Saint Paul, MN – On Saturday, July 23, roughly 30 climate activists gathered outside the Saint Paul Farmers’ Market to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Kalamazoo oil spill and demand a stop to Line 3, a new tar sands pipeline. The action was organized by the Climate Justice Committee (CJC).

The Kalamazoo oil spill occurred on July 26, 2010 and was one of the largest in U.S. history. Spills and accidents happen regularly from oil pipelines. Between 2010 and 2020 alone, the U.S. and Canada had a combined 3398 pipeline spills.

B Becker from the Climate Justice Committee opened the protest, stating, “Enbridge is responsible for the Kalamazoo oil spill that leaves the Kalamazoo River poisoned to this day. Enbridge is also responsible for the two largest inland oil spills, both in Minnesota. We cannot allow corporate greed to destroy our waterways. We cannot allow Enbridge to poison the Mississippi like they did the Kalamazoo River.”

“This is like being forced to ride the Titanic while getting told it's unsinkable,” said Diana Hernandez of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. Autumn Lake from the Anti War committee pointed out the role of the U.S. military to the ongoing drive for fossil fuels and environmental degradation.

“What do we want? Stop Line 3! When do we want it? Now!” chants could be heard by the hundreds of people at the farmers market.

Several speakers and chants connected the struggle against Line 3 with the demands for Native sovereignty and the need to defend and uphold treaty rights over land and water resources.

Steve Sandberg from the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute told the crowd about the role of environmental racism against oppressed nationality communities and the ongoing fight for an urban farm in the East Phillips neighborhood.

This action was part of the CJC's campaign to demand that the Army Corps of Engineers perform a full federal environmental impact survey on Line 3 and pull its operating permits. You can sign their petition online:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Yrj66S_iroqq5oo2XkD9HaOysU8_OlI-WcjV515IZs8/viewform?edit_requested=true

#SaintPaulMN #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateJusticeCommittee #Line3Pipeline

St Paul, MN – On October 28, despite rain and falling temperatures, 50 activists picketed at the Army Corps of Engineers offices in downtown Saint Paul to call for the Corps to pull the permits for the Line 3 oil pipeline and to conduct a full environmental review.

Construction on Line 3 has been completed and it has Canadian tar sands oil, the dirtiest petroleum in the world, flowing through it. Opposition to this toxic flow continues to grow in defiance of political repression and the wishful thinking of the fossil fuel industry.

Tribal elders from the Red Lake Treaty Camp opened the action with a prayer and thanked everyone for coming to stand up for the water and treaty rights which are trampled on by the pipeline project. Activists want to hold the Army Corps of Engineers accountable. The Corps has never conducted a full environmental review of the pipeline project, ignoring their stated core missions of “environmental regulation” and “ecosystem restoration.”

The Line 3 pipeline crisscrosses over lakes and waterways in Minnesota, including the Mississippi River, which is a major source of fresh water throughout the country. “We are here today because the Army Corps of Engineers needs to do its job as stewards of the environment,” stated Line 3 fighter Kelly Thomas, who is also an activist with the Twin Cities Coalition 4 Justice 4 Jamar. The need for continued resistance was emphasized by Megan Palmer from the Climate Justice Committee (CJC), explaining that every day oil flows through a pipeline is a risk for a major oil spill.

The CJC initiated the picket line, continuing the #StopLine3 pressure, joining with youth activists who walked out from classes earlier that day and with the International Indigenous Youth Council (IIYC) that also coordinated a day of action on October 29, against Chase Bank and other major funders of the Line 3 oil pipeline.

#StPaulMN #PeoplesStruggles #EnvironmentalJustice #Line3Pipeline

St. Paul, MN – Over 2000 people came to the Minnesota State Capitol building, Wednesday, August 25, occupying the capitol grounds in protest of the Line 3 oil pipeline. Over 40 people walked 256 miles from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the capitol building to demand that Governor Tim Walz stop the pipeline’s construction. Over 200 people met the water protectors about a mile and a half away to march through the streets for the final stretch with them towards the capitol grounds.

Enbridge, a Canadian oil company, is aiming to finish construction of the pipeline by the end of the year. The Line 3 oil pipeline runs through indigenous treaty land and harms the health and livelihoods of the Anishinaabe communities. The pipeline also would transport enough tar sands oil that would cause 50 coal power plants’ worth of greenhouse gases to be emitted. Rather than upholding his campaign promises, Governor Tim Walz is encouraging construction to finish.

