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.