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As people head home for the Christmas vacation to be with their loved ones, spare a thought for the one thousand or so water protectors that are braving bitterly freezing cold temperatures and blizzards in North Dakota to continue what has become the iconic protest of 2016 against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Over the last few months, as the news of the Standing Rock protests have spread across the globe, people have realised that the protest was never just about a pipeline, it was always about so, so much more. It was about the right to protect clean air and water; it was the right to protect ancient burial sites; it was the right to fight for a future for our children and grand-children. It was a belief that we can live in a world without oil. But it was also a battle against oppression and colonisation against First Nations that has being going on for centuries and where the wounds run old, raw and deep.
The long struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline is not over by a long shot, but last night the First Nations at Standing Rock celebrated a hugely significant and hard fought victory after the Army Corps announced it would not be granting the easement for the pipeline to cross under Lake Oahe.
“Where is our breaking point, at which we say that the benefits do not outweigh the human cost?" asks Eric Martin, a doctoral candidate in theology at Fordham University in a powerful polemic in the New York Times on the Dakota Access Pipeline.
They are used to standing shoulder to shoulder in the face of adversity fighting for their country. But next weekend, hundreds of veterans will come together again, potentially for one last time. Their mission this time is not to fight for their Government. But against it.
The protests by First Nations against the North Dakota pipeline are beginning to rattle the funders behind the highly controversial scheme. This means that the pipeline that once seemed unstoppable is increasingly looking vulnerable.
“Call the White House. Tell them this is unacceptable!!” someone tweeted yesterday, as people watched in horror as heavily armoured Police and law enforcement agencies moved to clear the water protectors in North Dakota fighting to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Yesterday, a North Dakota judge today refused to authorize riot charges against the award-winning journalist from Democracy Now! Amy Goodman for her reporting on protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Later today, the award-winning journalist and host of Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman will walk into a law enforcement office in North Dakota and hand herself over to the authorities. She stands accused of participating in a “riot”.
People power stopped Keystone XL in its tracks. Now we're seeing human resistance to fossil fuel projects spreading rapidly around the globe.
