Yesterday, over 30,000 people convened on Washington, D.C. to demonstrate against construction of the Keystone pipeline. The event, organized primarily by 350.org and the Sierra Club, was aimed at pressuring Obama to reject construction of the pipeline.
While many that attended expressed faith in Obama rejecting the pipeline, there was a large portion of people raising numerous contradictions that Obama would need to, but most likely wouldn’t, overcome in order for the pipeline to be rejected. Among some of these contradictions are statements made by Secretary of State John Kerry less than two weeks ago after a meeting with Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird:“Canada is our largest supplier and our shared networks of electrical grids keep energy flowing both ways across the border” and “As we move forward to meet the needs of a secure, clean energy future on this shared continent, we are going to continue to build on our foundation of cooperation.” Another is the fact that TransCanada could sue the United States for lost profits, as Chapter 11 of the NAFTA allows them to do, if construction is rejected.
We recognize these contradictions and acknowledge that a strategy of pleading to the rich and powerful in hopes that their conscious will change and that they will act against their financial interests in order to prevent environmental destruction isn’t a viable option. We base our strategy in the reality of the situation; we simply don’t have time to wait for the ruling class to revolutionize itself. Any gathering of tens of thousands of people concerned about the health of the planet is a step in the right direction, but there is a need for escalation: escalation in organization, networking, and material, as opposed to symbolic, resistance. We need more actions like those carried out by our comrades at the Tar Sands Blockade that halt production. If we want to avoid the destruction of our planet, we need to make a transition from organizing thousands of people to rally in D.C. with a few hundred people being arrested at the White House, to thousands of people rallying at the source of the problem, whether it be the Keystone pipeline, a Frack well, or the headquarters of Bank of America, and a few hundred people being arrested for halting business for as long as possible.
