EcoUnionist News #118 - #NoDAPL Resistance

Compiled by x344543 and x378016 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 24, 2016

From Democracy Now: "In North Dakota, more than a thousand indigenous activists from different tribes have converged at the Sacred Stone Spirit Camp, where protesters are blocking construction of the proposed $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. Protesters say the pipeline would threaten to contaminate the Missouri River, which provides water not only for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, but for millions of people downstream.

Native Activist Winona LaDuke: Pipeline Company Enbridge Has No Right to Destroy Our Future – Winona LaDuke interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now, August 23, 2016

Excerpt from the interview:

AMY GOODMAN: Last month, Winona, the Laborers’ International Union of North America endorsed the Dakota Access pipeline. Terry O’Sullivan, general president of LIUNA, said in a statement, quote, "The men and women of LIUNA applaud the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its fair and thorough review of the Dakota Access Pipeline. ... For the highly skilled and trained men and women of LIUNA, projects like the Dakota Access are more than just pipelines. They are crucial lifelines to family-supporting jobs," they said. Laborers Local 563 business agent Cory Bryson said, quote, "We’ve been inundated with calls from all over the country from people wanting to work on this pipeline project. Mainline pipeline projects like Dakota Access provide excellent working opportunities for our members and tremendous wages." Your response, Winona LaDuke?

WINONA LADUKE: My response is that the United States has a D in infrastructure. That’s why bridges collapse. That’s why Flint, Michigan, has a problem. That’s why everything is eroding in this country. And what we need is those skilled laborers to be put to work, pipelines for people. I’m saying take those pipes that are sitting there in northern Minnesota, and send them to Flint, Michigan. They need billions of dollars’ worth of pipe infrastructure out there. We don’t need any pipes in northern Minnesota. I say that most of our Indian reservations don’t have adequate infrastructure. We’d like a little help with our water and sewer systems there. I am all for organized labor, but what I want is I want pipelines, I want infrastructure, for people, not for fossil fuels, not for oil companies. So I am all for that. There are plenty of people that could be put to work. And it’s five times as many jobs doing infrastructure for communities, doing for people, than one shot throw a pipe down and hope it works out for you. So I’m asking American labor to stand with us and to say we want pipelines, we want infrastructure, that goes for people, that goes for communities, and not for oil companies that are going to destroy our environment and cause more climate change destruction to our planet.

LaDuke is correct, as the folks at Labor Network for Sustainability pointed three years ago in reference to the Keystone XL Pipeline (see The Keystone Pipeline Debate: An Alternative Job Creation Strategy - by Kristen Sheeran, et. al., Labor Network for Sustainability, 2013). There's absolutely no reason for the Building Trades to needlessly hitch their wagons to this extractivist capitalist boondoggle.

Iww member and camper and organizer against the pipeline had this to say:

"we need the support of people now more than ever and there are numerous ways you can support. The health of the land is a human rights issue and a labor issue. The labor movement must stand firmly against the attempts of the capitalist class to pull the people into false solutions that only mean unsustainable jobs and practices that will do nothing to alleviate the hardships of working people during this current economic downturn. We should be pushing alternatives for ways to improve our communities and heal the land, not destroy the very land base we depend on for survival. There are no jobs on a dead planet."

To Join in the Struggle

• Red Warrior Camp Facebook Page
• Urgent Appeal for International Observers – By Joseph White Eyes, Michelle Cook, and Carolyn Raffensperger, Indigenous Environmental Network, August 23, 2016

Background on the Struggle

• There’s a new mega-pipeline in town. Here’s why it has so many protesters in the trenches - By Xian Chiang-Waren, Grist, August 24, 2016
• North Dakota Pipeline Protest Heads to Court – By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 23, 2016
• Occupying the Prairie: Tensions Rise as Tribes Move to Block a Pipeline – By Jack Healy, New York Times, August 23, 2016
• Officials Pull Water Supply as Dakota Access Protest Swells in Number and Spirit – By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, August 23, 2016
• Solidarity Rally – By Eesha Williams, Valley Post, August 23, 2016
• After 525 years, it’s time to actually listen to Native Americans – By Lauren McCauley, Grist, August 22, 2016
• Standing up at Standing Rock – By Brian Ward, Socialist Worker, August 22, 2016
• Amid Tribe's Protest, Construction Of Oil Pipeline In N. Dakota Halts — For Now – By Merrit Kennedy, NPR, August 19, 2016
• Dakota Resource Council stands in support with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe – By Don Morrison, Jennifer Weisgerber, and Nicole Donaghy, Dakota Resource Council, August 19, 2016
• Native American Pipeline Protest Halts Construction in N. Dakota – By Phil McKenna, InsideClimate News, August 19, 2016
• Dakota Pipeline Would Make Water the New Oil, Devastating All but the Rich – By Erich Longie, Truthdig, August 18, 2016
• Native Americans Are Barred From Disrupting Oil Pipeline Construction – By Alejandro Dávila Fragoso, Think Progress, August 18, 2016
• Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and IITC file an Urgent Communication to the United Nations Citing Human Rights Violations Resulting from Pipeline Construction – By Steve Sitting Bear and Roberto Borrero, Last Real Indians, August 18, 2016
• Stopping the Snake: Indigenous Protesters Shut Down Construction of Dakota Access Pipeline – Winona LaDuke, Joye Braun, and Ajamu Baraka interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, August 18, 2016
• Support the Bakken Pipeline Fighters at the Camp of the Sacred Stones – By Mark Hefflinger, BOLD Nebraska, August 18, 2016
• 'We are protectors, not protesters': why I'm fighting the North Dakota pipeline – By Iyuskin American Horse, The Guardian, August 18, 2016
• A Massive Oil Pipeline Is Being Built Across the Great Plains – By Zoë Carpenter, The Nation, August 17, 2016
• Number of protesters at Dakota Access pipeline construction site causes traffic concern – By Sara Berlinger, KFYR Fox TV 5, August 17, 2016
• Pipeline company gets nasty as it tries to push huge new project through sensitive lands – By Xian Chiang-Waren, Grist, August 17, 2016
• State Police Begin Checkpoints, Roadblocks, and Psyops as Protesters Unite to Defend Water – By staff, Unicorn Riot, August 17, 2016
• Dakota Access Pipeline Construction Halted for Second Day, Protest Camps Expand – By staff, Unicorn Riot, August 17, 2016
• “We don’t want this black snake within our Treaty boundaries” – By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 17, 2016
• Dakota Access Pipeline purchaser looking like Enron – By Winona LaDuke, Inforum, August 16, 2016
• Dakota Access pipeline terrorizing Native Americans – By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, August 16, 2016
• Native American protesters disrupt work on oil pipeline – By staff, BBC, August 16, 2016
• Tribal Activists Defy Lawsuit, Vow Continued Resistance Against Dakota Pipeline – By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, August 16, 2016
• Work stops at Dakota Access Pipeline site – By Lauren Donovan, Bismarck Tribune, August 16, 2016
• Land Defenders Storm Construction Site to Protect Water – By staff, Unicorn Riot, August 15, 2016
• The Government Quietly Just Approved This Enormous Oil Pipeline – By Alexander Sammon, Mother Jones, August 12, 2016
• Green light likely for Bakken pipeline construction in Iowa – By William Petroski, Des Moines Register, June 1, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.