On this week’s episode of Talking Radical Radio, Zoe Blunt talks about the multifaceted organizing work by the Vancouver Island Community Forest Action Network (VIC FAN) against colonial, profit-driven development.
A key goal of a lot of movement-building is to find ways to allow ever-increasing numbers of people to combine their individual moments of resistance and refusal into expanding collective efforts to create change. Despite the importance of such a focus, however, it is also important not to forget that even a relatively small collective can accomplish far more together than as individuals — the miracle of human cooperation, you might say. Blunt is a member of VIC FAN, a group that is a powerful illustration of what a small collective can accomplish. They are a handful of radicals on the west coast who have used direct action, the courts, participation in government consultations, fundraising, and a range of other tactics to, as she puts it, “punch above [their] weight” in opposing ecologically destructive, profit-driven developments of various kinds, especially most recently pipeline projects, and most often in active solidarity with the indigenous nations whose unceded lands are colonially called “British Columbia.” I talk with Blunt about the history of the group, some of the key actions they’ve taken over the years, and their most active current campaign supporting the indigenous Unist’ot’en Camp that is currently blockading the route of a pipeline planned to go from the tar sands to the coast through Wet’suwet’en territory in northern BC.
To learn more about VIC FAN, click here.
Talking Radical Radio brings you grassroots voices from across Canada through in-depth interviews that concentrate not on current events or the crisis of the moment, but on giving people involved in a broad range of social change work a chance to take a longer view as they talk about what they do, how they do it, and why they do it. To learn more about the show in general, click here.
You can also learn more about ways to listen or go to the show’s page on rabble.ca. To learn more about suggesting grassroots groups and organizations for future shows, click here. For details on the show’s theme music, click here.
Talking Radical Radio is brought to you by Scott Neigh, a writer, media producer, and activist based in Sudbury, Ontario, and the author of two books examining Canadian history through the stories of activists.
