From RCMP Raids to NATO Wars: Capitalist Crisis and Oil

By Ryan Abbott

This article was originally published in People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. 

Despite having some of the largest energy reserves in the world, despite an almost universal support for pipeline projects among its major political parties, and despite a bloated lobby of energy executives who dictate its domestic energy policy, the petro-state of Canada is in a deep crisis.

Three pipeline proposals have already been shot down. Two others remain deeply unpopular and face a long list of challenges. The Trans-Mountain Pipeline extension (TMX) would allow the Alberta tar-sands operations to increase by up to 600%. Despite this, Kinder Morgan ultimately pulled out of the project, citing low investor confidence in the face of strong opposition from Indigenous groups as well as enormous legal and environmental challenges. Tar-sands bitumen is notoriously hard to produce, requiring massive amounts of energy to process, and comes at enormous environmental costs. Most damning is the fact that bitumen produced from tar-sands cannot compete in the global oil market; it only barely squeaks out a profit due to heavy government subsidies and handouts.

RY’s Class Enemy of the Fall: Oily Politicians

From "Class Enemy" series - Rebel Youth Issue 19

There is perhaps no better contemporary example of the confines of democracy under capitalism as demonstrated by the current “debate” over the tar sands and pipelines in Canada. Climate change is a massive crisis that has started to effect people around the world. Scientists are unanimous in proclaiming that greenhouse gas emissions need to be immediately slashed if we are to avoid total devastation to the environment and to people. Why is it then that the major party leaders are unanimous in denying that Canada needs to stop developing the tar sands and the pipeline infrastructure designed to expand this particularly destructive extraction method? Let’s take a quick look at the denial being promoted by Steve, Tommy and Justin:

Youth festival delegates learn about important international struggles

Rebel Youth's sister publication, People's Voice, sat down with Drew Garvie, co‑chair of the Pan‑Canadian delegation to the 18th World Festival of Youth and Students, held Dec. 7-13 in Ecuador, to talk about the experience.

So, finally, how many people attended? Was it a success?

            About 8,000 people attended from 88 countries, a very large number, although smaller than past festivals, because of the capacity of the Ecuadorian government. Overall, we would say it was a great success. Delegates got to learn about a host of struggles, ranging from the youth and labour fightback against austerity in Europe, the conflict in Syria, the occupation of Palestine and, in Africa, of Western Sahara, but especially the process of social transformation and battle against imperialism taking place in countries like Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and, of course, Ecuador.

What were your impressions of Ecuador?

            One highlight was the chance to learn more and see first‑hand the political and social changes taking place in the country itself. The Ecuadorian government, led by Rafael Correa's PAIS coalition, calls this process the "Citizen's Revolution". They talk about applying the indigenous concept of "buen vivir" or "good living" as a way to change societies, thinking away from the individualistic values of capitalism and historic domination of the country by the United States, and towards more a social and pro‑people society, with sovereignty over its own affairs.

Activists block construction at controversial Enbridge Line 9 pumping station

Reprinted from the Media co-op

Contact: Sarah Allen, (289)244-8651, hamiltonline9@hushmail.com,
Action Website: http://swampline9.tumblr.com/
Group Website: http://hamiltonline9.wordpress.com/
Twitter: #SwampLine9 #NoLine9 #TarSands

(Hamilton, ON) Earlier today, a group of individuals concerned about Enbridge’s pipeline expansion project stopped construction at the North Westover pumping station in Flamborough. Line 9B is an existing pipeline that currently runs east to west, however Enbridge has applied to reverse the direction of the pipeline in order to ship tar sands oil from Alberta to the East Coast. The North Westover pumping station needs to undergo construction in order for the reversal to take place.

Early this morning, approximately 60 people walked onto the North Westover site, interrupting construction but allowing workers to close and lock the facility before leaving. The protesters insist that their intention is not to damage any equipment or the pipeline, but they are adamant that construction on this project must stop. They say they intend to stay until the Line 9 expansion project is cancelled.

In addition to major environmental concerns, protesters have identified that Enbridge's lack of consultation with Indigenous nations and other impacted communities has driven them to take a stand against the construction.

“Line 9 is going through our territory, and yet Enbridge hasn't consulted with us or talked to us at all," says Missy Elliot of Six Nations.

“The construction at Westover and along Line 9B is happening as if Line 9B has already been approved. It hasn’t -- in fact public hearings are scheduled for later in August,” says Sarah Allen, one of the group’s media liaisons at the pumping station protest. “What’s worse is that the admissions criteria to be part of these hearings were impossible to meet, shutting out most community voices.”

Activists point out that approximately ninety percent of all pipeline spills happen near terminals and pumping stations, which puts Hamilton at significant risk.

“These decisions have been made with a mind for profit -- not safety, sustainability or the environment. How many lives must be put at risk so that a few people can get richer?” asks spokesperson Elysia Petrone.

“What's best for the land is what's best for our people. We have to protect the land -- this isn't just a side project for us -- we have to protect our future. It's our responsibility." Elliot insists.

Line 9 was designed to carry light sweet crude but Enbridge intends to ship diluted bitumen (Dilbit) through the pipes.

“Dilbit is a product with the consistency of peanut butter mixed with sand, which is then mixed with carcinogens and other poisons, and then pumped through pipelines with added pressure,” activist Elysia Petrone clarifies. “As a result, it is absolutely more corrosive and likely to spill – especially when it’s being put through antiquated pipes not designed to carry the product.”

Line 9 is nearly 40 years old; it is the same age and construction as the pipeline that spilled diluted bitumen two years ago in Kalamazoo, MI. The old pipes are only a quarter of an inch thick, at most, whereas newer guidelines require pipes to be at least three-quarters of an inch thick.

