#noDAPL Standing Rock Dakota Access Pipeline Opposition

https://www.facebook.com/groups/UAINE/

Over 150 Indigenous Nations have descended upon Canon Ball, ND to take a stand against the Dakota Access Pipeline. [Photo: Overpass Light Brigade, https://www.facebook.com/OverpassLightBrigade]

“You can’t drink oil and you can’t eat money!”

Standing Rock Dakota Access Pipeline Opposition #noDAPL

http://www.edgeofsports.com/

By Dave Zirin

On Friday night, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made the decision that he would not stand for the national anthem before his team’s preseason game against the Green Bay Packers. Afterward, he made a lengthy statement to NFL media, the heart of it being, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.”

Both Kaepernick’s words and deeds had a familiar ring for me. They recalled another moment of athlete activism and the national anthem. But it didn’t happen in the NFL, and it wasn’t the action of someone possessing wealth or fame. It was an unlikely protest, at a moment when the hard work of political dissent was unheard of on the field of play.

The year was 2003 at the start of the Iraq war. The scene was a small Division III school called Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York, and the political actor was a senior forward on the women’s basketball team named Toni Smith. In an atmosphere thick with jingoistic fervor, Smith made the decision to turn her back on the flag during the national anthem.

In those relatively primitive internet days, the story still managed to go viral and the outrage directed at Toni Smith was volcanic. The webpage of the liberal arts college had 2 million hits. Threats of violence were sent to the school and were palpable in the stands. Even though this was all before social media—which has amplified every threat and created a virtual white hood for the 21st century bigot—there was an effort to bury Toni Smith for the crime of practicing dissent. Yet still she stood strong, explaining her actions by saying:

“A lot of people blindly stand up and salute the flag, but I feel that blindly facing the flag hurts more people. There are a lot of inequities in this country, and these are issues that needed to be acknowledged. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and our priorities are elsewhere.”

She broke it down further to me in an interview back then by saying, “I’m from a mixed racial and ethnic background. My mom is Jewish, and my dad is Black, white and Cherokee. I was learning about the prison industrial complex and the wars against Native Americans…. This flag represents the slaughter of our ancestors.”

Today her name is Toni Smith-Thompson. She lives in New York City and works for the New York Civil Liberties Union. I had to get in touch with her to ask what she thought about Kaepernick’s actions. She emailed me the following. Her comments are sharp and worth a read and reread.

“For years I have wondered how I would’ve weathered the backlash from my protest in the age of social media. Now, I am watching it happen. Colin Kaepernick has a vastly greater platform than I did, which will make his protest more visible, more impactful and more dangerous. I am beyond proud of his conviction and hope sports fans who cheered him on for his athletic skills will stand by him still and affirm that we don’t check our freedoms in the locker room. For us activists, Colin will need our support and solidarity. He is using his platform to stand up to oppression, joining a small but growing number of athletes to do so. We should rise to the occasion, not just for him but for us as well.”

Smith also said, “Corporations have long understood the power of athletes to sell their brand, and pay heftily for it. But Colin is not asking for compensation to sell social justice; in fact, he will likely pay for it. He’s not only standing up to oppression of people of color, he’s standing up to corporate censorship of athletes. Both sports fans and social justice activists alike should crowd-source his message and drive it into as many US homes as possible, for freedom is never free and Colin just made a down payment.”

Here’s hoping that Toni Smith-Thompson is able to communicate directly with Colin Kaepernick in the days ahead. There are few people who have walked the path he is choosing to take. Kaepernick has the worst of the sports commentariat and hordes of social media scolds shouting in his ear about all he is about to lose. Toni Smith-Thompson is one of the few who can tell him what he stands to gain. http://www.edgeofsports.com/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:      Teresa Gutierrez (917) 328-6470

                        Scott Williams (919) 791-1429

                         414-395-0665

https://www.facebook.com/mooreheadlilly2016

Monica Moorehead and Lamont Lilly, the presidential and vice presidential candidates for Workers World Party, released the following statement on Aug. 30.

“On September 9, prisoners from coast to coast will rise up against the unimaginable cruelty of the U.S. prison-industrial complex in the first-ever nationally coordinated prisoner general strike. Led by prisoners deep inside the belly of the imperialist beast, the strike will seek to end once and for all this new form of chattel slavery and legalized human trafficking in U.S. prisons.

“According to the inmate organizers themselves, “We are not making demands or requests of our captors, we are calling ourselves to action. To every prisoner in every state and federal institution across this land, we call on you to stop being a slave, to let the crops rot in the plantation fields, to go on strike and cease reproducing the institutions of your confinement.” Read the prisoners’ full statement here.