Winona LaDuke from Honor The Earth said, “I’m like a lot of the other water protectors here facing charges in three counties. I’m not a criminal. I’m a water protector! The criminal is Enbridge! That’s the criminal. That’s the criminal that [Walz] is enabling. You know we want this line stopped and we want it stopped before they get to oil. They’re all proud they got all of it done so far, just proud. You should be proud of yourself for gaming the system and arresting all those people and making a mess of the north. Pitting family against family and making us afraid to drive on our own roads up north. That’s what you did Tim. You made a mess of civil society up north.”

Taysha Martineau from the Fond du Lac reservation and the host of Camp Migizi gave a powerful speech talking about the impact of the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis.

Martineau stated, “The really terrifying thing about these projects is that it exacerbates both drug and sex trafficking, and indigenous communities along the route have already been devastated by both. When pipelines, such as Keystone XL, Dakota Access Pipeline, Line 3, Line 4, and Line 5 go up, the statistics we face as indigenous women increase by 23%. Back home I have three beautiful indigenous daughters, before that increase we are taught one in three. So I want Tim Walz to answer a question that I have to ask myself every single day when I look at my three daughters: Which one? Which one of my three indigenous daughters is going to be raped before the age of 15? Which one is going to be murdered? Which one isn’t going to come home? Because I have to dress my kids every single day, not because they’re incapable, but because I need to know exactly what they’re wearing in case one of them doesn’t come home.”

Over 100 people stayed and occupied the grounds overnight on Wednesday to pressure Walz to stop the pipeline’s construction.

The gathering had a permit which lasted until 10 p.m. Thursday. Organizers announced plans to occupy the Capitol grounds for 38 days in honor of the 38 Dakota warriors who were massacred in Mankato, Minnesota in 1862. On Friday August 26, the police swarmed the capitol grounds with hundreds of officers to take down the remaining tipis and arrest people in ceremony. Hundreds of people mobilized to come down to the capitol in support of the water protectors, and the police made a quick retreat. Organizers vowed to continue the resistance.

This gathering was hosted by a coalition of over 30 groups.

#StPaulMN #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #Line3Pipeline #Enbridge

Line 5 is an aging oil pipeline that cuts across the ecologically fragile Straits of Mackinac in the Great Lakes and has spilled at least 33 times (1.1 million gallons of oil) since being built.

Line 3 is another old pipeline that was the source of the worst inland oil spill in U.S. history (1.7 million gallons of oil). Enbridge is attempting to expand Line 3's capacity by building a new portion through Anishinaabe treaty lands, violating those treaties and threatening fragile wetlands that are the home of the culturally important wild rice.

These pipeline projects are direct attacks on indigenous sovereignty and the treaty rights, as well as an act of violence against the indigenous way of life. Enbridge is building these pipelines to scrape the last bit of profits out of their failing oil infrastructure, at the expense of the indigenous people’s lives.

Paul DeMain, of Indian Country Communications, News from Indian Country, and Indian Country TV, spoke about how Enbridge uses their massive amounts of cash to influence how people think about this issue. He explained how Enbridge offers lucrative deals to any indigenous person they can contact, in addition to paying for out-of-area police forces to attack those trying to protect the land, and flooding the legal system to slow down any litigation until they can finish the pipeline project.

At the core, this issue is about the local, federal and state governments being bought by a large corporation, and being bribed to violate the terms of the land treaties signed by the indigenous peoples.

But as Paul DeMain said, if the terms of the treaty are violated, then the treaty is broken and the land reverts back to indigenous hands.

Enbridge cannot be allowed to force their destructive pipeline projects through the legal system on the back of the company’s accumulated capital.

#GreenBayWI #PeoplesStruggles #EnvironmentalJustice #Line3Pipeline #line5

Minneapolis, MN – On August 4, over 30 people gathered on an Interstate 35W overpass, near the office of Biden ally Senator Amy Klobuchar. Via signage, song and chants, community members spread the message to thousands passing by in rush hour traffic: “Save our planet, not their profits” and “Love water, not oil.” Protesters urged commuters to contact President Biden directly to demand an end to Line 3, as the president could kill ‘the black snake’ with a stroke of his pen – but he continues to prioritize corporate profits over the health of people and the planet.

Line 3 is a pipeline currently being constructed in northern Minnesota by Canadian multinational company Enbridge. The construction of Line 3 is in direct violation of the State of Minnesota’s treaties with the Anishinaabe people and is a threat to tribal sovereignty.

Enbridge markets the pipeline as a replacement project, when in reality it uses a different corridor, expanding the territory defiled by the dying tar-sands industry. Building a new pipeline allows Enbridge to abandon the corroding, leaking pipeline already in existence, and instead exploit precious ecosystems in the name of capitalism.

