END:CIV

After thousands of kilometres on airplanes, boats, trains, buses, cars, bikes and boots, I’ve made it back in one piece to where I started in Vancouver. Well sort off. I touched down on Monday night with just a few days to get my shit together and start driving north. I’m joining hundreds of people who will be camping in the traditional lands of the Unis’tot’en clan, an indigenous community that has been actively resisting oil and gas pipelines from going through their territory. This will be my second time coming to this camp, and you can watch my video report about it here.

This year’s camp is going to be bigger, which is a good thing, since the illegitimate government of British Columbia approved an increase in size for the Pacific Trails Pipeline or PTP. Without getting into too much detail, the PTP is the first of a number of pipelines being built that would bring fossil fuels to the pacific ocean and would cross through several lands that were never surrendered to Canada. You can read a good explanation of the different pipeline projects in BC here.

Why should the pipelines be stopped? For starters the oil and gas they would be transporting comes from unconventional sources, meaning dirty and destructive. The gas is being extracted using a controversial technique called hydraulic fracturing or fracking. The oil is coming from Alberta’s tar sands development, an enterprise that has been called the most destructive project in human history. To learn more about these earth destroying practices watch Gasland and H2Oil.

The pipelines would also cross many rivers and streams that are essential to the survival of the already precarious salmon populations of this region. One spill or rupture could be devastating to these sensitive eco-systems. Once it reaches the coast. the oil and gas would be loaded into large tankers in Kitimat, and shipped to asian markets. The waterways these massive ships would have to traverse are extremely dangerous, almost guaranteeing an accident in the scale of the Exxon/Valdez disaster and causing devastating ecological damages. On a global scale, the emissions generated by the burning of these fossil fuels would further exacerbate the already disastrous condition of the planetary climate.

Those of you who are familiar with these issues already know that the governments and corporations, who benefit from these projects will not do the right thing and call them off. You also know that the big enviro-NGO’s are not interested in full shutdowns of these projects, but are more interested in reaching minor compromises with these corporations, and claim false victories to brighten their profiles. You also know that the only way to stop these nature wrecking schemes is through active resistance.

This is what this camp is all about. Today I will arrive to produce a video report, give a workshop on video production and help out in any way that’s needed. If you can help support this report, click on this link or on the chipin widget below. I’ve included my latest report on the situation in Greece above this blog.

Feels like Aotearoa (New Zealand) was years ago and literally thousands of miles away. The European leg of the tour has been a whirlwind tour with 30 screenings in 60 days and 3 more to go.

I’m in Athens right now and I feel a bit like Hunter S. Thompson during a scene in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I’ll tell you more about that after I leave Greece. So far the experience here has been incredibly inspiring, and I already feel like I don’t want to leave. I’ll be producing a report on neighborhood assemblies, but more on that next week. I do need some financial support to make this happen, so if you have a few bucks click on the chipin box.

In England, the burning question of a lot people I met was weather the new anti-squatting law is going to take hold immediately, or if squatters are going to have some time to sort out their strategies: fight or flight.

The idea of squatting has really blown my mind. The people occupying these spaces have taken a huge financial burden of their backs (rent) and can dedicate more time to resistance projects and community building. For the first time in my 40 years on this planet I got to stay in a squatted building in Sydney, and since then have visited or slept in about a dozen liberated spaces.

The most standout of these is Grow Heathrow. Folks from the climate camp movement, occupied an abandoned food market turned in the village of Sipson. You see, Heathrow Airport needed to add a third runway, and in order to do so they had to evict and demolish the village.

The folks from Grow Heathrow have rehabilitated the land, from an illegal junkyard to a sustainable community that is off the grid and the grows much of its food. The people in Sipson absolutely love the project. Not only did it help stop the airport expansion, but because it has helped reduce crime and has turned a contaminated eyesore into a vision of how we can transition to a post-carbon world.

Many of the troublemakers who took on this project, went to Copenhagen to the COP15 meetings and were arrested and/or brutalized by the Danish police. For many the COP15 was the last chance for governments and corporations, to make a binding agreement on carbon emissions before climate change tipping points delivered us into an apocalyptic future. As we all know the talks failed to deliver, and you saw the likes of George Monbiot throwing in the towel.

