Tag: Stop Line 3

Macalester College: Students launch blockade during statewide day of action in solidarity with the movement to #stopLine3

  By , , , , ,

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 3/5/2021

Contact:  Priscilla Trinh, UMN Student, primoria1890@gmail.com for general inquiries, and to be connected with student press contacts at each school

Photos: find more photos of the day here

Macalester College students blockade Grand Avenue during statewide day of action at Minnesota schools in solidarity with the movement to stop Line 3 

(MINNESOTA) Today, hundreds of Minnesota college and university students are staging demonstrations on their campuses to raise awareness of the Line 3 pipeline, and to call on their institutions to divest from fossil fuel industry projects. Students from the University of Minnesota Morris, UMD, UMN Twin Cities, Carleton College, St Olaf College, The College of St Benedict’s, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Macalester College have been collaborating to plan this day of action for months. b`

Emily Wittkop, a junior at the University of Minnesota Morris said, “I’m fighting Line 3 for several reasons – the danger to our environment, the violation of Minnesota’s treaties, the impact of oil on the world’s political climate. I’m also pushing the University of Minnesota to begin fossil fuel divestment so that the financial investments of UMN matches their stated mission and the will of the student population that pay so much for their education here.”

For this statewide day of action, student activists at 8 Minnesota schools are staging art installations, hosting protests, and talking with their peers about how their schools are funding construction of the Line 3 pipeline. (More information about each school’s activities available upon request.)

At Macalester College in St Paul, 350 students have blockaded the city street, Grand Avenue, that runs through the campus. Dozens of Macalester students, alumni, faculty, and staff have been involved in the Line 3 resistance movement over the years, and several have even been arrested protesting on the frontlines in recent months.

Helen Meigs, a Macalester senior, said “We are out here today because it is unethical for Macalester to claim that they are preparing us for the future when their investments are part of the system robbing us of that very future. Macalester’s investments in Enbridge support a pipeline that will have devastating consequences for global climate change, a pipeline that when it spills, will poison the drinking water of millions along the Mississippi, a pipeline that violates the treaty rights of the Anishinaabe people. We are here today in solidarity with the indigenous water protectors up north and to call on Macalester to stand with us and divest to stop Line 3.”

Students from the 8 participating schools have been collaborating to prepare for today’s activities for months. Connecting over zoom meetings and workshops, they’ve developed a community and had space to discuss their shared values and visions for a better world. It was those relationships that pushed two Macalester College seniors to reinvigorate their divestment campaign with a proposal to the Macalester Board of Trustees specifically calling on them to divest from Enbridge Energy in protest of the Line 3 pipeline. Most of the participating groups have made ongoing or past fossil fuel divestment asks of their schools’ administrations.

The coalition of Minnesota schools also collaborated with students from around the US and Canada to plan the Student Divestment Virtual Rally to #Defund Line 3 for today at 3 pm.

###

Water Protectors Lock Down Inside Line 3 Pipeline

  By , , , , ,

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

Backus, MN: Water Protectors Blockade Line 3 Pipe-yard

  By , , , , ,

pic via Giniw Collective

cross-posted from the Giniw Collective

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 28, 2020
Contact: giniw@protonmail.com

Water Protector Ascends Tripod Blockading Enbridge Line 3 Pipe-yard

(Backus, MN) Monday morning, a water protector bravely ascended a tripod high in the air blockading an Enbridge pipe-yard, as dozens of supporters held space below.

Since giving the final green light on November 30th for Enbridge to bulldoze through Minnesota’s watersheds for its tar sands expansion project, the Walz administration has met a series of escalating direct actions with complete silence. Actions have ranged from mass arrest, prayer walks to proposed river drilling sites, tree sits, and locking to heavy equipment.

On December 19th, a Line 3 construction worker was killed at an Enbridge worksite. After an hours-long halt, work resumed.

Before ascending into the air in front of a tar sands pipe-yard, Emma Harrison said, “I’m part of the Line 3 resistance movement because this pipeline embodies everything I believe is wrong with the world. Profits for a few are being privileged over the well-being of all communities near and far, present and future. Stopping Line 3 is a tangible way to fight for the world I want to live in.”

Live updates and photos can be found on Giniw Collective’s Facebook page.

Rising Tide Chicago Bird-dogs JPMorgan Chase Board Member Again!

  By , , , , ,

cross-posted from Rising Tide Chicago

We all know Chase’s new policy on Arctic drilling is the babiest of steps; so Rising Tide Chicago birddogged Mellody Hobson, a Chase Bank boardmember who claims to be inspired by social movements like youth uprisings and the anti-Apartheid movement, and concerned about migrant child detention.

We gave her a copy of RAN’s follow-up letter before the dinner, and then got on the mic to ask a follow-up question: “Mellody Hobson, you praised the leadership of the students here tonight, while all young people face a catastrophic future precisely because of Chase bank’s investments in the fossil fuel industry. Chase Banks recent policy limiting arctic oil drilling is a start but we need you to use your leverage to stop all fossil fuel investments. As a Boardmember, will you respond to the demands and next steps we outlined in time for the AGM?”

Unfortunately, she gave us the exact same answer as last time, stating that what happens in the boardroom is private information, but that they look to “serve all their constituents.”

Last month, we asked her to read the 2019 Banking on Climate Change Report and she heard us out. Now that we know she won’t change her line, we’ll have to keep up the pressure.