Washington DC: March and Rally for Standing Rock

From DC Direct Action News

On the 27th of November, water protectors from Standing Rock and a huge crowd of allies marched from the Dept of Justice past Trump Hotel to the Washington Monument. Once there, speakers described the ongoing campaign, the strategy, and the brutal repression water protectors have received in the process of slowing down and hopefully stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline

A truck bearing traditional drummers led the march, followed by jingle dancers ahead of the lead banner. Three of the jingle dancers were young children, who are literally fighting for their own right to live by opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline.

During the rally, one of the speakers went well beyond condemning the Dakota Access Pipeline to standing against many other parts of Trump’s agenda. He explicitly described the “immigrants” Trump wants to deport as being Native Americans on Native American land. He called for standing with Muslims as Trump tries to force them to register. Returning to the subject of the pipeline he noted that in December 2,000 veterans will be arriving at Standing Rock as reinforcements. He then invoked Little Big Horn by noting that the letter sent to Standing Rock demanding the main camp be vacated by Dec 5 is nearly identical to the one sent to the Lakota in 1875, setting up that confrontation. He then reiterated once again that this time around water defenders are not going to arm themselves. He said earlier that this would not be needed due to the huge number of allies the tribe has made in this fight.

There is the very real danger that Trump (who owns millions of dollars worth of shares in the project’s owners) will order a military assault on Standing Rock, as Custer once did. If he does, it won’t be the 7th Cavalry that gets wiped out, instead it might be Trump’s entire political agenda, possibly even the US economy as a worldwide firestorm of political opposition explodes. Trade sanctions against the US by other countries would not be out of the question. Certainly Sunoco’s business would be ruined, possibly forever. Sunoco just bought out Energy Transfer Partners, owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline (Black Snake) project lock stock and barrel. A military assault on Standing Rock could make that investment as toxic as Occidental Petroleum’s investments in Colombia would have been if the U’wa nation has been forced to carry out their threat of mass suicide over a decade ago. After Occidental pulled out, Colombia never found another buyer for that oil, thus defeating the Colombian government without firing a single shot.