At noon on Feb. 9, a day after the Army Corp of Engineers reversed its decision and gave the go-ahead to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), 150 people gathered in downtown Saint Paul to denounce this ruling. After a brief rally, the activists marched through the streets chanting, “You can’t drink oil, leave it in the soil,” “1, 2, 3, 4! Pipelines, genocide and war. 5,6,7,8! America was never great,” and “Mini wiconi, water is life.”

The march stopped at the Army Corp of Engineers office, but the building was locked down. Then they marched to U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo Bank, which have investments in this project.

Nina Berglund, a 17-year-old student at the Gordon Parks High School in Saint Paul, said, “We are here in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and also for the future; for my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.”

Rallies and marches opposing the pipeline continue around the country as activists vow to continue the fight.

#StPaulMN #US #PeoplesStruggles #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #Antiracism #DakotaAccessPipeline

President Trump issued memorandums Jan. 24 to push ahead construction of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline. The memorandums direct the Army Corp of Engineers to expedite the issuance of an easement for crossing Lake Oahe and to rescind the Notice of intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement.

Both of these pipelines endanger the country’s water supply and land resources. The Dakota Access pipeline in particular is in violation of the treaty rights and sovereignty of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota people. Standing Rock has been the site of so far an eight-month-long encampment, prayers and protests against the pipeline.

Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, said, “Americans know this pipeline was unfairly rerouted towards our nation and without our consent. The existing pipeline route risks infringing on our treaty rights, contaminating our water and the water of 17 million Americans downstream.”

Archambault said Trump’s decision appears to be a political payback. “By granting the easement, Trump is risking our treaty rights and water supply to benefit his wealthy contributors and friends at DAPL,” he said. “We are not opposed to energy independence. We are opposed to reckless and politically motivated development projects, like DAPL, that ignore our treaty rights and risk our water. Creating a second Flint does not make America great again.”

#NoDAPL activists are calling for local mass protests in support of indigenous rights, for clean water and clean energy, and against Trump’s memorandums.

#MinneapolisMN #US #PeoplesStruggles #EnvironmentalJustice #Elections #DonaldTrump #DakotaAccessPipeline

New York, NY – Around 800 people gathered at Foley Square, in lower Manhattan, Nov. 15, to stand in solidarity with Standing Rock and protest against the North Dakota Access Pipeline.

Brilliant signs were held by the protesters with the slogans “Water is life” and “Keep the oil in the soil.” After the initial introductions from the organizers, people chanted, “Get up! Get down! Keep fossil fuels in the ground!” and “Street by street, block by block, we stand with Standing Rock!”

Nov. 15 marked a national day of action where over 200 U.S. cities participated and demanded that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deny Energy Transfer Partners, the company spearheading the pipeline, access to the Standing Rock territory. A small victory was won the night of the Nov. 14, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made a concession saying that they must have further discussions with the Lakota nation before allowing further work could occur near and in Lake Oahe, a part of the Missouri River.

This concession came after weeks of militant protests, led by indigenous people, at Standing Rock.

There was a heavy police presence at the New York action as approximately squad 30 squad cars lined the square where the protest took place. When protesters tried to take the streets, the cops retaliated immediately and arrested 12 activists. The rest of the people there chanted at them, “Who do you serve? Who do you protect?”

However, the arrests didn't hinder the rest of the protesters and the action continued. One of the attendees, Colleen Baublitz, spoke about why it’s necessary to have actions of solidarity , “It is essential that we stand with them and speak out against growth in fossil fuel infrastructure that risks drinking water quality in the short term as well as long-term public health by exacerbating climate change.”

The crowd left in high spirits at the end of the protest, knowing that while a small concession was made, there would be more organizing to come.

#NewYorkNY #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline #NODAPL

Thousands of Native people have rallied at Standing Rock, North Dakota, to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). This is one of the largest protests by Native Americans in decades, as Native people and their supporters came from across the country stop the ecological disaster that DAPL would mean for Native lands and rivers.

Almost 100 Native American tribes have formally endorsed the protest, and representatives from more than a hundred different Native peoples have gone to Standing Rock. Massive civil disobedience to stop the DAPL is being met with armed force and mass arrests by the National Guard, along with local sheriffs and police mobilized from across the Midwest.

The DAPL is being built to bring oil from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. This more than a 1000-mile-long oil pipe, like the long opposed Keystone pipeline, is meant to bring oil from the upper Midwest and Canada to tank farms and refineries in the Midwest and Gulf coast of the U.S.

Many environmentalists oppose these oil pipelines, not only because of the danger they pose to the communities that they pass through, but also because they help perpetuate the production, distribution, and use of oil and its products, which is a major source of carbon dioxide, a leading contributor to climate change.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization urges all progressive activist to take action to support the Native Americans in their fight against DAPL. Those who can provide direct support in person or with financial and material aid to protesters at Standing Rock should do so. Local solidarity protests aimed at local sheriffs and police departments that sent police and weapons to try to suppress the protests as well as the corporations and banks backing the DAPL have brought out thousands of people across the country.

In addition to standing in solidarity with the Native people fighting to protect their lands and waters, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization also supports the return of land, lakes, and rivers to Native peoples so that they can live their lives as they choose, free from the constant threat of giant corporations. Return of natural resources is only right, given that the U.S. was founded on the genocide of Native Americans and theft of their land.

Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline(DAPL)!

Support the struggle of Native Americans to protect their lands and waters from corporate greed!

#CannonBallND #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #DakotaAccessPipeline #NODAPL

Minneapolis, MN – Nearly 2000 protesters, many Native American, rallied at city hall here, Oct. 28, demanding that Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek immediately withdraw sheriff department personnel from North Dakota, where they have been deployed against demonstrators who are fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

About 30 sheriff department personnel have been sent to North Dakota, where they have been photographed carrying out brutal attacks on demonstrators who are defending water resources and sacred land.

#MinneapolisMN #IndigenousPeoples #EnvironmentalJustice #SheriffStanek #StandingRockNation #DakotaAccessPipeline #NODAPL

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine extends its strongest support and solidarity to the indigenous resistance at Standing Rock against the Dakota Access Pipeline and the settler colonial project of genocide and plunder in North America.

“It is no surprise that the United States and Canada, built on the genocide of indigenous peoples and the plunder of their land and resources, are today the strongest settler colonial partners of the Zionist state engaged in its own settler coloni