Arrests at pipeline hearings helps movement: Prof
Posted January 16, 2013 12:11 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Does getting arrested for protesting help push social movements forward?
Five protestors were taken into custody after disrupting the Northern Gateway Pipeline hearing in Vancouver.
UBC Sociology Professor Rima Wilkes says breaking the law does have its benefits.
“(With) any kind of disruptive tactic, you’re going to make people very angry, and then you’re going to turn off potential supporters. It’s a trade off but I think it’s important to do it,’ says Wilkes.
She says often demonstrations that don’t involve disturbances are futile.
“When you think about peaceful protests or demonstrations, how effective is it to just stand in front of a building with a picket sign, right? Everyone ignores that,” questions Wilkes.
Instead she says setting up a blockade, occupying or interrupting meetings can bring more attention to the issue.
She makes reference to many historical movements where people have been arrested and how they’ve brought about change.
“Any kinds of social change, they’re always critiqued for disruptive tactics. That was the whole point of the lunch counter sit-in in the civil rights movement…you could say that with anti-aids activists, they started coming into forums and using really disruptive tactics like using fake blood, and it got change,” she explains.
She predicts the anti-Enbridge movement to be just as successful as other environmental causes in BC.
“If you think about the history in this province, I think we’re going to see a repeat of what happened in the 1980’s. In this province, when you had the Lyell Island and Haida mobilization, that was really effective because the government had to stop logging or give out permits for logging (because of protestors),” she adds.
The Northern Gateway Pipeline public hearings wrap up on Friday.
