September 22, 2016

Here, SocialistWorker.org publishes excerpts from some of the solidarity statements issued by labor and social justice organizations. The International Socialist Organization, publisher of this website, issued its own solidarity statement last week.

The struggle of hundreds of Native American and environmental activists against the Dakota Access Pipeline project, centered at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, is winning support from people around the world who understand the pipeline protesters are standing up for all of us. Pressure from the demonstrations along the pipeline route and far beyond is the crucial factor behind federal and judicial action that has temporarily halted construction.

National Nurses United

National Nurses United welcomed the move by the federal government to stop construction on the Dakota Access pipeline project that has been the center of protests by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and supporters. Nurses urged the government to permanently block the disputed project that nurses say is a threat to public health, as well as to the tribe's sacred sites.

"We commend the leaders and members of the Standing Rock Sioux, the many First Nation allies who have joined them, and the environmentalists and other supporters who have participated in the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The decision of the Departments of Justice, Army and Interior is a direct result of the efforts of the pipeline opponents who have taken this courageous stand on behalf of all of us," said NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN...

NNU also condemned the recent attack on protesters by private security guards using dogs and pepper spray.

"It is long past time to call into question all these dangerous pipeline projects that have become increasingly common, generally with far less public notice than the Dakota Access pipeline, or the similar successful campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline, has garnered," Ross added...

Youth from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe speak out against the pipeline in New York City (Joe Catron)

"Contrary to claims of supporters, pipeline transportation of this volatile oil is far from safe. We have already witnessed many examples of pipeline spills from ruptured pipelines that have contaminated water supplies and led to numerous problems of respiratory ailments and other health symptoms associated with the spills," Ross said.

Communications Workers of America

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) Committee on Human Rights stands with members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in South and North Dakota as they fight to protect their community, their land and their water supply.

CWA stands with all working people as they struggle for dignity, respect and justice in the workplace and in their communities.

The Standing Rock Sioux and potentially 17 million others are threatened by the Dakota Access Pipeline route, a 1,170-mile oil pipeline that would run from North Dakota to Illinois. In addition to endangering those communities, the pipeline could possibly desecrate the ancestral burial grounds of the Standing Rock Sioux; this utter disrespect and violation cannot be allowed.

Members of the tribe point out that the pipeline, which would come within half a mile of the reservation's water supply and burial grounds, would contaminate their community. The Army Corps of Engineers gave the Texas company building the pipeline "fast track" approval this summer without consulting with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

CWA, through our Committee on Human Rights, stands with working people and against corporate greed, whether we're fighting for clean water in Flint, Mich., against bad trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that would hurt U.S. jobs and communities, or the rights of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to safeguard their community.

The labor movement is rooted in the simple and powerful idea of solidarity with all struggles for dignity, justice and respect. CWA will continue to fight against the interests of the 1 Percent and corporate greed and firmly stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe against the environmental and cultural degradation of their community.

Black Lives Matter Network

In the state of North Dakota, there is a movement for all of us. A movement for the recognition that water is life. A movement led by warriors, women, elders, and youth. A movement made possible by the actions taken by those who came before us, steeped in the wisdom of elders. A movement anchored by Indigenous women who put their bodies on the line for our liberation...

The water protectors who are protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline are engaged in a critical fight against big oil for our collective human right to access water. To be clear, this is not a fight that is specific only to Native peoples--this is a fight for all of us and we must stand with our family at Standing Rock...

Black Lives Matter stands with Standing Rock. As there are many diverse manifestations of Blackness, and Black people are also displaced Indigenous peoples, we are clear that there is no Black liberation without Indigenous sovereignty. Environmental racism is not limited to pipelines on Indigenous land, because we know that the chemicals used for fracking and the materials used to build pipelines are also used in water containment and sanitation plants in Black communities like Flint, Michigan. The same companies that build pipelines are the same companies that build factories that emit carcinogenic chemicals into Black communities, leading to some of the highest rates of cancer, hysterectomies, miscarriages, and asthma in the country.

Our liberation is only realized when all people are free, free to access clean water, free from institutional racism, free to live whole and healthy lives not subjected to state-sanctioned violence. America has committed and is committing genocide against Native American peoples and Black people. We are in an ongoing struggle for our lives and this struggle is shaped by the shared history between Indigenous peoples and Black people in America, connecting that stolen land and stolen labor from Black and brown people built this country.

Black Lives Matter affirms that our lives do matter on Indigenous Land. We affirm our family's right to land and clean water, a right that does not change based on the whims of American companies who wish to make more money off poisoning the waters that we depend on to live. We affirm our right to live takes precedent over corporations' prerogative to make a profit.

