Early last week, I was tapped to support a group of Canadians from various indigenous tribes in coordinating an action at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Alberta was one of the featured regions, and (counterintuitive as one might think, given current popular discourse) they opted to make oil exploration a major theme of the region's "cultural contributions" (sarcasm should be noted). A report on the action can be read here.
Nothing particularly dramatic went into the action itself. Given the ethnic makeup of the group, we had no "arrestables" involved, and only about 48hrs of planning time to speak of. However, pretty much from the time people began boarding their flights from their respective cities, it was clear the industry had caught wind of what was taking shape, and had (in some cases) alerted US Customs, etc. A random phone call to the main indigenous organizer was traced to Corporate Risk International, and another organizer was asked point blank whether or not she would be "protesting the Alberta Days", at Passport Control. All that shit about the petroleum industry tripping over itself to phase out oil... Yeah, forget it. They're holding on for their lives.
Perhaps most instructive was the way in which mainstream NGO's like Oil Change totally sidelined, manipulated, and abandoned indigenous groups on this issue. It sort of brought home for me exactly what Left Turn folks have been taking to task in conversations around the NGO Industrial Complex, and both myself and the other local brought in on this action were left speechless by how brazen and indifferent our "allies" had proven themselves. Well done.
Alas, I'm nearly out the door to catch a flight up to Boston to attend the Providence Anarchist Bookfair and the summer board meeting for the IAS.
Tune in next week to hear the "Why the Green Scare is the New Red Scare" workshop's response, when I ask them how they missed the Brown Scare (you know... those planes that hit the towers, our little Dachau on the Caribbean, Sami Al-Arian, the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, summary Muslim detentions in the US, etc). Sure to provide a belly laugh or two.
Toodles.
4 comments:
Hey man, I got your email (obviously that's why I'm here). You should shoot me an email when you get back from Boston. I'm in DC for the summer and always lookin for stuff to do, so if there's something cool or interesting I'd be glad to hear about it. Unfortunately I'm not very good at finding things on my own (having grown up in the suburbs) so I'm not really in touch with much outside the campus here. Anyway, have fun in Boston. Peace
Well, I am indeed back. But not for long. I'm heading up to Vermont in a few weeks and will be there until early October. There's a rally tomorrow afternoon (in Dupont, I believe) regarding Israel opting to bomb all its neighbors into the 19th century. There's also a meeting immediately after, to plan out further action from here on out. That's worth being part of; fantastic community of people working on this stuff.
Do you perhaps know when? I saw something about a rally at the white house tomorrow, but couldn't find one at dupont.
Yeah, it's the White House. A bunch of folks from grassroots groups (SUSTAIN, Left Turn, Campaign to End the Occupation, etc.) were tentatively talking about Dupont, but then the ADC got off its ass for once and decided to do something confrontational... at the White House. How novel.
There's an organizing meeting after, at the Ella Jo Baker community meeting room up in Columbia Heights. That might be the only part I make it to, actually.
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