The cleanup for the Michigan spill is still ongoing.

Activists insist that the current public hearing process that Enbridge is ignoring is already stacked. Under the new Economic Action Plan Act, the federal government recently granted themselves the authority to override National Energy Board decisions on pipeline projects. They also removed the requirement that changes to existing pipeline infrastructure be subject to environmental assessments, even if they are undergoing significant changes like those happening for the proposed Line 9.

“Our point is simple: this project is dangerous. It presents outrageous risks to our global environment, to our local ecosystems, and to our individual health. It disregards the health of Indigenous communities and restricts their input, putting their culture and very survival at risk,” Trish Mills argues. “We don’t want this pipeline, and we don’t want the expansion of the Tar Sands. We’ve decided to speak out – for ourselves and for the people who aren’t even aware of the risks yet. That’s why we’re here today, and that's why we have stopped construction.”

Kinder Morgan Pipeline Exposé

Click on the read-more button to watch this fifteen minute video with important information about the pipeline project.

Power Shift points to corporate power as main danger to environment

Over a thousand youth, students and young workers gathered at the University of Ottawa at the end of October for a busy weekend of presentations, workshops, seminars, and protests about climate change and social issues, under the banner of “Power Shift 2012.”

The conference aimed to bring together “a broad, diverse movement to tackle the root causes of climate and change a fundamentally unsustainable economic system based on corporate greed and perpetual growth.” Attendance was so high that the keynote speeches on Saturday night overflowed into three separate large university auditoriums and had to be simultaneously linked by video stream.

Power Shift billed itself as coming at a key moment in history where “the reality of climate change is one of the central challenges of our time, showing the problem of corporate power and the urgent need for alternatives.” Conference organizers said that “economic and climate crises we are facing have the same roots — the relentless drive to put short-term economic profits over the interests of our communities and the environment.”

The participant’s mood was upbeat and inspired by the major youth mobilizations of the past year with the Occupy movement, the Quebec student uprising, and also the powerful show of opposition to the expansion of tar sands pipelines and tankers along the west coast with the rally of 5,000 people at the BC provincial legislature last month.

“I think this is the first time I’ve been at an environmental conference that is actually talking about the system, not just the symptoms,” keynote speaker Naomi Klein told participants. “For a very long time the climate change movement has behaved as if it were the one issue that didn’t have an enemy, and we’re all in this together,” she said.

“You are coming of age in a society at war with your future” Klein said to loud cheers, pointing to reactionary governments, big corporations, war and especially the energy industry as the culprits.

Former co-spokesperson of the CLASSE, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, was equally frank. "The problem is not consumption, it is our economy and production. Our system is broken on a systemic level. The destruction of our environment is a natural and inevitable result" he told the conference, blaming the capitalist system.

"We will not get a second chance. Without radical change we will be faced with extinction. Resistance in these times is not an option, it is a duty", Nadeau-Dubois said.

Several speakers came from Quebec to talk about the student strike as an example of the power of mass popular mobilization in the streets, and also the less-well known victory against Hydraulic Fracturing or Fracking used to extract shale gas.

The new Parti Québécois government of Pauline Marois has indicated serious concerns over the safety and environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing with the environment minister talking about a full and permanent ban.  Currently, fracking is partially banned in Quebec pending on the results of two environmental studies.  The energy company Talisman suspended all shale gas exploration in October.

A number of delegations, presenters and speakers also came from First Nations communities.  “We have one thing that industry and government will never have, and that’s the truth” Crystal Lameman with the Alberta-based Indigenous Environmental Network told delegates on the Saturday night session.

“My children have the right and … the government has a fiduciary [Treaty] responsibility to give us clean drinking water. And it's not okay that … when I walk past [the boarder between municipalities], our drinking water is different than others” said Lameman, who is a member of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation, about the impact of the Tar Sands on her community and environmental racism.

“It’s not okay that my 14-year-old niece have an asthma attack, that my son got a bleeding nose - that’s not okay. And that’s what we’re living every single day. It doesn’t matter if you’re indigenous or not - it’s not okay. This is what our future looks like, because they have desecrated a site the size of Switzerland - and they want to expand it ten times,” she said.

The Power Shift conferences were first organized in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Canada after a US conference kicked-off the initiative around 2009. Future meetings are planned for India, Africa and Japan.
From the beginning, Power Shift has drawn a very broad range of voices speaking out against climate change. The US conferences have featured speakers like former US Vice-President Al Gore on the one hand, and journalist and activist Bill McKibben on the other hand.

McKibben (founder of the group 360.org which uses social media to coordinate climate change protests globally) also spoke at Power Shift 2012 in Ottawa. He called upon young people not to fear getting arrested in non-violent civil disobedience in order to halt plans like the Enbridge Northern Gateway or Keystone XL pipelines and spoke of his arrest last August outside the Whitehouse in Washington, along with about 70 other activists protesting Keystone XL.

Outside of the presentations from big-name speakers, an almost overwhelming series of workshops dealt with activist training lead by campus, community and labour activists. Many local student unions as well as the Canadian Federation of Students sent delegates and trainers. While the contribution of the labour movement to Power Shift was smaller, a number of young workers came from unions including the CAW and CEP.

Training sessions addressed anti-oppression and environmental justice, explained climate change issues, policy and science, and discussed questions like indigenous people’s perspectives and working together in local action.  There was also discussion of direct action as well as lobbying, perhaps reflecting a certain lack of consensus around a common strategy and way forward beyond discussion.

Future preparations are now focusing on the international climate negotiations, continuing building links with social justice issues, and further campus and community training to draw more young people into the environmental movement.