Amigos de le Tierra México, Chiapas

Stop the Repression Against the Sioux of North Dakota and Solidarity with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!

We demand the immediate withdrawal of the arrest order issued against the U.S. journalist Amy Goodman, anchor and producer of the free media Democracy Now! She was unjustly accused by a judge in North Dakota of "having invaded private property," while she was covering events on September 3 around the construction of the "Dakota Access Pipeline" near the reservation of Standing Rock, where the native Sioux people live.

Her video shows how guards of security employees of the pipeline builder Dakota Access L.L.C., a private U.S. corporation, attacked with pepper spray and dogs persons demonstrating against this megaproject. No arrest warrants were issued against these aggressors...

We stand in solidarity with the dignified struggle of the Sioux, who rightly reject the destruction of their sacred territory in the interest of a project financed by some of the least ethical banks in the world (Goldman Sachs, HSBC, UBS, Bank of America) who threaten their right to water. We applaud the victory won on September 9 when the White House ordered the suspension of the work under Lake Oahe. Their struggle continues to obtain a definitive end of this project in the entire area that would have been affected.

End the repression against the Sioux of Standing Rock!

Respect the voice of the First Peoples!

No arrest of Amy Goodman!

California Faculty Association

The California Faculty Association stands in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the coalition of Native leaders and activists defending their cultural heritage, sacred grounds, right to protest, sovereign rights and right to clean water.

These brave activists have taken a stand as "water protectors." The treatment of the protectors by private and state law enforcement officials echoes the violent and exploitative history of racism and genocide experienced by the Sioux Nation during the violent conflict with the U.S. Army during the Whitestone Massacre of 1863.

Native people have a continuous experience of colonization--the transfer of the wealth of the community to private interests--that continues to this day. The Sioux Nation has faced conflict with the Army Corps of Engineers during the building of Oahe dam that has eroded their land rights and degraded their land.

To end this history of violence and environmental degradation of tribal land, the Sioux Nation and over 100 tribal leaders are taking a stand. CFA supports their right to freedom of expression and protest, freedom of access to the media, and the right to defend their land and their only source of clean water...

Dr. Erma Jean Sims, a CFA activist, Lecturer at Sonoma State University, and member of the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama said:

I stand in solidarity with our Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Brothers and Sisters to protest an oil pipeline proposed to run through tribal land in North and South Dakota. Our sacred sites and ceremonial grounds are "sacred." As Native American people, it is our "sacred duty" to protect these lands, the history of our people, and the burial grounds of our ancestors. The care of the EARTH and the environment has been entrusted to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and all Native American people. Join us in prayer and protection our sacred sites, tribal lands, waters, and the EARTH.

National Agrarian Council of Colombia

We have learned with a great sense of hope and happiness that the ancestral spirits today live among you who have courageously decided to fight for your rights, for Mother Earth and for the protection of life.

In Colombia, the family farmers, Indigenous and Afro-descendent peoples that make up the National Agrarian Coordination send this expression of our solidarity, our rebellious shout--our breath in unity.

An old Indigenous text states: "The day that the eagle of the north and the condor of the south meet, the world will change." You and the peoples of the north are represented by the eagle; we, the peoples of the south, are represented by the condor. If we unite, the world will change.

Companions in struggle: We move forward in the defense of our territories, in the defense of our identity, in the defense of our peoples saying NO to the corporations that destroy Mother Earth, our lives, our culture and humanity.

From Colombia, we send our embrace in struggle and resistance.

Mesoamerican Movement against the Extractive Mining Model

The Mesoamerican Movement against the Extractive Mining Model--M4--embraces the struggle of the Sioux Tribe as they resist the construction of an oil pipeline in North Dakota, U.S.A.

The Native populations have the right to defend their way of life against the capitalists who wish to impose themselves at the cost of violating peoples' rights...The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, who also suffer the impacts of extractivism of the common goods, express and promote another kind of development which respects culture, ancestral ways, ecology and spirituality. We extend solidarity among the peoples as a form of defense of their territory and life.

From here, we condemn these acts of censure and repression and we send our warm greetings to the peoples in resistance at Standing Rock.

For a dignified struggle against megaprojects in the Americas!

Amalgamated Transit Union

The Amalgamated Transit Union joins others in the labor movement in condemnation of the ongoing violent attacks on the Standing Rock Sioux and others who oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline. These attacks by a private security company bring back horrific memories of the notorious Pinkertons, who used clubs, dogs and bullets to break up peaceful worker protests.

Union members understand that today the greatest threat to jobs, health and decent living standards is climate change. We support the National Day of Action on September 13, and we urge President Obama to stop construction of this destructive pipeline and keep dangerous fossil fuels in the ground.