But these activists, the people who have broken the law time and time again to raise the alarm about climate catastrophe, did not call it quits and have instead escalated their actions. Their exploits are beautifully documented in Emily Jame’s Just Do it! film, a must watch. Stay tuned for an interview with Emily on my show.

I also stayed with some activists in Düren, Germany who are occupying a forest top stop the expansion of a massive lignite mine. This August they are continuing the tradition of Climate Camp, with one of their own.

Yep, I’ve been inspired by most of the people I’ve met. But then a dark mountain got in the way of the ray of hope I had been feeling. I was invited to speak and screen END:CIV at an event organized by a group called The Dark Mountain Project (DMP). The DMP was co-founded by Paul Kingsnorth, as “a network of writers, artists and thinkers who have stopped believing the stories our civilisation tells itself..” But the short of it, is that Kingsnorth does not see any realistic solutions to stopping runaway climate change, and has basically given up and encourages people to write or make art about dealing with this reality.

I have a lot of respect for Kingsnorth for having the courage to admit this publicly. Very few people would admit the despair that comes from the knowledge that we may be totally fucked, or even expose their vulnerabilities online. I feel this despair on a regular basis, but I disagree that the way forward is to retreat. I must admit I did not know about Dark Mountain’s position before I arrived at Wiston Lodge, where the weekend retreat was taking place.

The opening sessions was led by Kingsnorth himself. Several times throughout his talk, he referred to the “Derrick Jensen” crowd in a dismissive and condescending matter. Kingsnorth is obviously a smart guy, but he has to own up with how problematic generalizations are, and that the “Jensen crowd”, meaning people who espouse an anti-civ philosophy and support those who are willing to fight or support those who fight, is much bigger than Derrick Jensen himself. The thought going through my mind was “Fuck, I’ve been set up!” But during the Q and A I respectfully called him out and invited the crowd to consider these ideas during my talk and film showing.

What’s interesting is that the DMP website reads just like Endgame. For instance, “We aim to offer up a challenge to the foundations of our civilization.” and “Draw back the curtain, follow the tireless motion of cogs and wheels back to its source, and you will find the engine driving our civilisation: the myth of progress.”

But as it’s typical of privileged people, when you bring up active resistance, they conflate it with violence. When you bring up the fact that the only thing that’s going to avert climate catastrophe is the destruction of the oil economy, they call you a mass murderer. Let me unpack this a bit.

The organizers opted to do a Q and A with me after showing a few clips of the the END:CIV before the full screening of the film. I know it’s totally backwards but somehow I agreed with it. During the session, I stated that the destruction of the oil economy is indispensable to bringing us to zero carbon emissions, and no amount of letter writing and picketing was going to stop the gears of extraction and combustion, we need to do this by force.

At this moment, an older gentleman began a relentless attack. Paraphrasing… “Do you see how complicit you are in all of this? I mean you use a laptop and you flew here!” and “You are using the language of Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik?” This man was talking about the man who murdered 93 people in the name of white supremacy. According to him, Breivik justified his murders in order to stop further ethnic violence in Europe. This statement was followed by an angry tirade about how if the oil stopped flowing, many people will face hunger. I certainly never advocated that I wish people to go hungry or to die. But people like the man attacking me would rather see his way of life extended for a generation or two, than destroy the system that extends him his cushy digs. But what then is the solution to stopping carbon emissions in time to avert tipping points that will bring us into climate Armageddon? Does he see the reality of tar sands, shale and fracking extractive practices slowing fossil fuel production and burning down? Does he see the governments of the first world acting decisively against this looming catastrophe? Well of course he doesn’t, because as it turns out, the man in question is on the “Sustainability Board” of a mining company. Enough said.

During Kingsnorth’s Q and A session he replied to me, that the problem he sees with “the Jensen crowd” is that he finds the ideas to be dangerous. But what is more dangerous I ask: To support of active resistance, or to promote this idea that it’s too late?

In all honesty, I find it somewhat insulting to those who are actively trying to stop this insane system. Should the Wet’suet’en and Gitxsan communities actively opposing tar sands pipelines going through their territories give up? What about indigenous communities in Bolivia halting a super highway project through the Amazonian jungle? Or MEND in Nigeria, who actively attack oil infrastructure to stop Shell and others from destroying their wetlands? Should they give up too?

