#StrikeDownETP Actions Organized Against Bayou Bridge Pipeline

On September 18th, the anti-pipeline camp in so-called Louisiana, L’eau Est La Vie Camp, which for months now has faced intense repression and ongoing arrests, as the State has rolled out a new law the makes even trespassing on pipeline property a felony, called for solidarity actions to #StrikeDownETP.

The actions were aimed at Energy Transfer Partners and their backing of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, the tail end of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Actions were held across the so-called US in solidarity, targeting banks and other financial institutions that fund and invest in ETP and a variety of pipeline projects.

As L’eau Est La Vie Camp wrote in their call out:

Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) is the company that unleashed violence on water protectors at Standing Rock, they are the company that has had Ellen Gerhart, Red Fawn and many others imprisoned for resisting. They are the company that brutally attacked us last week as we halted illegal pipeline construction.

They have tried to silence us with violence. But we won’t back down. On September 18th Its time to strike back.

In St. Louis, Missouri people organized a rally outside of a US Bank and then proceeded to hold a rally and disruption inside the bank, calling for divestment from Energy Transfer Partners.

The Earth Defense Coalition wrote of the action:

In response to a call from a camp in Louisiana resisting the #BayouBridgePipeline, L’eau Est La Vie Camp, for a day of global solidarity, St. Louis residents who have been to the resistance encampment organized a local action to bring attention to the struggle and put pressure on local targets in St. Louis.

The action started at the Bank of America Plaza Downtown with a rally that hosted a variety of speakers, after that a march proceeded which ended at a U.S. Bank branch, where 10 activists took over the lobby and shut it down, while the rest of the march remained outside as auxiliary support.

The activists inside shutdown the branch for the last hour it was open and left the space without arrest at the end of the day.

In Detriot, Michigan people held a rally in solidarity with the St. James Parish, a long standing African-American community who has suffered from decades of exposure to the fossil fuel industry, earning it the haunting nick-name “Cancer Alley.”

#Detroit stands with the people of St. James to #StrikeDownETP #WATERISLIFE #noDAPL pic.twitter.com/aBRfl2daXu

— Michigan United (@MichiganUnited) September 18, 2018

Members of the Water Protector Legal Collective converged at the so-called Missouri River in solidarity with #StrikeDownETP. They wrote in a statement:

We gathered at Not Afraid to Look for the sunrise overlooking Mni Sose to send strength, love and prayers to No Bayou Bridge on their special day of action to Strike Down ETP. Mni Wiconi!

In New Orleans, Louisiana, the L’eau Est La Vie Camp held a demonstration at a Chase Bank, calling for divestment from the Bayou Bridge pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners.

Meanwhile, back in the Louisiana swamps, Energy Transfer Partners made two arrests of two water protectors. On Facebook they wrote:

A few of my friends and I were preparing for a boat ride through the remote and beautiful Atchafalaya basin when Karen Savage, badass swamp reporter, and I were targeted and snatched up by St Martins Parish deputies and taken into custody without warrants for our arrests.

As he put me in car, the hasapa deputy says, “oh there will be warrants when you get there.” He lied. We got to the jail and still no warrant. I was finally taken in for booking and one of the deputies takes a paper out of the printer and slams it down on the counter in front of me saying, “There’s your warrant.”

We listened as the Sheriff read to the judge what sounded like the report of an ETP worker about incidents on private property where were invited to set up camp. This worker, is guilty of trespassing and destruction of private property because the company he works for, ETP, doesn’t have permission by the landowners to be on their land. The identical reports only differ at the end where he alleges we committed all of these criminal acts and then my bail was set at $21,000 and Karen’s at $10,000!!

We’re charged with felonies under the state’s new oil industry funded anti-protest law which classifies pipelines as critical infrastructure. Mind you, this pipeline is slated to run Bakken oil from ETP’s DAPL (Dakota Access Pipeline) through the US and across the Atchafalaya basin to refineries for EXPORT to foreign countries.

