UPDATE - Solidarity with Standing Rock
OFFICIAL UPDATE - OCTOBER 27, 2016
CANNON BALL, ND
RED WARRIOR CAMP
We feel a strong a responsibility to support anyone who is willing to fight for clean water. After all, it is this water that gives us life, and unfortunately, as we saw in Flint and other cities, anytime clean water is threatened it always affects America's working class.
The water protectors at Red Warrior and Sacred Stone camps are busy protesting the pipeline that threatens to destroy their lands and ours in the North Dakota plains. These brave sisters and brothers have set up their camp 50 miles south of Bismarck to announce to the world that they will fight to protect the waters of the Missouri river and its tributaries, along with their sacred burial grounds.
We stand in solidarity with all of our Native American relatives, and we join their call in asking for the Federal government to step in to honor all the treaties that have been signed with the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. We also stand in solidarity in the call to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and call for the creation of long-term sustainable jobs.
We had been planning a caravan that was to leave from Chicago on November 11th, and we were planning on bringing winter clothing and supplies in our act on behalf of our members.
As of today, these plans have been placed on hold because the situation in North Dakota has taken a turn for the worse. We have learned from our contacts, on the ground, that all camps have been surrounded by heavily militarized police forces, and all roads, in or out of the camps, have now been blocked. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for further developments.
In the meantime, we ask our sisters and brothers to call the White House (202-456-1111 or 202-456-1414) and demand that President Obama step in and put an immediate stop to this unconscionable attack characteristic of a genocidal past and an immediate halt to the pipeline-DAPL.
And if you want to help in the frontline we ask you to visit the Civil Liberties Defense Center website at www.cldc.org and pledge whatever you can afford so their team of attorneys can help those who are being unjustly arrested.
