By Freedom Road Socialist Organization
Thousands of Native people have rallied at Standing Rock, North Dakota, to oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). This is one of the largest protests by Native Americans in decades, as Native people and their supporters came from across the country stop the ecological disaster that DAPL would mean for Native lands and rivers.
Almost 100 Native American tribes have formally endorsed the protest, and representatives from more than a hundred different Native peoples have gone to Standing Rock. Massive civil disobedience to stop the DAPL is being met with armed force and mass arrests by the National Guard, along with local sheriffs and police mobilized from across the Midwest.
The DAPL is being built to bring oil from the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota through North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois. This more than a 1000-mile-long oil pipe, like the long opposed Keystone pipeline, is meant to bring oil from the upper Midwest and Canada to tank farms and refineries in the Midwest and Gulf coast of the U.S.
Many environmentalists oppose these oil pipelines, not only because of the danger they pose to the communities that they pass through, but also because they help perpetuate the production, distribution, and use of oil and its products, which is a major source of carbon dioxide, a leading contributor to climate change.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization urges all progressive activist to take action to support the Native Americans in their fight against DAPL. Those who can provide direct support in person or with financial and material aid to protesters at Standing Rock should do so. Local solidarity protests aimed at local sheriffs and police departments that sent police and weapons to try to suppress the protests as well as the corporations and banks backing the DAPL have brought out thousands of people across the country.
In addition to standing in solidarity with the Native people fighting to protect their lands and waters, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization also supports the return of land, lakes, and rivers to Native peoples so that they can live their lives as they choose, free from the constant threat of giant corporations. Return of natural resources is only right, given that the U.S. was founded on the genocide of Native Americans and theft of their land.
Stop the Dakota Access Pipeline(DAPL)!
Support the struggle of Native Americans to protect their lands and waters from corporate greed!
