, Organizer, Rainforest Action Network/Rising Tide North America
Cross-posted from CounterPunch
It was the largest mass environmental civil disobedience in a generation.
Over 1200 were arrested over a two week period after writer Bill McKibben had called for urgent action to pressure President Obama to deny the permits for the Keystone XL pipeline. McKibben referred to the pipeline as a “carbon bomb” that would have had dire implications for both eco-systems and communities from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, and the climate as well.
I’ve worked in anti-war, environmental and anti-corporate movements for the past twelve years. I’ve been arrested doing various forms of civil disobedience ten times now. I’ve chained myself to ExxonMobil’s headquarters, helped to hang a banner on the Golden Gate Bridge for Tibet and spent five days in an Australian jail in 2005 for teaching students and environmentalists civil disobedience tactics.
Besides risking arrest numerous times, I’ve also organized dozens of similar actions as well. I always feel every action is somewhat the same, but then different as well.
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