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Oct 4, 18
Filed under: Action, Environment, Featured, Indigenous, Land, US
In the last few days, Water Protectors across the so-called US have taken action against a variety of pipeline projects. This includes both Embridge’s Line 3 pipeline, which saw action and construction stoppages on the Fond Du Lac Ojibwe Reservation, in so-called Manitoba, and outside of a Wells Fargo in Minneapolis, a bank which is helping to finance Line 3. Actions in the ‘Hell Bender Autonomous Zone’ in the Appalachian territory also continue against the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines, and the L’eau Est La Vie camp continues to throw down against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline in so-called Louisiana.
Here’s a roundup of actions that have kicked off the last several days.
https://www.facebook.com/AnticolonialLandDefense/videos/554140608351217/
As Anti-Colonial Land Defense wrote:
Today Anti-colonial Land Defense and many other individuals from different groups united as a gathering of Indigenous and non-indigenous Water Protectors to stop Enbridge pipeline Line 3 construction on the Fond Du Lac Ojibwe Reservation; we shut down work all day yesterday!
A ceremony was led and held down by local Indigenous women elders in the center of the road by the worksite, in conjunction with a soft-blockade to keep Enbridge out of the worksite to cease and desist all construction.
We gathered with action, prayer, signs & banners to protect sacred water, wild rice, air and all of Mother Earth’s creatures for the next seven generations! We aimed to maintain and create a sacred and safer space whilst stopping Line 3 pipeline construction, and will continue to do so throughout this and other struggles!
Pipelines, mines, and other large scale racist resource colonial extractive projects and industries also create working environments that aid and abet the ongoing crisis and epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women, so we will always act to end these types of colonial industrial projects.
Opposing Line 3 and taking direct action to stop this and other similar projects is paramount to the survival of humyns and all of the creatures on Mother Earth; we are asking you to join our collective resistance wherever you are on Turtle Island in the continuation of direct action to stop Line 3, KXL, Bayou Bridge, Back 40 Mine, MVP, Kindermorgan, etc.!
Anti-colonial Land Defense has an action camp coming up in the NW Lake Superior bioregion Oct.15th-18th that is a two-spirit, trans and womxn friendly action camp that prioritizes POC/indigenous comrades! We are open to collaborating with other vetted individuals & groups; please inquire with us more at:
Thank you, miigwech, and wopila for your support of direct action to stop Enbridge Line 3 and all of it’s similar and related affiliates, investors, and other racist resource colonial extractive industries!
We also want to take the time to make a radical shout out in solidarity with the brave, bold and effective actions taken by comrades in the Bayou Bridge pipeline struggle who successfully shut down pipeline construction by climbing a 50 ft. crane, & having two others lock down to construction equipment! Follow them at L’eau Est La Vie Camp – No Bayou Bridge
Land defenders and warriors from the Great Plains Resistance in so-called Manitoba also successfully disrupted and shut down Line 3 pipeline work today as well & stood with strong hearts to get in the way….follow them at https://www.facebook.com/groups/2294737037427417/
Comrades, we are with you & we feel the pain of the struggle all around us as the entire world is aflame, and you keep the fires lit inside each of us in all corners of Turtle Island resisting racist resource colonialism!
In Struggle for a better world against racist resource colonialism where grassroots Indigenous people continue to reclaim and protect their territories,
Anti-colonial Land Defense
Yesterday, the L’eau Est La Vie Camp wrote of their action shutting down a crane working on the Bayou Bridge pipeline:
A crane moving pipes into place for the Bayou Bridge Pipeline has been SHUT DOWN.
A woman of color has scaled the 50 foot tall crane while two indigenous women have locked down to the base of it. Police are on the scene.
This action is taking place in the Atchafalaya Basin at one of the last sites where pipes have not yet been laid out for Bayou Bridge.
All three water protectors who carried out the action wore red to call attention to the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women. One of the women who locked to the base of the crane was Mama Julz, a Lakota woman and founder of the Mothers Against METH Alliance who shared this message before the action:
“I’m here today to stop construction of the bayou bridge pipeline because not only are they raping our mother but they are stealing our sisters. I’m here to make a stand, to bring awareness on how pipeline worker camps are proven hotbeds of meth and sex trafficking, which lead to missing and murdered indigenous women.”
Mama Julz and the other two women who shut down the crane were arrested and have been charged with felonies under Louisiana’s anti-protest law.
