ABSTRACT
During the 1980s and 1990s the protection of biodiverse places became a major global issue, one whose importance would grow in the decades to come. In the process the practice of environmental blockading was established in Australia, Canada, and the United States leading to the creation of a body of tactics and practices that continue to guide and influence a range of movements. The conclusion makes key comparisons regarding how environmental blockading emerged and became embedded in each country. It discusses the course of repertoire formation, embedding, and diffusion in the period and since. In doing so it argues that the sustained, close, and intense level of protest and associated work and living, and the engagement with the biodiverse environments involved, have made environmental blockades key points of tactical innovation for obstructive direct action more generally. It also reflects on the broader implications of these historical developments for understandings of social movements in terms of tactical, strategic and organisational development, efficacy, and diffusion.
