{"id":14261,"date":"2011-09-05T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T11:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=14261"},"modified":"2011-09-04T14:40:16","modified_gmt":"2011-09-04T13:40:16","slug":"author-naomi-klein-arrested-in-oilsands-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2011\/09\/author-naomi-klein-arrested-in-oilsands-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"Author Naomi Klein Arrested In Oilsands Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday Sep 4, 2011 – <\/em>More than 1,000 people have been busted at the gates of the White House the past two weeks, as the most ambitious of climate protests against Canadian oil comes to a head.<\/p>\n

Toronto author and activist Naomi Klein was not planning to be among them. Support the cause? Sure. Speak to the anti-tarsands faithful? Absolutely. But to actually get arrested?<\/p>\n

No, Klein and the other Canadian protesters in Washington agreed \u2014 that is a stand best left to their U.S. counterparts, who need not worry whether such close encounters with law enforcement will hamper their ability to cross borders in the future.<\/p>\n

Yet there was Klein on Friday [2 Sep 2011], being led away by police in the latest harvest of detainees after a last-second decision to put her liberty on the line in opposition to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago, when the rolling protests began, the detentions lasted two full days. But the sheer volume of arrests \u2014 Klein was among 166 taken away Friday \u2014 has forced DC authorities to accelerate processing. Barely two hours after she was taken away, Klein was let go. Like everyone else, she was cited for \u201cfailure to obey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t planning to get arrested,\u201d Klein told the Star<\/em> minutes after she was sprung.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a last-minute decision. I was sitting there with several indigenous leaders from Canada. And when it became clear they intended to stay where they were and expose themselves to arrest, well . . .\u201d She did the same.<\/p>\n

For Klein, it was a first-ever arrest. \u201cI write. And I\u2019m an activist. But I\u2019m not a chanter, not a marcher. I\u2019ve never been arrested before.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that\u2019s what\u2019s been happened for two weeks. Climate scientists, landowners, a wide range of people who all feel this same sense of urgency. The feeling is that we can\u2019t just talk about the stakes on Twitter and leave it at that. If we mean what we say then we have to act like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klein is unsure yet whether the bust will come back haunt her in future cross-border travels. For now, her speedy release means she will be free to fulfill plans to address Saturday\u2019s campaign-ending protest in Lafayette Park opposite the White House.<\/p>\n

The overarching question in D.C., however, is whether the cause is already lost.<\/p>\n

Though no final decision on the $7 billion TransCanada pipeline is expected for 90 days, all the body language emanating from the Obama administration suggests minds are made up and the project to nearly double the American intact of carbon-intensive Alberta bitumen is a go.<\/p>\n

Last week the U.S. State Department gave the strongest endorsement yet of the plan to build the metre-wide steel straw from Alberta to Texas in its final environmental assessment.<\/p>\n

U.S. Energy Secretary Steve Chu, in a subsequent interview, framed the issue as \u201cnot perfect, but it\u2019s a trade-off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly true that having Canada as a supplier for our oil is much more comforting than to have other countries supply our oil,\u201d Chu said.<\/p>\n

And Friday, Team Obama was hastily retreating on another key environmental policy, instructing the Environmental Protection Agency to delay plans to tighten ozone standards. The Sierra Club, among others, denounced the decision as a gift to \u201ccoal and oil polluters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many longtime interpreters of Washington\u2019s political tea leaves suggest the final political considerations for Keystone XL come down to jobs. A $7 billion, shovel-ready project here and now, for a President whose future likely depends on how Americans are working in November, 2012, when Obama comes up for re-election.<\/p>\n

The political risks for Obama are vast, insofar as many of those arrested these past two weeks are among his truest believers \u2014 the young, grassroots activists who help lift him to power in 2008, fully expecting an administration that would follow through on its promise to wean the country off fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

One of them, Courtney Hight, acknowledged her discomfort in an interview with the Star<\/em>. The Floridian activist was \u201cone of the first boots on the ground for Obama,\u201d dedicated three years of her life as his campaign\u2019s Youth Vote Director. She went on to join the White House Council on Environmental Quality before shifting back to activism as co-director of the Energy Action Coalition.<\/p>\n

She was arrested Thursday, outside the front door of the President she thought agreed with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels inherently weird and uncomfortable for me to do something remotely critical of this president,\u201d Hight told the Star<\/em> after her release.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I feel ownership over his current position. I am disappointed he is not being stronger, although it is understandable given the continuing attacks he is facing,\u201d said Hight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need old Barack Obama to rise above the politics and just barrel through. And so getting arrested, if that is what it takes, is meant to remind him of the things he once believed \u2014 things I think he still believes \u2014 that inspired millions of young people to support him.\u201d<\/p>\n

None are ready to concede defeat on Keystone XL. As Klein says, if the pro-tarsands lobby was \u201c100 per cent convinced the deal is done they would not be blanketing the U.S. TV networks with ads trying to sell this thing to the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Klein observed that if Obama ultimately approves Keystone XL, part of the fallout will be to free the broader climate movement from the illusion that \u201cthere is a saviour in the White House who just needs to be awakened to come to the rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protests against Keystone XL, says Klein, are simply one facet of a broader, multi-pronged campaign targeting the industry through multiple pressure points, from consumer campaigns to boycotts to agitating individual corporations to commit to avoiding tarsands oil.<\/p>\n

\u201cPowerful movements are built on strategy, not saviours. So if it turns out that Obama approves this pipeline, the movement is not going to crawl away, it\u2019s going to change strategy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be healthy for people to know there isn\u2019t a saviour in the White House. We have to build the movement we want. And the strategy can\u2019t be trying wake up one person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 thestar.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday Sep 4, 2011 – More than 1,000 people have been busted at the gates of the White House the past two weeks, as the most ambitious of climate protests against Canadian oil comes to a head. Toronto author and activist Naomi Klein was not planning to be among them. \u201cIt was a last-minute decision. I was sitting there with several indigenous leaders from Canada. And when it became clear they intended to stay where they were and expose themselves to arrest, well . . .\u201d She did the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}