Category: Front

Over 50 Water Protectors walk onto Line 3 Pipeline easement, two lock themselves to an excavator laying pipe

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cross-posted from Camp Migizi

Over 50 Water Protectors walk onto Line 3 Pipeline easement, two lock themselves to an excavator laying pipe

Contact: media@resistline3.org

(FOND DU LAC) On Tuesday afternoon, two water protectors locked themselves to an excavator laying pipe on an Enbridge worksite near Cloquet, MN. They marched onto the easement with over 50 activists, shutting down construction on the Line 3 tar sands pipeline for much of the work day.  The group, led by Anishinaabe warriors from Camp Migizi, then gathered at a sacred site, which has been desecrated by the pipeline’s construction, to pray.

In the words of one of the people who locked themselves to the construction equipment, Charles King, “Our state laws are not working in the public interest and for the public good. We are endangering future generations… and that’s got to stop.” The other water protector locked to the excavator, a Fond Du Lac band member, declined to comment, saying that their actions speak louder than their words.

Since construction began in November of 2020, Line 3 has been met with growing resistance from Indigenous water protectors and allies on the frontlines. Just last night, another water protector who leapt onto a section of pipe suspended over a trench, delayed construction for over seven hours before being extracted by the police.

On the political front, State Representative Ilhan Omar made a visit to the pipeline’s easement on Saturday to stand in solidarity with Indigenous communities resisting the pipeline. Nationally, although President Biden recently revoked key permits for the Keystone XL pipeline, he has not taken a clear stand on Line 3, another tar sands pipeline that would be catastrophic for the climate and Indigenous sovereignty.

Line 3 violates the Treaty Rights of Anishinaabe peoples by endangering critical natural resources in the 1854, 1855, and 1867 treaty areas. It has also been decried by Indigenous communities for its role in the ongoing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives. This demographic is put at risk for sex trafficking by the presence of “man camps,” the temporary worker housing used for pipeline construction.

For more information, contact Camp Migizi on Facebook or email media@resistline3.org. High resolution photos and interviews with movement leaders available on request.

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Water Protector Climbs onto Section of Line 3 Pipeline to Prevent Damage to Pipe

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cross-posted from Camp Migizi

Water Protector Climbs onto Section of Line 3 Pipeline to Prevent Damage to Pipe

[FOND DU LAC] Late Monday afternoon, three water protectors were arrested for blocking construction of Line 3. Two of the protestors were arrested while blocking the entrance to the site, while the third, Jeff Nichols, climbed onto a section of the pipeline dangling over a trench. Jeff sat on the pipe for nearly five hours, preventing workers from putting the pipe onto frozen sand bags which would have damaged the structural integrity of the pipeline.

In a Facebook livestream from Camp Migizi, a water protector camp based out of Fond Du Lac, Jeff shared that he felt compelled to act when he saw the workers were about to put the pipe into the ground onto frozen sand bags. In the livestream, it was also shared that OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, put out a mandate ordering Enbridge to not use frozen sandbags, as they force the pipe to bend, causing fractures and leading to spills.

On the livestream, Jeff can be heard saying, “It’s not even a question. This one will leak. The sandbags are frozen. You guys have already received violations for that” while other protestors shouted “all pipelines leak.”

Line 3, if built, would cross over 200 hundred bodies of water in Northern Minnesota, including the Mississippi River. Enbridge itself is responsible for numerous oil spills in Minnesota, including the largest ever inland oil spill in North America when nearly 1.7 million barrels of crude oil spilled in Grand Rapids.

For more information, contact Camp Migizi on Facebook.

Tell these advertisers to stop funding Fox News now

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On January 6th, we all watched with revulsion as a violent mob of fascists and white supremacists overran the U.S. Capitol. As the weeks have passed, more and more is being revealed. From sketchy Capitol tours by Republicans to the involvement of high ranking law enforcement members, it’s so clear just how embedded white supremacists and fascists are on the right.