During an interview for END:CIV, Waziyatawin told me and I paraphrase, that we can’t be patient and wait for this system to collapse that we have to give it a push, hence her expression “Fuck Patience“, I want to add to that and say fuck giving up!

I’ve been in Australia now for a little bit over a month touring with my film END:CIV, and my brain is full. I’ve learned so much in my short amount of time here, that it goes to show how lived experience can pack in more education than books ever will.

On my second week here, I took part in the 40th celebration of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, the capital of Australia. The short story is that four aboriginal activists set up an beach umbrella in front of the parliament building, to protest the government’s refusal to acknowledge aboriginal sovereignty. Forty years later, and the embassy (which is now a small structure) and the sacred fire are still there. The anniversary celebration was timed to coincide with “Australia Day” or more appropriately “Invasion Day”  or the day Captain Cook arrived in the land down under and unleashed the 200 year plus wave of violence against aboriginal people and the natural environment here. You see, the British didn’t consider the aborigines to be people, they considered them part of the fauna and declared Australia “Terra Nullius” or empty land. You can watch an interview I did with aboriginal activist Robbie Thorpe speaking about the embassy here.

According to some scientists, aboriginal people have been inhabiting the Australian continent for 40,000 years, although new evidence suggests that they may have been here for over 120,000 years. Regardless, aboriginal land management practices were sustainable, but with the arrival of civilization, deforestation, game farming, agriculture, cities and mining have destroyed many ecosystems. Extractive industries are the darlings of the Australian government, or more accurately, they run Australia, so unless a serious culture of resistance is organized here, these mechanisms will continue to gobble up the continent’s natural “resources.”

END:CIV has been extremely well received here. At the screening in Adelaide, long time anti-mining activist, Uncle Kevin Buzzacutt said the film had fired him up and gave him more energy to continue fighting. Uncle Kevin belongs to the Arabunna Nation and has been working to shut down the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia, which extracts copper and uranium. Even though the mine is not in Arabunna territory, BHP Billiton, the owner of the operation, extracts over 35 million litres of water a day from Uncle Kevin’s people’s land.

Yep, the Olympic dam mine is in the desert, and I went to visit the area to shoot video for the next dispatch of “Stop the Flows.” Uncle Kevin’s nephew, Peter Watts was kind enough to guide us through the outback and show us the water sources that are being depleted. The Australian bush is gorgeous. Even at 44 degree temperatures (around 112 Fahrenheit) plants and animals abound in this arid landscape. I saw kangaroos, emus, dingos, crows, lizards and magpies. Peter also treated us to several types of “bush tucker” (food) that grows wild in South Australia. As you can imagine water is in short supply, and the desert can’t sustain both a mine and it’s local inhabitants. In other words the mine has to go.

The mine itself is massive. The first two nights we camped in its vicinity, and the glow from it’s floodlights lit up the sky all night long. We bought tickets to the tour of the mine and were told that video and photos were prohibited. But we were able to record the entire spectacle using a hidden mobile phone video camera. As expected, the tour guide told us of BHP’s commitment to the environment and to safety, but when asked if he knew that uranium from their mine was used to fuel the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, he claimed ignorance. The fact is that it’s true. It was also revealed that BHP pays nothing for the water it uses to operate the mine. To make matters worst, the Australian government recently approved the expansion of the Olympic Dam mine and if not stopped it will become the largest open pit mine in the world. Expect a full video report in the next few weeks. I’m still raising funds to help pay for this report, so if you have a few bucks to spare, click here.

While I’ve been traveling, emails have been piling up in my inbox asking me about the ant-black bloc column by Chris Hedges entitled: “The Cancer of Occupy.” People want to know what I think since I’ve been staunch supporter of the tactic, but also because Derrick Jensen is quoted in the article. I will not write a full retort, because aside from being about two weeks too late, there’s been plenty of thoughtful responses that I can get behind, mainly David Graeber’s “Concerning the violent peace-police: an open letter to Chris Hedges.” But I’ll throw a few thoughts in for good measure.

I’ve rarely experienced the collective solidarity that I witnessed in Toronto during the anti-G20 “Get off the Fence” march. The black bloc in that march thwarted a 1 billion dollar security apparatus and smashed up the financial district and shopping districts of a major north American city. Proving that even under the watchful eye of the state, extraordinary actions can be accomplished and shattering the myth that the police are unbeatable.

