Stand with Standing Rock!

Scan page 3

More than bitter winter weather lies ahead for hun­ dreds of Native American nations and their support­ ers battling hazardous fossil-fuel pipelines on sacred Sioux land at the Standing Rock camp near Cannon­ ball, North Dakota. A far more bitter struggle looms for Native American rights and climate justice with the incoming Trump administration. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, Trump’s choice for the Depart­ ment of Energy, is a climate-change denier and sits on boards of Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco, two companies involved in the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Oil company execs are vowing to complete the pipe­ line despite a Dec. 4 decision by the Obama adminis­ tration and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to not give the go-ahead to Dakota Access Pipelines (DAPL) to dig pipelines under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, a source of drinking water for the Sioux nation and millions downstream. The decision instructs the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct an environmen­ tal study with community input, a process that could take one or two years.

On Dec. 13, the New York Daily News posted a re­ cording it had received in which Mathew Ramsey, a top exec at Energy Transfer Partners, DAPL’s parent company, was said to be telling ETP staff, “I’ve got to tell you, election night changed everything.” Ramsey said on the recording, “We fully expect as soon as he is inaugurated this team is going to move to the final approvals, and DAPL will cross the lake.”

Vulture capitalist and President-elect Donald Trump has declared his support for the pipeline and is per­ sonally invested in DAPL for up to $1 million. Also invested are many of the corporations of Trump’s bil­ lionaire pals, such as Chase Morgan bank, the Bank of America, TD Bank, and Wells Fargo—which alone has invested $467 million. The pipeline will extend 1170 miles from the Bakken oil fields in North Dako­ ta through sacred Sioux land to Illinois and ultimately to the Gulf Coast. The cost is $3.7 billion.

A lawsuit filed by Earthjustice on behalf of the Stand­ ing Rock Sioux Tribe contends that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and other federal laws in allowing the pipeline to be dug under Lake Oahe. If the Army Corp’s permis­ sion to dig is restored, or if the federal court in North Dakota accepts DAPL’s arguments, pipeline construc­ tion could resume.

North Dakota’s laws are the strictest when it comes to allowing out of state public defenders to represent “water protectors” facing charges in court, now total­ ing at least 550. The Water Protector Legal Collective (WPLC) of the National Lawyers Guild provides legal support but is overwhelmed and urges the state to re­ lax its guidelines. Seventy-five North Dakota lawyers have been assigned 165 cases, but an additional 264 water protectors remain without lawyers.

The WPLC has also called for the dismissal of State Attorney Ladd Erickson for his inflammatory com­ ments in court, referring to water protectors as stag­ ing “fake news” and “simply props for videos of stage events.” The hearings have been postponed, and the Trump administration’s actions will ultimately deter­ mine the continued relevance of the lawsuit. Whatev­ er happens, the first rule of capitalism will still apply: ‘laws are meant to be broken’ … if they stand in the way of profits!

Originally, DAPL was to traverse an area close to the mostly white Bismarck, some 50 miles distant, but when the plan encountered opposition, the pipeline was rerouted to Standing Rock. DAPL is in violation of the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie and the treaty of 1868. In the 1950s, hundreds of thousands of acres of Sioux land was seized to make way for a dam, with little or no compensation. In the treaties, the Sioux agreed to keep the area undeveloped and for hunting, but it is now ravaged by fossil-fuel polluters.

Demonstrating corporate contempt for the envi­ ronment, a recent examination of oil spills in the last 30 years revealed over 8700 pipeline spills. On Dec. 13, two hours from Standing Rock, a pipeline spilled an estimated 176,000 gallons of crude into the Ash Coulee Creek. Sunoco Logistics, DAPL’s future op­ erator, has the worst safety record of all. According to government statistics, it has had over 200 leaks since 2010. Last October, a Sunoco gas pipeline rup­ tured in Pennsylvania, spilling 55,000 gallons into the Susquehanna River.

The outrage at Standing Rock is a continuation of 500 years of the rape of Native American rights through massacres, racism, land theft, and forced dis­ Stephanie Keith / Reuters Indian Point nuclear plant and under the Hudson River. They described the danger as “imminent.”

The judge dismissed the defense’s request to drop the charges, thus shielding Spectra’s po­ litically connected corporate criminals. The Mon­ trose 9’s attorney, Martin Solar, will file an appeal. The Montrose 9 were sentenced to a $250 fine plus a $125 “surcharge” and five hours of commu­ nity service. The courtroom was filled with 100 supporters, who stood silently in solidarity.

Spectra has completed its hazardous 42-inch pipeline through sacred Ramapough Lenape land; it passes 105 feet from safety facilities of the In­ dian Point reactor. If the accident-prone nuke had a Fukashima-style meltdown, New York City, some 30 miles south, would be in its kill zone. (Breaking news: Indian Point may close in 2021.)

Spectra’s pipeline has completed one-third of its route up the East Coast. Spectra pretends that the pipeline is three separate projects for greater lee­ way in circumventing regulations.

We say, keep fossil fuels in the ground! Stop Spectra! Victory to Standing Rock! 100% renew­ ables now! — M.G.

men from Standing Rock. The masked men threat­ ened to assault them and bragged about sexually as­ saulting their wives. Also in December, three indig­ enous people were chased by white men in a pickup truck and masked men in snowmobiles. The attack­ ers chased them at up to 100 mph on dangerously icy and snow-covered roads.

As with other struggles under capitalism, the strug­ gle to stop DAPL will depend on the fight waged by Native American peoples and their working-class al­ lies, especially oppressed communities. Standing with Standing Rock A movement to divest from DAPL has erupted na­ tionwide. According to the divestment group #de­ fundDapl, the total divested from DAPL is nearly $44.5 million from 17 institutions. Some 334 divest­ ment actions took place in December alone.

On Jan. 1, protesters marched in the Rose Bowl Pa­ rade in Pasadena, Calif. In Minneapolis a giant “Divest NoDAPL” banner was hung from a scaffold high above a Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings game held at the U.S. Bank Stadium. U.S. Bank is an investor in DAPL. In Seattle, Kashama Sawant, a city council per­ son and a socialist, is demanding that Seattle divest $3 billion from Wells Fargo by December 2018.

It is critical that the struggle to defend Standing Rock include the demand to free American Indian Movement political prisoner Leonard Peltier, still in jail since 1976 on frame-up charges of killing two FBI agents during the 1975 siege at Wounded Knee, S.D. Supporters cite retracted testimony by one witness who suffered FBI intimidation, suppressed evidence, and a lack of proof, which even Peltier’s parole com­ mission admits.

The demand for his freedom is supported by Am­ nesty International and human rights supporters worldwide. Supporters called on Obama to pardon Peltier. n SOCIALIST ACTION JANUARY 2017 3