Stephen DArcy - A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice

A LINE IN THE TAR SANDS

The story of Greenhouse Goo is global. But so is its resistance: beautiful, complex, and rich. A Line in the Tar Sands is drawn with hope and righteous anger, celebrating the cosmologies that the tar sands industryand its politicianswould destroy.

Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved

Opposition to the tar sands of Alberta and the pipelines that would carry their deadly crude has created one of the most potent civil society movements in our history. Led by grassroots and First Nations communities and fuelled by anger at the gutting of our freshwater heritage by the Harper government, this movement has the potential to change politics in Canada forever. Rich in detail and filled with hope, A Line in the Tar Sands tells the story of this movement and inspires a whole new generation to action.

Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians

Alberta tar sands oil, if fully exploited, will add enough carbon dioxide to the earths atmosphere to break the planetary carbon budget, unleashing untold, irreversible, worldwide ecological destruction. A massive, diverse peoples movement has arisen in response, drawing a line in the sand before the fossil fuel juggernaut. A Line in the Tar Sands is the indispensable guide to this frontline struggle on behalf of humanity and the earth.

John Bellamy Foster, co-author of What Every Environmentalist Needs to Know about Capitalism

A Line in the Tar Sands weaves a holistic story of the history of the tar sands, the growth of the environmental movement, and Indigenous peoples determined to stop this insidious development.

Katsitsakwas Ellen Gabriel, Indigenous human rights activist, Turtle Clan from Kanehsat:ke Mohawk Territory

The battle over Alberta bitumen pits malignant Petro-Capital against an inspiring and growing ensemble of activists. It has the feel of a Stalingrad in the war for a livable world: the stakes are that high. A Line in the Tar Sands tells this story superbly and with quiet passion. Here is a book for everyone who cares about the future.

Joel Kovel, author of The Enemy of Nature

Grounded learning comes from a cycle of action and reflection: we make change in the world, step back and assess our efforts, revise them, and then come back with more powerful and focused action. This is how our movements learn from one another and become more strategic and visionary. This book captures that action and reflection it starts with organizers from different parts of struggle, offering their insights and learnings. Theyre woven together in this anthology to offer new ways of understanding the interconnected crises we face and to build a tool for solidarity.

Sharon Lungo, The Ruckus Society

In northern Alberta, the petroleum industry is engaged in the worst environmental crime in history. If business as usual continues in the tar sands, the worlds fast-warming climate will be pushed over the edge to disaster. A Line in the Tar Sands is essential reading about that crime, and about the growing movement to stop the tar sands criminals before they stop us.

Ian Angus, editor of ClimateAndCapitalism.com, co-author of Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis

A Line in the Tar Sands elegantly connects migrant rights, human rights, rights of nature, indigenous sovereignty, and corporate concentration, and broadcasts a vision for ecological justice rooted in a healing movement of resistance, resilience, and restoration.

Gopal Dayaneni, Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project

A Line in the Tar Sands brings us powerful stories and strategic insights from the organizers who are turning the multi-pronged frontlines of the problem into the frontlines of the solution. Tap into the momentum of the movement that is making the defusing of the tar sands bomb an international priority. Whether you are new to the fight or a veteran organizer, this book is for anyone who is part of building a sane, just, hopeful future from the ground up.

Patrick Reinsborough and Christine Cordero, Center for Story-based Strategy

A Line in the Tar Sands: Struggles for Environmental Justice

Copyright 2014 Stephen DArcy, Toban Black, Tony Weis, and Joshua Kahn Russell

First published in Canada in 2014 by Between the Lines

401 Richmond Street West, Studio 277, Toronto, Ontario, M5V 3A8, Canada

1-800-718-7201

www.btlbooks.com

First published in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2014 by PM Press

PO Box 23912, Oakland, CA 94623

www.pmpress.org

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be photocopied, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher or (for photocopying in Canada only) Access Copyright www.accesscopyright.ca.

Every reasonable effort has been made to identify copyright holders. Between the Lines would be pleased to have any errors or omissions brought to its attention.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

DArcy, Steve, 1968-, author

A line in the tar sands : struggles for environmental justice / Stephen DArcy, Tony Weis, Toban Black, Joshua Kahn Russell.

Includes index.

Co-published by: PM Press.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77113-109-4 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-77113-110-0 (epub).--ISBN 978-1-77113-111-7 (pdf)

1. Oil sands industry--Environmental aspects--Alberta. 2. Oil sands--Environmental aspects--Alberta. 3. Environmental justice--Canada. I. Title.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014908063

Interior design by David Vereschagin/Quadrat Communications

Back cover photo: Hereditary Chief Toghestiy of the Likhtsamisyu Clan and Wetsuweten Nation, at the Royal Bank of Canada shareholder meeting to confront them on their tar sands investments, 2010. Toghestiy is a supporter and organizer for the Unistoten Camp.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the USA by the Employee Owners of Thomson-Shore in Dexter, Michigan.

www.thomsonshore.com

Between the Lines gratefully acknowledges assistance for its publishing activities from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund.

To those defending their communities from the tar sands industry, whose struggle for liberation helps liberate the entire planet.

To those working to build bridges and to un-build walls and borders, in service of broad-based multiracial mass movements.

To our elders and mentors, who remind us that the struggle has always been urgent, and that justice is a journey, not a destination.

To everyone doing their part to co-create a better world, which the tar sands industry has no place in.

The editors proceeds from this book will be donated to frontline grassroots environmental justice groups and campaigns.