Furthermore, if you take a look at Egypt’s Ultras, they were instrumental in the street fighting that eventually forced Hosni Mubarak to resign. The Ultras are soccer hooligans who cut their teeth fighting the cops after matches during Mubarak’s reign. How else is someone to gain experience engaging security personnel, blockading roads and disabling infrastructure? People who engage in black bloc tactics get “on the job training” and learn decentralized organization, working within affinity groups, security culture, de-arresting comrades and counter surveillance among other things. Have black bloc tactics brought down civilization? Certainly not. But they have been useful tools for propaganda, morale raising and promoting militancy, as well as the things I mentioned above.

What I do agree with is Jensen’s assertion that our movements should be strategic about how and when tactics are used. Having a long term goal informs how we deploy tactics and helps us prioritize the risks we take. If our actions increase the risk of getting comrades jailed, it better be worth it, otherwise we are simply sacrificing people and community resources to actions that don’t make a dent in the infrastructure of civilization.

Finally, I find it hard to swallow that many people are willing to write off Jensen completely, because they don’t agree with his stance on the black bloc. That is simply intellectual laziness and political purism. Of course we are not going to agree with everything a person says or writes, as I know many people who view my videos don’t agree with all my opinions. But many have chosen this as opportunity to attack and attempt to discredit one of the best and bravest writers we have, and I’m not talking about Hedges. Like I said a few years ago of Naomi Klein, just because she said some things I found problematic in Copenhagen and in Toronto, doesn’t make “No Logo” or “The Shock Doctrine” invalid.

With that said, I’m off to Melbourne tomorrow, then on to Wollongong and concluding the Australian tour in Brisbane. Stay tuned for more angst from the road.

Dear subMedia supporters,

It’s been a whirlwind of a year for me. I started touring with END:CIV almost a year ago so far I’ve personally shown it over 100 times. Yep, that’s more than 100 Q and A sessions in four countries and in four languages. I’ve traveled over 40,000 KM by foot, bike, boats, van, buses, jets and trains. Online views of END:CIV are close to 80,000 on multiple platforms and grassroots screenings keep popping up every month. So far I’ve posted 9 translations on the website with a few more in the coming weeks including Turkish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Indonesian. All in all I consider this 5 year project a success.

My newest project has the working title of Stop the Flows. Over the next five years I will document resistance movements that are working towards stopping the flows of hydro carbons, mineral extraction, natural resources and capital, through grassroots and underground organizing. I will publish the dispatches as I complete them with the goal of compiling them into a feature length documentary to be released on 2016.

The first dispatch took me to Central BC where Unis’toten nation are pre-empting the construction of 4 oil and gas pipelines through their traditional territories. You can watch that here. The next dispatch will focus on the growing opposition to an oil pipeline expansion right here where I live in Vancouver. In December I will compile the hours of interviews and footage I gathered while in Japan, for a dispatch spotlighting the growing grassroots anti-nuke movement. In January I hope to travel to Australia to continue touring and gathering material for Stop the Flows and ditto goes for Europe in the spring.

So this is my pitch and appeal for financial support. As you may or may not know, subMedia does no receive money from foundations, corporations or governments. This fact has kept our media truly independent and rogue, videos that don’t mince words or tap dance around the issues. I feel the this type of unfiltered media is crucial in these times, when we are witnessing increased suppression of dissent, but also the birth of a global revolutionary movement.

With that said, consider donating a few bucks to subMedia. The goal is to raise $10,000 by the end of the year to push these projects through the winter.

Thanks again for supporting radical media!

frank

My plan to go to Europe has been postponed indefinitely. Seems that that this chunk of Turtle Island that I call home has become North America’s largest exporter of fossil fuels. So I’m going to stick around here for the time being to help document and agitate, around the multiple proposed mega projects, that not only threaten the natural beauty of what settlers call British Columbia, but that would blast more carbon into the atmosphere.

So I’m switching gears and I’ve started a project with a working title of “Stop the Flows“.

I still plan to go to Europe and Australia next year and next week I head to Japan to screen END:CIV in half a dozen cities. The film project “The Resistance” is still on, but it may merge into “Stop the Flows” and look at resistance movements against extraction. We’ll see.

All for now, wish me luck in the land of the rising sun.