The only oil US citizens are going to see out of this critical infrastructure is when the Bayou Bridge Pipeline breaks and leaks oil into our water, water for some 300,000 people from Lake Charles to New Orleans to the Houma Nation and all points in between.

These are serious allegations from the same crew of lying, stealing, cheating Energy Transfer Partners who are now using our beloved New Orleans SAINTS to paint a picture of support for the communities they destroy!

Well this WHO DAT! ain’t havin it! We love our SAINTS!! Shame on you ETP! This is personal now….lol

Anyway, more to come on that front…

I gotta cut this off for now. Just got word that several of our camp’s vehicles had all of their tires slashed! Looks like we’re going to need a bunch of new tires.

Please consider a donation to our GoFundMe account.

GoFundMe.com/NoBBP

Both were quickly released after being bailed out and a campaign of phone calls.

At Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the FANG collective disrupted a Goldman Sachs events. They wrote:

Yesterday for the #StrikeDownETP day of action, we disrupted a Goldman Sachs recruitment event at Harvard University.

Goldman Sachs is the number one shareholder of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) with over $1.5 billion in shares, and they have also loaned ETP hundreds of millions of dollars. ETP is the company building the Bayou Bridge Pipeline across Louisiana and they are the same company that built DAPL.

In recent weeks ETP has unleashed violence against water protectors trying to stop illegal construction of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. Yesterday’s day of action was in response to this violence.

During the disruption we were able to hold the space for several minutes. After hearing about Goldman Sachs connection to the violence against water protectors in Louisiana, several students walked out of the event.

Find a solidarity target and take action at: www.NoBayouBridge.global

A banner was also dropped on campus:

Yesterday at the University of Michigan a @BankofAmerica recruitment event was disrupted over their financing of ETP. The disruptions were capped off by this banner drop as people left the event. #StrikeDownETP #NoBayouBridge pic.twitter.com/BPJciRGWU7

— FANG (@FangCollective) September 19, 2018

In Knoxville, Tennessee, people rallied outside of a Bank of America, calling for divestment from ETP and the Bayou Bridge pipeline.

Along the Mississippi river in northern so-called Minnesota, Native people shut down construction of the Line 3 pipeline and in solidarity with #StrikeDownETP.

From the communique:

One member of Ginew declared “We’re here today protecting our water, our burial sites and standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters down south who are fighting the Bayou Bridge Pipeline. The Mississippi River begins here in the headwaters, where we are standing right now, and it ends in the Gulf of Mexico, in the bayous, where folks have been fighting against Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) for months, putting their bodies on the line for clean water and safer communities. We’re fighting Enbridge here, a different company that is also invested in ETP. Enbridge wants to cross over 200 water ways and drill under the Mississippi River multiple times to construct Line 3. Enbridge wants to put this new poisonous black snake where the river begins and turn this area into an industrial corridor. They want to poison our seed of hope for clean water and turn us into another alley of cancer.”

While these actions are inspiring, they also are small compared to the massive and largely symbolic “climate marches” which have recently taken place across the US in the last few weeks. These marches gathered literally tens of thousands of people to take to the streets to denounce climate change, by putting their faith in “our” elected leaders to “do something.” But what is clear is that this system has no interest in listening, even in the face of mounting climate chaos and increasing storms and erratic weather patterns.

If only a fraction of the people that came out to the recent climate marches became involved in direct action ecological struggles in their local area, either joining existing pipeline and anti-fossil fuel fights, or taking action in solidarity with ongoing campaigns, or even just raising money for bail funds for those in Louisiana instead of giving it to non-profits, we could grow and expand a real movement against global warming and fossil fuel extraction.

Let’s work to build a culture of self-defense against industrial capitalism and direct action against it, building relationships with indigenous communities already fighting on the front lines and those facing repression for defending their land and water.

Tags: #StrikeDownETP