome would have looked radically different without any one of the core constituencies of FFCA and we’re better for it. By creating a transparent and community centered process, our volunteers collectively journeyed through the joys and challenges of creating a new vision resulting in high levels of buy in and engagement as we move forward with our campaigns in 2026.