Thomas Wolfe . . .

For everywhere, through the immortal dark, across the land, there has been something moving in the night, something stirring in the hearts of the people, and something crying in their blood–where shall we go now, and what shall we do?

Climate activists are mobilizing for mass action in Washington D.C. on February 17 against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, “a fifteen hundred mile fuse to the biggest carbon bomb on the continent, a way to make it easier and faster to trigger the final overheating of our planet, the one place to which we are all indigenous.”

Resistance is stirring in their hearts, urgency is crying in their blood, they know where they have to be on February 17, they know what they have to do.

Tar Sands Actions . . .

Hundreds of thousands of people have sent in petitions to the White House and the State Department, 1,254 people were arrested protesting in front of the White House in August, over 12,000 people encircled the White House on November 6 to demand President Obama stop the pipeline, and people around the world took action in solidarity.  An unprecedented coalition of ranchers, indigenous groups, environmental organizations, labor unions, and more have united to stop this dangerous pipeline.

Resistance is stirring in the hearts of Idle No More activists, who mobilized on January 16 for a national day of action . . .

First Nations demonstrators stopped passenger railway traffic lines between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, while others stalled major highways and rail lines in parts of Manitoba, Alberta, New Brunswick and Ontario as part of the Idle No More Movement’s national day of action. Protesters also gathered in Windsor, Ont., near the Ambassador Bridge to Michigan, slowing down traffic to North America’s busiest border crossing for several hours.

Activities including rallies, blockades and prayer circles were staged across the country Wednesday as part of the grassroots movement calling for more attention to changes that were contained in Bill C-45, the Conservative government’s controversial omnibus budget bill that directly affected First Nations communities.

We know why these actions are necessary, we know why protests are spreading and gaining support. For decades, corruption has dictated who is heard and who is not, who has wealth and who does not, who has power and who has none. Corruption infests the corridors of power, it infests the broadcast studios of the corporate media, it infests the boardrooms and corporate offices and judge’s chambers of the “criminal justice system”.

Steal ten trillion dollars?  No problem.

Violate park rules?  Riot police will splatter your blood all over the street.

The corporate political machine those riot police are protecting is waging war on the earth itself, corporate profit is their weapon of mass destruction, the air we breathe is not safe from it, the water we drink is not safe from it, the land we live on is not safe from it, nothing is safe from it.

Mario Savio . . .

There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop.

Where shall we go now, and what shall we do?    We put our bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon all the apparatus of the corporate political machine, and make it stop . . .