Reconciliation is dead, Revolution is alive.

by Mary Lovell at Rising Tide North America

In the past two weeks, the Wet’suwet’en have faced brutal colonial and corporate violence. The RCMP forcibly removed community members and land defenders from their yintah (land) with snipers, helicopters, and dogs.

But, an incredible indigenous rights movement is fighting back. The best and most urgent ways you can show up right now are:

  • Organize a solidarity action where you live. Here’s a toolkit from Unist’ot’en camp about solidarity actions. This could be anything from a rail blockade to a film screening fundraiser.
  • Donate to Gidimt’en for logistical needs and legal support

Rail and port blockades continue to hold across so-called Canada, and the Canadian legal system is trying to criminalize and remove land defenders with sweeping injunctions. The grassroots community has been organizing inspiring, revolutionary actions in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

The Tyendinaga Mohawk community and allies have been holding a rail blockade on their territory for over two weeks in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en, and were just removed in a violent raid by the police last night. Already, a grassroots uprising has responded by blockading one of the largest bridges in Montreal, blocking the port in Vancouver, marching in Ottawa- and over 8 blockades created in one day.

We need you to show up to support this incredible resistance. Donate, and start organizing in your community today.

By burning illegal injunctions and continuing to hold prayer and ceremony in the face of colonial and corporate violence, the Wet’suwet’en maintain a powerful and inspiring praxis.

We demand that the Coastal GasLink project not move forward without Indigenous consent, and that the Canadian and B.C. governments remove the RCMP from Wet’suwet’en territory.

No matter where you live, there are relevant actions to plan. As mentioned in the Wet’suwet’en strong supporter toolkit, there are many responsible for the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

First, hundreds shut down all of the above-ground entrances to the B.C. Legislature building, postponing the Throne Speech, after over a week of holding protests drawing thousands to put pressure on John Horgan- premier of British Columbia.

Second, hundreds are targeting investors. Just last week, hundreds of people in London targeted one of the biggest CoastLink pipeline investors who is planning to buy 65% of the project, KKR. The fierce land defenders sat in at their office.

We’re also excited to announce that Rising Tide North America will be sharing more organizing strategies in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for that!

In the meantime, if you’d like to stay in the loop on all the amazing resistance coming out of Canada right now,, sign up for the Unist’ot’en Solidarity email list. It has a daily summary of actions and news from camp.

Also, even as the Canadian state continues in their violent and colonial ways, there are major victories. Indigenous land defenders and campaigners had a major win yesterday, as Teck Frontier the largest ever proposed tar sands mine has rescinded the application in recognition of Indigenous rights and title, the climate, and the uncertainty of construction in Canada.

City Pages: Minneapolis protesters decry ‘suit and tie motherfuckers’ lobbying for Enbridge

cross-posted from City Pages

February 27, 2020

by Hannah Jones

The Capella office tower in downtown Minneapolis is so echoey, it was hard to ignore the protesters chanting on the second floor no matter where you were standing.

The group, carrying signs that said “STOP LINE 3” and “NO PIPELINES,” was gathered outside the elevators to Winthrop and Weinstine, a law firm way up on the 35th floor. A few people dressed in office attire skirted past them warily as they headed to lunch. A man in a tie watched the proceedings from a few yards away, occasionally muttering a few words into a walkie-talkie.

Calgary energy company Enbridge is trying to replace its massive Line 3 pipeline, which pumps oil across a large swath of northern Minnesota, with a newer, bigger pipeline.

The protesters hailed from Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America, Northfield Against Line 3, and other anti-pipeline orgs. They argue completing the pipeline and allowing more oil (760,000 barrels a day, to be exact) to gush through the state will only add to our climate change woes. They also say it’s only a matter of time before it leaks, with potentially devastating effects on the environment and the surrounding Native communities.

The protesters explained they were in Capella and not, say, the state Capitol, because Winthrop and Weinstine lawyer Eric Swanson works as a registered lobbyist for Enbridge, and spends a lot of time testifying before the state’s Public Utilities Commission. Enbridge, in fact, was Minnesota’s biggest spender on lobbying in 2018, according to the Star Tribune, with a whopping $11.1 million spent mostly on those arguments before the PUC.

Then there’s Winthrop and Weinstine’s purported financial influence. In 2019, the law firm gave thousands of dollars to a smattering of local and state campaigns, and $25,000 to Gov. Tim Walz’s inaugural committee, according to MPR. (Unlike campaign committee donations, our state’s inaugural committees have no restrictions on who can give or how much.)

In short, the problem, one protester said into the megaphone, was “the suit and tie motherfuckers going around giving money to politicians like Tim Walz.” Shortly afterward, the man with the tie and the walkie-talkie sidled up and informed the protester that “respectful language” was used “in this building.”