In so-called Minneapolis, MN, Water Protectors fighting Line 3 wrote of their action today, where people set up a tripod outside of Wells Fargo to demand they divest from the Line 3 pipeline:
Minneapolis, Minnesota — On Thursday morning, water protectors erected a tripod and tipi in front of the Wells Fargo building in protest of an upcoming $1.48 billion dollar credit renewal to Canadian-based Enbridge, Inc. Enbridge is behind Line 3, a nearly 1M barrel per day tar sands pipeline it wants to send through Anishinaabe treaty territories, the Mississippi River headwaters, wetlands and the Great Lakes.
Ongoing divestment efforts have cost financial backers of fossil fuel infrastructure projects billions of dollars in the last two years, coming out of a groundswell of resistance against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the human rights abuses that occurred during its construction. Wells Fargo is one of three major financiers of the upcoming credit facility to Enbridge — the others are Chase and Credit Agricole.
One water protector was atop the tripod constructed, saying, “I am here in solidarity with the Anishinaabe peoples and protecting the water for future generations. We cannot let these companies put our futures on the line any longer. Expansion of fossil fuels must end. Drinking water is a human right. Wells Fargo, stop funding genocide.”
BREAKING: protectors shut down #Enbridge #Line3 construction in southern Manitoba, northwest of Morden. #StopLine3 #NoLine3 #ShutDownTarsands (part1)Get in touch with Great Plains Resistance to find out how to help:https://www.facebook.com/groups/2294737037427417/
由 In Solidarity with all Land Defenders 发布于 2018年10月3日周三
Meanwhile, outside of so-called Manitoba, Water Protectors launched another protest which shut down Line 3 construction yesterday. Red Power Media wrote:
Indigenous land defenders and warriors from the Great Plains Resistance braved a snowstorm on Wednesday to shutdown work at a Enbridge Line 3 site, northwest of Morden, Manitoba. The construction crew was forced to stop work and left the site. The group is opposed to the pipeline expansion and Alberta Tar Sands.
Finally, in the Hellbender Autonomous Zone in Appalachia, the tree-sit which is blocking pipeline construction is now officially 30 days old. The latest dispatch from Appalachians Against Pipelines writes:
“As I lay here with security camped out in the road below me I think about all of the things that have culminated into me getting up here. It all seems like too much sometimes.
As chainsaw crews hike up the hill past our tree sits, as I hear the roaring of chainsaws in the distance, what we’re fighting for seems impossible, too out of reach.
I’ve spent 27 days up in the tree canopy, sleeping on a too-hard surface and having to find creative ways to stretch my legs. Many will ask if all of this has been worth it. I’m afraid that I’m too pragmatic at times. When asked what I want to achieve by being up here my answers are sometimes too blunt. What if we fail?
But what if we don’t?
I’m up here because the alternative is to be complacent in a world where millions of voices are not being heard. I’m up here because the cost of complacency is too much. I’m up here not only because I fear for the future but because I’m afraid of our present.
Somebody tried to reason with me not to blame the workers that came up here to cut trees. “They’re just doing their jobs.”
Fuck that.
It’s time that we stop being complicit about things we deem “somebody else’s problem.” We can’t bypass blame by claiming that we’re “just following orders.” It’s time that we stop expecting people to do the right thing. We must hold them accountable through our own words and actions. It’s never going to happen if we keep playing by their rules and trying to ask nicely.
It’s time to stop asking. This is enough. It’s too much.
I’m sometimes overwhelmed with the realization of where I am. Why I’m here.
As I lay here under the light of the security vehicle parked just down the hill and as today’s events wash over me I think about how when we act out, when we don’t fall in line, when we stop asking nicely and instead start making demands, they try everything in their power to extinguish that spark of resistance within us.
I’ve witnessed this directly through their transparent “parades of power” as they stomp up the hill below me, chainsaws in hand.
But when they show up with 7 police vehicles (including K-9 units) for only two peaceful protestors it also tells me that they’re scared. If just 2 people can elicit such a response, imagine what 100 people could do.
If you allow yourself to acknowledge the oppressive state we’re living in then pretty soon that tug you feel to to resist will become a jerk, will become a pull. It will become impossible to ignore.
Being complacent in this world comes at much too high a cost.
Why do so many turn away or stop listening when they’re confronted with these truths?
It’s hard to acknowledge these ugly parts of our society, but we can’t turn away. We can’t ignore what is happening. This world takes so much from us. We can’t let it take away our compassion too.
In these early morning hours as I lay here and listen to the sound of the forest coming alive, I vow not to ever become complacent. To become complacent is not an option.
We may lose, yes.
But we lose so much more if we fail to show up in the first place.”
For daily updates on pipeline resistance, check the links to various social media pages and following It’s Going Down on Twitter at @IGD_News.