If we don’t rise up now against this growing fascist movement, these racist pieces of shit will continue to consolidate their base and radicalize more people with their hate and lies.

That’s why we’re launching our newest campaign to go after the white supremacists’ biggest megaphone: Fox News. If we can send enough messages to the companies giving millions in advertising money to Fox News today, we can send a strong message to some of the biggest U.S. corporations that there are consequences to being associated with hateful platforms like Fox News.

Send a message to the top 12 Fox News advertisers now to demand they stop funding lies, deadly disinformation, and extremist right-wing violence.

Here’s the list of the top 12 companies giving millions of advertising money to Fox News every year: GlaxoSmithKline, Liberty Mutual, General Motors, Procter & Gamble, Intuit, NortonLifeLock, Nestle, Kraft Heinz, Progressive, Charles Schwab, Toyota, and Subaru.

According to Media Matters, Fox News has cast doubt on or pushed conspiracy theories about the November election nearly 800 times.

  • Lou Dobbs, on November 16, told Fox viewers that “this is a war, this is a battle for the control of our government and for the future of this nation.”
  • Sean Hannity, on December 18, said that “there’s no doubt this [election] was stolen. No doubt whatsoever.”
  • Jesse Watters, on his Fox show on December 26, said that “when they sabotage a president who actually changed things, we don’t rebel, we don’t march, we don’t resist. … We used to storm the castle over abuses of power like this.”

These repeated lies and incitements to violence led directly and predictably to what happened on January 6th.

This obviously isn’t just a matter of pushing lies about the election — Fox’s lies hurt all of our communities, whether they’re about climate denialism, scapegoating immigrants, undermining COVID public health measures, or saying that Black Lives Matter is going to “come for you” (Tucker Carlson, on June 8). Fox News is the gateway channel to far-right extremism in America.

It’s long past time for us to turn off Fox’s money faucet and the hypocrisy we’re seeing from corporations across the spectrum. At the same time as they’re putting out statements condemning the January 6 attacks, corporations like General Motors, Liberty Mutual, GlaxoSmithKline, and Subaru have continued buying ads on Fox News.

Join our campaign to call out the companies underwriting Fox’s dangerous lies and enabling fascist violence. These companies can either keep on funding Fox’s lies or say that they support American democracy — not both. It’s high time for them to choose.

Please send a message demanding that 12 of Fox News’s biggest advertisers stop funding Fox now.

Water Protectors Lock Down Inside Line 3 Pipeline

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pics via Giniw Collective

cross-posted from the Giniw Collective

(Backus, MN) Thursday morning, water protectors locked to each other inside a Line 3 pipe segment, halting construction at an Enbridge worksite as dozens more held space.

The site is a few miles from a large Enbridge man camp operating in the township of Backus, Minnesota. Enbridge is working 24 hours per day at several worksites, as a pending injunction to halt work while tribally-led lawsuits are heard has yet to be decided.

According to several cultural site maps, numerous sacred and significant sites lie in the path of the Line 3 project.

Water Protector Abby Hornberger said, “After moving to Minnesota to attend college and study environmental science, I was excited to be in a place where people valued protecting the earth and finding a viable future. What I found, however, was a state that had formed “ambitious” climate goals yet endorsed one of the dirtiest fossil fuels, tar sands oil. I realized that indigenous ways of knowing and practicing harmony with the environment are continuously ignored. The Line 3 pipeline far outweighs all clean energy initiatives and progress being made in renewable energies. Line 3 will destroy Minnesota’s essential clean water resources for future generations and will ultimately drive us into climate doom. Education and spreading awareness is no longer enough to create meaningful change for me.”
Hornberger continued, “Enbridge’s last ditch effort to build fossil fuel infrastructure is killing people and the planet. I refuse to be complicit in settler colonialist practices, and feel that I have to put my body on the line to protect indigenous communities’ sovereignty and all of our futures. This is not just an issue relevant to some, it affects each of us on a deeper level that goes beyond our daily lives. It determines if we will have a livable future.” Continue reading