Walz has been difficult to pin down on Line 3. In 2017, he tweeted that any pipeline that went through treaty lands was a “non-starter.” Then, during his campaign, he said he was “satisfied” with the PUC’s decision to move forward with the project. Last year, he continued a court appeal set by the previous administration to block the pipeline project, a decision Enbridge called “unfortunate.”

The protestors aren’t willing to celebrate until he puts his foot down.

“If you take money from the fossil fuel lobby you cannot call yourself a climate progressive and you cannot expect our support,” the group said in a statement.

Mere minutes after the chanting began, a few security guards turned up and started herding the protestors toward the doors. They went willingly, seemingly unsurprised that they were being asked to leave so soon. But as they squeezed out the front doors with their signs and megaphones, they chanted, “We’ll be back.”

Gretchen Milbrath, Winthrop and Weinstine’s director of business, said the firm respected the group’s right to protest, but wouldn’t comment on the specifics.

Students Demand Stop Line 3 Action from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz

from Northfield Against Line 3

Students Demand Stop Line 3 Action from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Walz refuses dialogue

Over 40 students and community members protested Governor Tim Walz’s negligence and inaction at a moderated conversation between the governor and reporter Pat Kessler, hosted by Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota this morning. Protesters shut down the forum multiple times, with different groups addressing police brutality, climate and environmental justice, and MN state investments in the fossil fuel industry?. Onstage, Walz committed to dialoguing with protesters about their concerns after the forum ended; however, at the end of the event, protesters awaiting dialogue were informed the Governor would not speak with them.

At 10:15am, activists with Justice for Jamar called out questions about police brutality and state inaction from the audience. 15 activists, including family members of police murder victims, came to confront and question Governor Walz because he has refused previous communication. There was a verbal back and forth between Justice for Jamar activists, the moderator, Pat Kessler, and the Governor himself. Protestors were forced to leave the auditorium by police.

At 10:30am, following the forced removal and detainment of several nonviolent activists for the Justice for Jamar movement, the moderator asked Walz an audience question about Line 3: “Governor, why are you choosing to willingly create a public health crisis and put Native communities at risk by failing to oppose Line 3?”

Instead of responding to the question, Walz argued that he doesn’t have jurisdiction over the choices of the Public Utilities Commission or the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. He refused yet again to publicly comment on or recognize the detrimental effects of the Line 3 expansion project. If he regards the issues around climate change as seriously as he claims to, he would publicly denounce the project.

Line 3 protestors responded to the moderator’s question about the climate crisis by standing in front of the stage with banners reading “Stop Line 3” and highlighting Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. The Line 3 activists were told that if they left, same as the Justice for Jamar activists, there would be a one on one meeting with the Governor to address these issues. This did not occur: the commitment the governor made was a lie intended only to remove activists from the audience.

Here are our questions for Governor Walz, should he have upheld his commitment to dialogue:

  • By what date will the Dept of Commerce appeal against the Certificate of Need be refiled? If you don’t have a date yet, when will you let us know a date?
  • Can you commit to following the science rigorously on the 401 water crossing certification, and when the science shows a denial, following through on that by denying

Statement of Solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Leadership in Resistance to the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline

photo credit: Cualli Tlazocamati

In response to the ongoing rebellion against the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline and the Canadian government’s human rights abuses at the Wet’suwet’en, Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en camps, Rising Tide North America issues the follow statement:

“Rising Tide North America supports Wet’suwet’en hereditary leadership in resistance to the Coastal GasLink Pipeline. 

We unequivocally support the sovereignty and human rights of the Wet’suwet’en as title holders to their territory, and their rights to resist the massive fracked gas pipeline that puts their land water climate and women at risk.

The Canadian government and Coastal GasLink are using armed forces, snipers, and dogs to remove matriarchs and supporters from the yintah, they are ignoring the human rights of the Wet’suwet’en, Unist’ot’en and Gidimt’en camps.

We stand with Wet’suwet’en and their supporters as they continue to fight this armed invasion  by the Canadian Government of their territory and ongoing colonialism on behalf of a corporation. We see and honour the strength, courage and determination in all those taking action, defending their land through peaceful ceremony, rail blockades, launching legal challenges, and organizing against investors in the project.

The Wet’suwet’en community has a huge network of organizers, activists, musicians, artists, unions, labor councils, faith groups, that support their sovereignty and resistance, and are raising our voice as a collective in solidarity.

If you would like to continue to support the Wet’suwet’en solidarity efforts against Coastal GasLink there is a supporter toolkit here:

We will continue organizing alongside this powerful grassroots movement, to call out those supporting the armed invasion of Wet’suwet’en territory- the decision makers and investors in this project, and answer the call to action to stand strong against the Canadian government, and Coastal GasLink.”

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