Despite clear calls from environmentalists, indigenous peoples and their allies, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and other state officials continue to tout fictionalized job gains as a reason to permit Line 3 to rob current and future generations of clean water and air. The pipeline would enrich only Enbridge. As Austin Dewey of the Climate Justice Committee explains, “Line 3 would bring few permanent jobs to the state, and instead suck billions into the pockets of Enbridge’s management.” The temporary construction jobs have the effect of creating man-camps near native communities. Communities which, due to systematic racism, land theft, and deliberate disinvestment by the federal government, experience a higher frequency of sex trafficking and violence against women.

Oil pipelines are the energy dinosaurs of a world slowly waking up to the dangers of relying on fossil fuels. Often called “the last pipeline,” Line 3 embraces the status quo of worshipping the oil industry, perpetuator of climate change and environmental destruction. Recent drilling fluid ‘frac-outs’ from Line 3’s reconstruction are harbingers of larger leaks that inevitably befall pipelines, especially those abandoned in the landscape in favor of new corridors. Any chemical spill near the headwaters of the Mississippi should be alarming to the millions living downstream, yet the banks funding the pipeline (TD Bank, Citibank, Wells Fargo, etc.) turn a blind eye. Those who can’t and don’t are the indigenous peoples who depend on the water, wild rice and wildlife. Water is life.

This protest was initiated by the Climate Justice Committee.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateJusticeCommittee #Line3Pipeline

St. Paul, MN – Over 500 protesters picketed outside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mansion, November 14, to protest his decision to grant permits to allow Enbridge to build Line 3, a pipeline that would carry nearly a million barrels of tar sands a day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin through Minnesota. The event was organized by MN 350, and included other groups that have organized against Line 3.

The Climate Justice Committee (CJC) joined to protest Walz’s decision. Katherine Gould, a CJC member explained, “We demand the people of Minnesota and Native people have a say in Line 3, not corporations that will pollute our lands.” The emcees started the program straight to the point, “Walz approving the largest tar sands infrastructure is fucked up.”

Protesters chanted, “Ho ho, hey hey! No tar sands today” and “Climate justice now.”

Climate Justice Committee members also handed out flyers for their new campaign to tell Biden to roll back Trump’s executive orders that would speed global warming.

#StPaulMN #PeoplesStruggles #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateJusticeCommittee #Line3Pipeline

Both the Climate Justice Committee and members of the Giniw Collective, an indigenous-led group that protested outside the mansion earlier in the day, held the street and chanted slogans like “Climate change has got to go!” Police confronted the crowd and demanded that they stay out of the street, threatening to arrest anyone who would not step back over the curb. The scene escalated briefly, but protesters decided to clear the roadway in order to continue the action.

Activists with the Climate Justice Committee, the University of Minnesota Climate Strike, and University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society delivered speeches. A central point touched on by all speakers was the Democratic Party’s unwillingness to promise meaningful change. UMN Climate Strike speakers noted that Joe Biden’s plan to get the United States off of fossil fuels by 2050 is too little, far too late, as climate experts have pointed to 2030 as the deadline for serious changes to be made.

CJ McCormick, speaking for the Climate Justice Committee, spoke about the power of direct action, saying, “The green movement in the U.S. once pressured Richard Nixon, an avidly anti-activist conservative, to authorize the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.” McCormick went on to ask, “If we can pressure someone like Nixon to make concessions for the earth, then why is it proving so hard to get the Democratic Party – who claim to care about the planet – to stop posturing and actually defend it?”

Celia Nimz, a member of UMN Students for a Democratic Society, spoke about the inability of a capitalist country to effectively address climate change, stating that “green capitalism still means violent imperialism abroad.” Lithium is a key ingredient of the batteries used to power electric motors, and much of the world’s lithium mining takes place in Bolivia. Elon Musk, the CEO of the electric car company Tesla Motors, recently said outright that “We [the U.S. government and capitalists] will coup whoever we want! Deal with it,” when referring to the recent violent removal of Evo Morales, the leftist president of Bolivia.

A few hours after the Climate Justice Committee’s protest ended, Governor Walz’s office put out a press release announcing that he would be re-filing the appeal and thus delaying or even ending the ecologically disastrous Line 3 project. This reinforces a point made by Celine Jennings from the UMN Climate Strike, that we are “way more powerful than we believe.”

When we take to the streets to fight back, anything is possible.

#StPaulMN #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateJusticeCommittee #GiniwCollective #Line3Pipeline #UNMStudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS