Tar Sands Blockade

Guest post by Eric Moll

A few weeks ago I was arrested for locking myself to Keystone XL heavy machinery and helping stop construction for most of the day. I had never done direct action before, but at Tar Sands Blockade’s last Mass Action and training camp, I got the skills and legal knowledge to take action. I invite you to join our next Mass Action and Training Camp in Southeast Texas, January 3-8th.

Defend Our Coast, Victoria B.C.

On Sunday, I headed up to Victoria, B.C. with two other activists from the Cascade Climate Network. Little did I know that participating in a 5,000 person action to Defend the Coast from tar sands pipelines and oil tankers would continue to build momentum over the following days in many different capacities. I am truly inspired by my experiences of the past few days and wish to share them with you.

In the weeks leading up to the Defend Our Coast action on the BC legislature lawn, I kept checking the website. Originally the organizers set the participant goal at 2,000. Soon the numbers of people who pledged to participate exceeded 2,000 and new goals of 3,000 and 5,000 had to be made. The day before the action, more than 4,500 people had signed up to participate in the action in some way. Many people pledged to participate in civil disobedience by staking a 235 meter (770 feet) black banner, which symbolized the length of an oil tanker, into the lawn of the legislature. The Monday Defend Our Coast rally was by far the largest action against tar sands ever in Canada's history.

I’m very excited to have been able to have worked on getting this letter of support the Tar Sands Blockade together.

They are the flagship of what is going on in the climate movement today. It’s so important that the rest of us that can’t be there have their backs and support their non-violent direct campaign in whatever way we can. Right now, police and prosecutors respond to blockaders with violence and trumped up charges and TransCanada responds with reckless disregard for the safety of protestors as well as lawsuits.

Right now, we need to respond with “a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

An Open Letter In Support Of the Tar Sands Blockade

Dear Friends,

As we write, our friends with the Tar Sands Blockade are blocking construction of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline in the woods of Texas. For the past six months they have built a movement of climate activists, rural landowners, Texans, Oklahomans and people from all over the country to fiercely resist it. For two weeks, they have captured the imagination of the world with a daring tree- sit and bold ground actions near Winnsboro, TX that have delayed TransCanada’s operations.

Cross Posted with Truthout.

I've known some of the sitters for years. We started off organizing small rallies and protests at the University of North Texas - the usual, a forum here, a documentary screening there. Now some of my best friends are sitting in trees to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Winnsboro, Texas.

I still remember the look on my friend Cindy Spoon's face as we sat around a fire, contemplating how the Tar Sands Blockade might play out and trying to give each other the mutual strength we would need to move forward in this fight.

"We shouldn't have to be doing this," she said as the embers lit up her face that night.

I don't think I've ever agreed more. My friends shouldn't be up there right now. One should be playing music in a band; another should be backpacking across South America; another should be starting his life in Montana; still another should be making handmade goods for his home business.