Big green hacks attempt co-optation of Burnaby Mountain resistance

BLOG POST posted on November 27, 2014 by Macdonald

Photo by murray bush - flux photo

If Tzeporah Berman and the other hacks who have systematically ignored (far more than just) the Kinder Morgan expansion plans now wish to use their big corporate ENGO money to hi-jack the struggle (and thus take credit for it, even when they are *in the way* over the last few years), that is a sign that they realize that is has traction beyond the usual news cycle that they normally pray at the Altar of.

This means we are winning-- and that the Big Green machine is capital's last stand. This is the only remaining way to defeat resistance on Burnaby Mountain for the corporations. They must now split the real resistance and use their "official" green garb to try and smother the real resistance that makes Big Green irrelevant.

Where have they been? Are they arriving to help, or to take credit?

ENGO's are funded by big capital, usually through reactionary foundations. These monetary sources want to get "wins" not victories. A "win" in their eyes is a photo op and a press conference.

Here is a very recent line from Tzeporah Berman, writing in the Globe and Mail, in an atrociously titled piece "The ugly pipeline debate is preventing dialogue on oil sands" (Wait a minute-- the whole point of resistance on Burnaby Mountain is an "ugly pipeline debate" because there is no dialogue to be held on Tar Sands-- they must be shut down, and in order to do so, it must be a part of transforming the whole society.).

Berman:

"Imagine if energy companies decided to lead the transition to renewables and critics acknowledged that we can’t shut down the oil sands overnight and got serious about a conversation that looked at how much oil we will need and for how long?"

Really? Asking for corporations to lead the struggle against oil makes about as much sense as asking police to lead a struggle for civil rights, or the Klan to lead anti-racist marches.

Further, these are not "just corporations" who know they have it better under a fossil fuel based, profit motivated system of exploitation. They are also people who are not "only" responsible for climate change, for contempt of democratic rights, process and community, but who make multiple billions off of war, wars that are for oil and enrich oil producers at the same time.

Berman says we need to recognize that power will not go away, and we need to beg it to be nice, eventually, over the next few decades while the rest of the society and life support systems collapse.

She supported the Olympics and carried the Olympic torch on the same highway that elder Harriet Nahanee died trying to prevent construction on.

She gave awards to Gordon Campbell and currently is an architect of attempts to make Christy Clark look good.

She has promoted all manner of destructive offset schemes, from Ruin of the River through to-- apparently-- tidal power that could massacre sea life, such as Sea Lions and whales.

She is an enemy of the environment, and while in a different outfit than the rest, she approaches the environmental world as a place for profit.

If she raises her head on Burnaby Mountain, it should be time to play ENGO whack a mole. This is EXACTLY the time to do it, for if they hi-jack anything now, the whole struggle will be sold off for the promise of more foundation money and a chance to have yet more private discussions with companies like Suncor.

Tzeporah Berman and the ilk she walks with are the last, best defense that capital can come up with. It must be seen for what it is, and she must be given not a court injunction, but a peoples injunction. You are not welcome, go back to the $2 million dollar mansion you bought-- and tell us where that money came from, while you are at it.