We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Canadian natives resist: ‘What the frack?’

Click here to access article by Eric Walberg from Intrepid Report

The indigenous people of North America were living in harmony with the environment when Europeans invaded and took possession of their lands. These people viewed themselves as being a part of the vast web of life. The Europeans lead by the new capitalist class viewed nature as merely a thing that we humans should dominate and exploit. 

Since then corporations and their financial backers have continued to rape and pillage these lands to satisfy their addictions to wealth and power. Oil shale fracking operations are now poisoning the ground waters on which all people depend for their survival. The indigenous, or First Nations people as they are referred to in Canada, are now leading the fight to save this vital gift of nature for all of us. In recent weeks...
...demonstrations broke out in cities across Canada, including Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Thunder Bay, as well as in New York and at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC.

This principled action by New Brunswick natives is being echoed in dozens of other campaigns by native communities across Canada, where natives are stubbornly refusing to be swallowed up by corporate Canada.