Resistance towards destructive industrial projects is most effective when considered an actualization of human responsibility. The story told by media (industrial society) splits resistance into racial groups of 'First Nations' and 'Settler peoples' that are usually described as 'Environmentalists' and 'Terrorists'.
But here we stand, together, in a Responsibility forgotten/suppressed by those designing and guiding projects adverse to human and ecological well being.
This Resistance to socially and ecologically disruptive projects that further concentrate wealth and power while degrading the places that we live in nuanced terms. Decentralized power is possible when diverse peoples work from their unique places (ie. the goal is not to 'become one/the same') creating poly-politic. That is, a politic suspended within and between a diversity of peoples organizing from a shared human responsibility to maintain the ecosystems that support our life, and to nurture this world to become better for those yet to come.
here is a short video showing what this can look like on the ground from Friday April 25th 2014
http://vimeo.com/92986130
It is my experience that neither Aboriginal or Settler communities share homogenous political views. Resistance transcends race and becomes the friction between (1) a worldview of profit motivated by greed and (2) a worldview of meaningful work, stewardship of place, and enjoyment of life.
A common argument seems to be 'well what about jobs? do you expect us to all live on welfare?'
I acknowledge that I experience privilege, however we're not stopping at resisting pipelines and mines. These individual projects are symptoms of the dominant political/financial systems that profit from human suffering and environmental degradation. The goal is not to return to a past, but to move from where we are towards systems that reward human and ecological well being. A society positioned to create thriving places.
The lifeline of the pipelines, from fracked aquifers, transportation, liquidification, and eventual consumption are symptomatic of a profit driven worldview at odds with the good life that people in this area know. My hope is that articulating the over arching project of cultural change - from profit at the expense of people and place to responsibility for people and place - we are better able to actualize the joy of being alive as we resist the archaic profit driven way of being at odds with our social and ecological communities.
In this one life that we have - let us live joy and responsibility. We have all been born into a human responsibility for this world we will leave to those yet unborn. May our resistance to the immediate industrial threats to place inoculate ourselves, our communities towards creating systems that support, maintain, and deepen the good life where we are able to live out our existence on the land in the best ways that we know.
there are many opportunities to come out on the land. It's beautiful out here!!
Here are links to background video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5x6k5yvq5k
and action camp
http://unistotencamp.com/
Contact me for details
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