“Canadians increasingly live in a confusion of values. A 2008 survey by the Globe and Mail found that while 79 percent of respondents said the tar sands are good for Alberta and Canada, more than half of those respondents (55 percent) said that the sands were not good for the environment. The obvious contradiction can be justified only by minimizing or disconnecting oneself from the importance of [natural environments]. The problem is that global warming and the rapid dying out of species makes this level of self-deception increasingly dangerous.”
“Canada –already the largest oil supplier to the U.S.–pumped out record exports south of the border this summer, as Alberta’s oilsands crude fill the gaps left by competitors.
U.S. imports of crude oil from Canada rose 5.4 per cent in July to the highest monthly level in at least 36 years, according to figures released by the U.S. Energy Department.”
“Canada is the largest exporter of crude oil to the U.S. and has increased the amount it ships as OPEC countries have cut back.
(There also was anarchist graffiti in the area. Here is an example.)
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The clutter in front of the mural was blocking it even more when I first noticed it; I moved some of it out of the way before I took the photos. Later, I blurred out the waste pile on the ground to draw some attention away from it.
The pile of waste and those efforts to get it out of the way are symbolic, I think. As wtih a lot of social movements, this statement about worker solidarity had been obstructed and obscured. Clearly the message has been underappreciated. Waste even was left in front of it.
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Surely most people wouldn’t associate labour organizing with street art. I appreciate the exceptional flair that this mural brings to those labour issues (even though I don’t actually like the swirls, the dots, or the blobs at the top of two the letters; but I’m just nit-picking now).
I also appreciate how that message is presented at street level (even if it is hidden away in an alley). For the sake of contrast, the Trades Union Congress in London is a very relevant case in point. As an organization based out of an office building there, that Congress often is distant from street settings and outsiders (despite its connection with the annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival, and despite a public statue displayed outside of the Trades Union Congress office building — to give a couple of counter-examples).