“There are 2.3 million people in U.S. concentration camps as prisoners of the racist U.S. war on Black, Latinx and poor people. Millions of dollars of sophisticated U.S. weaponry are being produced by inmate slave labor.

“The federal prison system forces tens of thousands of inmates to work in intolerable conditions for 23 cents an hour, and often no pay at all in state facilities. This creates tremendous downward pressure on all workers’ wages, which include low-wage and part-time workers.

“Poor women, especially Black women, are the fastest growing section of the U.S. prison population and that queer and trans people are particularly at risk for arrest and incarceration due to institutionalized sexism and bigotry.

“Since the founding of Workers World Party in 1959, our consistent message has been to emphasize the importance of centering on the struggles of the most oppressed. This is the truest path to working-class unity, and it is our strongest weapon in the fight against all injustices under capitalism. It is why during the heroic Attica prison uprising, the Prisoners Solidarity Committee, a Workers World Party’s mass unit, was specifically requested by the inmates to join Black Panther Party Chair Bobby Seale and attorney William Kunstler who were mediators at the prison.  Tom Soto was an observer for the PSC.

“Our steadfast belief in the power of unity under the leadership of the most oppressed is also why the Moorehead-Lilly campaign, as well as our entire party, stands in complete solidarity with all prisoners who fight for freedom and liberation. We urge our friends and allies, as well as all people of conscience, to join us by attending a support demonstration outside a prison on September 9.

“Inmates, former felons, youth, undocumented workers and all others who are denied even the most elementary right to vote in the capitalist elections are invited to make their voices heard by voting for our candidates at Vote4Socialism.org.

“The rage that burns within each of us in the presence of injustice will be the light by which we build a better world.  To echo the sentiment of the martyred Attica brothers: ‘This is the sound before the fury.’

In steadfast solidarity and undying commitment to liberation, Workers World Party and the Moorehead/Lilly 2016 campaign.” https://www.facebook.com/mooreheadlilly2016

https://itsgoingdown.org/call-solidarity-actions-nodapl-september-3rd-17th/

From NoDAPL Solidarity

Red Warrior Camp in partnership with the Camp of the Sacred Stones are putting out an official Call to Action for all allies to stand 
in solidarity with us. Please join the #NoDAPL Global Weeks of Solidarity Action which will run from September 3^rd through 17^th.

Water is a necessity for all life. Water is life. Now is the time for all people from all walks of life to join together to stop the desecration and destruction of water, land and life! Please join our Indigenous led movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline by planning or joining an action near you!

For more information on targets for the week of action, or to join an action near you visitNoDaplSolidarity.org.

Contact Info:

Project Contact: Krystal Two Bulls
Organization: Red Warrior Camp
Voice Phone Number: (406) 740-1508
Email Address: RedWarriorCamp@gmail.com
Website: NoDAPLSolidarity.org
Social Media: facebook.com/RedWarriorCamp 
@RedWarriorCamp on Twitter
Hashtags: #NoDAPL #RevolutionaryUnity #RedWarriorCamp #SacredStoneCamp

Take Action:

We are calling for solidarity actions targeting:

• The pipeline companies trying to build the Dakota Access Pipeline
• The financial institutions that are lending the money to build the project

Join an existing action near you, or organize an action of your own.

Companies Behind DAPL

The Dakota Access Pipeline is a project being proposed by a collection of pipeline companies, with a complicated and intertwining structure:

• Energy Transfer Partners owns a 45% stake in the project
• Sunoco Logistics Partners owns a 30% stake
• Phillips 66 owns a 25% stake.

Additionally, Enbridge Energy Partners is attempting to buy a 28% stake in the project and Marathon Petroleum Corp is attempting to buy a 9% stake. These companies are hoping to finalzye this deal by the end of September. We are calling on these companies to pull out of the project or to cancel it outright.

Banks Funding DAPL

The companies building DAPL were able to secure a $2.5 billion loan from a collection of banks to build the pipeline. But the pipeline companies can only access $1.1 billion of this loan until certain progress is made on the pipeline project. So we are calling on these lenders to cut off this line of credit to the pipeline companies and to stop funding the DAPL.

Three of the main lenders are Citigroup, TD Securities and Mizuho Bank.

Below is a map of some of the office locations of these targets. In addition to this map there are these resources:

TD Bank Branch Locations in the “United States”

TD Bank Branch Locations in “Canada”

Citibank Branch Locations

Voces De La Frontera

Confronting anti-immigrant racists in Milwaukee July 19. [Photo: Occupy Riverwest]