Introduction:
In Part I of Line 9 Protests Unmasked we explored the history of direct actions against Enbridge’s pipeline reversal from the original #SwampLine9 protest in 2013 to the most recent occupation of a construction site near Innerkip, Ontario. The protests started off with a bang but quickly faded out as the media and public started to realize the protests were all led by the same group of radical (and some violent) anarchists.
Here in Part II we’ll jump back in time a couple years to an important event held at the University of Toronto on November, 17, 2012. The speakers list at the “Tarsands Come To Toronto” brought together a star-studded lineup of environmental activists who travelled from across the country to discuss ways they can stop the reversal Line 9. Analysing this event not only gives great insight into the networks behind the fight against Line 9, but also provides us with a deeper understanding of their motivations.
One of the more common criticisms about the environmental movement is that many people and organizations motivations aren’t what they look like on the surface. A popular analogy is that of a watermelon- 10% green on the surface (representing environmentalism) with 90% red in the middle (socialism). Adding to that, the dark pits could represent Black Bloc militants.
But how realistic is the watermelon analogy? In today’s story we’ll experiment with some exciting new relationship mapping software to analyse the networks behind the movement. The results are now in and, though they’re exactly what most readers would expect, they’re still fascinating. They also bring up some new questions- for example, what’s Bolivia got to do with it?
