Environmental Blockades: Obstructive Direct Action and the History of the Environmental Movement

Description

Since the 1970s, environmental blockades disrupting the exploitation and destruction of forests, rivers, and other biodiverse places have been one of the most attention-grabbing and contentious forms of political action. This book explores when, where, and why environmental blockading and its associated tactics first arose. The author explores a broad range of questions, including how did tactics and practices first developed and popularised during environmental blockades come to feature regularly in animal rights, peace, refugee, and other campaigns? What are blockaders hoping to achieve? How have such blockades and tactics shaped government policy, the culture of modern politics, and popular understandings of ecology, colonialism, and activism? This book offers the first comprehensive history and analysis of environmental blockading in three key countries: Australia, the United States, and Canada. As the first places to experience sustained protest cycles which fully established, promoted, and developed the environmental blockading repertoire as an ongoing strategic option for movements nationally and internationally, these campaigns were central in creating a new approach to conservation issues. They also played a leading role in making obstructive direct action a regular part of political campaigning, as seen in the form of the Extinction Rebellion (XR), alter-globalisation, climate justice, and other movements. This book draws on rigorous archival research including sources ranging from personal diaries, campaign minutes, and video footage through to police reports and newspaper articles, as well as interviews with more than 30 protest leaders and campaigners. It will be of great interest to students and scholars in the fields of sociology, political science, history, green criminology, and interdisciplinary environmental studies. Cover Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgement Abbreviations Introduction Australia, Canada, and the United States as Prime Early Innovators Commonalities Between Australia, the United States, and Canada Tactical Innovation, Choices, and Diffusion Obstructive Direct Action Environmental Blockading and Its Key Tactical Forms Outcomes and Goals of Oda “Ecologies of Protest Action”, “Normative Protester Behaviour”, “Protest Policing”, and “Green Criminology” Methodological Framework Chapter Outline Notes 1 “The Forest in Question Was Regarded as Territory”: The Terania Creek Campaign and the Creation of the Environmental Blockading Template The Founding of the Terania Native Forest Action Group The Political and Bureaucratic Context of the Campaign The Creation of a Protest Camp and Other Improvisations The Blockade The NSW Government Shifts Its Position The Impact of the Terania Creek Blockade Notes 2 “An Attitude, a Way of Life, a State of Heart”: Organisational and Tactical Development Within Australian Environmental ... Middle Head, 1980: The Template Diffuses Nightcap: A Turn to Confrontation The Franklin Dam Blockade The First Daintree Blockade The Errinundra Plateau Campaign, 1984 The Second Phase of the Daintree Blockade The End of a Protest Wave in Australian Conservation Activism Notes 3 “The First Volley in the Nonviolent Wilderness War”: Environmental Blockading Spreads to the United States, 1983–1986 The Political Context of Resource Extraction in the United States During the 1980s Earth First! The Turn to Blockading and Its Connections With Australian and Other Activism A Pattern of Protest Emerges Blockading Begins: Bald Mountain, 1983 Further Blockades, Tree-Sitting, and the Development of a Tree-Sitting, Counter-Repertoire, 1983–1986 The Forest Blockading Template Spreads Across the united States and U-Locks Enter the Repertoire, 1986 American Developments, 1980–1986 Notes 4 “We Shut ‘Em Down”: Environmental Blockading in the United States Extends and Entrenches, 1987–1990 The Changing Context of Blockading 1987: Innovations Spread and a Backlash Begins Barricading Increases, 1988 ODA Accelerates: 1989 Political Developments, 1989–1990 FBI Operations, Environmentalist–Worker Alliances and Anti-Environmentalist Violence Environmental Blockading and the Earth First! Split 1990: The Spread of Environmental Oda Continues The Shawnee Blockade Redwood Summer The Embedding of the Environmental Blockading Repertoire Notes 5 “You’re Welcome to Visit Our Park, But Leave Your Saws in the Boat”: Canadian First Nations and Conservationist ... The Political and Economic Context of Forestry and Resource Extraction in Canada First Nations Activism Regarding Biodiverse Places Historical Precedents for Blockading Among First Nations Conservation Movements in Canada and Precedents for Blockades Among Non-Indigenous Communities Meares Island Lake Wollaston Haida G’Waii and Other BC Campaigns Conclusion Notes 6 “Ssssomeone Had to Stand Up to Them”: Canadian Expansion, Differentiation, and Entrenchment, 1986–1989 1986–1987: A Quietening Before a New Wave Begins 1987–1988: The Strathcona Park Dispute 1988: First Nations’ Blockades and Increased Diffusion The Sulphur Passage Blockade Introduces Tree-Sitting to Canada 1988: The Temagami Dispute, a Tale of Two Blockades 1989: The Temagami Dispute Widens 1989: Bc Activism Continues to Expand Canadian Developments, 1986–1989 Notes 7 “We Refuse to Bequeath a Dying Planet to Future Generations by Failing to Act Now”: Developments in Environmental ... Australia, 1988–1997 Developments South East Forest Alliance (sefa), 1989–1990 North East Forest Alliance, 1989–1997 US Developments During the 1990s Canadian Developments, 1989–1995 UK Developments During the 1990s Diffusion Within and Beyond Environmental Movements The Continuing Deployment and Relevance of Environmental Blockading Extinction Rebellion and Continuing Urban Connections to the Environmental Blockading Repertoire of Contention Notes Conclusion Repertoires of Contention Diffusion The Outcomes of Environmental Blockading Note Bibliography Index