Defeat of the XL Pipeline Is a Signal Achievement

Defeat of the XL Pipeline Is a Signal Achievement

Defeat of the XL Pipeline Is a Signal Achievement

Anyone despairing over the immense power of the corporate sector to dominate world affairs should watch this video documenting the power that grassroots protest can still muster in the face of mass injustice.

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Anyone despairing over the immense power of the corporate sector to dominate world affairs should watch this video documenting the power that grassroots protest can still muster in the face of mass injustice. To me, the successful effort to forestall the XL Keystone Pipeline was the signal achievement in a year of significant activist efforts.

Thank you to the 1,253 nonviolent, direct action heros who took arrests to underscore the fervid opposition to the ecologically devastating project and to the unprecedented coalition of ranchers, indigenous groups, environmental organizations, labor unions and students who united to stop this dangerous pipeline.

 

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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