https://portside.org/2025-03-10/brownsville-texas-last-stand-against-corporate-rule

Down at the southernmost tip of Texas, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf and the border is not just a line on a map but a way of life, Brownsville is a city steeped in tradition. It’s a place where Spanish, English, and Spanglish mix effortlessly, where family recipes are priceless, and where the people—resilient, hardworking, deeply tied to both sides of the border—have long known what it means to fight for what is theirs.

Every February, Brownsville erupts in the annual celebration of Charro Days, a festival unlike any other.

Charro Days represents everything that a billionaire-led, isolationist vision of America stands against—community, international cooperation, and a shared cultural heritage that transcends borders.

The city comes alive with parades, music, and the twirl of brightly colored skirts as folklórico dancers take center stage. It’s a reminder that the border is not a wall—it’s a meeting place, a bridge between cultures, a declaration that Brownsville is not merely an outpost at the edge of America but a community with a history and future all its own.

But this year, as the festival lights flickered, another battle was brewing—one that had nothing to do with tradition and everything to do with power. Because just outside of town, a billionaire had set his sights on Brownsville, and he wasn’t here to celebrate the culture.

Elon Musk came to Brownsville with grand promises. Jobs, innovation, a high-tech future—he painted visions of a city transformed, a dusty border town reborn as a hub of space exploration. And for a place long neglected by state and federal investment, the offer was tempting.

But like so many corporate promises before it, the reality was something else entirely.

The quiet Boca Chica beach, once a hidden gem for locals and nature lovers, has been turned into a high-risk, high-damage testing ground for Musk’s rockets. Explosions are frequent. The ground trembles with every failed launch, rattling homes and nerves alike. Wildlife habitats—once a point of pride for conservationists—have been bulldozed. Millions of taxpayer dollars have been funneled into SpaceX, yet the economic miracle Brownsville was promised never arrived.

Jobs? Mostly temporary. Mostly dangerous. Mostly favoring imported labor over local hires.

And now, Musk wants more than a launch site. He wants an entire town.

In what sounds like the plot of a dystopian sci-fi novel, Musk has announced his intention to turn Boca Chica into Starbase, a company town controlled by SpaceX. Texas law requires 201 residents and a majority vote to incorporate a town. Conveniently, most of the residents now living in Boca Chica are SpaceX employees—renting from their employer.

The process is already moving forward. Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño and local officials recently reviewed the petition and found it met the legal requirements. If the process continues, Musk will have his own municipality—where he sets the rules, where his company has even more control, and where local governance bends to the will of a private empire.

But Brownsville is no stranger to resistance. And if SpaceX thought the city would roll over, they were wrong.

During this year’s Charro Days festival, alongside the marching bands and costumed horsemen, another group took to the streets. Activists from the local RGV Sunrise Movement, South Texas Environmental Justice Network, and Nuestra Delta Magica, held LED-lit signs spelling out “STOP: ICE, LNG, SpaceX”, a defiant glow against the neon-soaked parade.

On March 1st, during the International Parade, the protests continued. Signs demanding an end to corporate rule mixed in with the banners of heritage and celebration. The message was clear: Brownsville belongs to its people, not to a billionaire’s pet project.

But the movement didn’t stop at the parade. These local activists have mobilized in unprecedented ways:

• Sent over 10,000 letters/emails to Brownsville city leaders—more than 1,500 per commissioner and mayor

• Delivered public comments at City Commission meetings, demanding accountability

• Posted over 100 flyers along the Charro Days Parade route, ensuring their message reached thousands

• Distributed 200+ informational flyers to parade attendees

• Protested the presence of ICE and SpaceX during Charro Days, ensuring the fight against corporate control was front and center.

And they’re not done yet. Sunrise RGV is launching an impromptu phone banking effort, continuing their work to pressure Brownsville’s leadership and rally more community members to take action.

Why does this matters?

Brownsville is more than a town on the border—it’s a symbol of what happens when corporate power goes unchecked. Musk’s attempt to privatize a community is not just a local issue; it’s a warning sign for all of us. If corporations can buy towns, if billionaires can set laws in places where they hold financial power, then democracy itself is at risk.

Brownsville’s fight is a fight for every small town that’s been promised prosperity and handed exploitation. It’s a fight for every worker who’s been told they should be grateful for a job that barely pays. It’s a fight for every community that dares to believe that people, not corporations, should have the final say over their future.

The fight against corporate rule doesn’t stop in Brownsville. Across the country, communities are organizing to push back against corporate dominance, and there’s a way for local organizations, movements, and city councils to take a stand: by endorsing the We the People Amendment and passing local resolutions in support of it.

Organizations—especially those fighting for climate justice, worker protections, and democratic accountability—should consider formally endorsing the amendment and integrating it into their strategic planning. The fight against corporate rule is not separate from the fights for environmental protection, immigrant rights, and economic justice—it is the fight that ties them all together.

📢 Encourage your organization to endorse the We the People Amendment today: Endorse Here.

Another direct way to fight back is to introduce and pass a local resolution supporting the amendment—just as many other communities across the U.S. have done. These resolutions send a powerful message that corporate control of our democracy is not welcome and that local communities are taking a stand.

🏛️ Learn how to pass a local resolution in your community: Get Started Here.

Brownsville’s fight is not just about one town. It’s about what kind of country we want to live in. One where communities make their own decisions, or one where billionaires buy their own private governments.

The people of Brownsville have chosen to fight. The question is—will the rest of us join them?

Alfonso Saldaña (he/him) is a Co-Director of Move to Amend. He began work with the Move to Amend National as an intern, soon joining the staff team as the Online Communications Coordinator.

Formed in September 2009, Move to Amend is a coalition of hundreds of organizations and hundreds of thousands of individuals committed to social, environmental and economic justice, ending corporate rule, and building a vibrant democracy that is genuinely accountable to the people, not corporate interests.  We are calling for the #WeThePeopleAmendment to the US Constitution that unequivocally states that inalienable rights belong to human beings only, and that money is not a form of protected free speech under the First Amendment and can be regulated in political campaigns.