Keep the Oil in the Soil: Fighting Against the Pipelines

Socialism 2017

August 15, 2017

Oil, water, and fish do not mix. In North Dakota, the Standing Rock Sioux, along with supporters from all over the US and the world, took an inspiring stand against the “black snake,” the $3.7 billion Dakota Access Pipeline that Donald Trump has given the green light to be finished. But the struggle is far from over—at Standing Rock, but also elsewhere. Many other pipeline projects are slated to run across indigenous territories from Canada to the U.S. and Mexico, including the Trans-Pecos pipeline and Comanche Trail pipeline in Texas; the Bayou Bridge pipeline in Louisiana; and the Line 3 pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, to Superior, Wisconsin. The struggle against the Keystone XL, the pipeline that would bring carbon-intensive, toxic, and corrosive crude oil from the Canadian tar sands, continues as well. Oil pipelines also impact 20 indigenous communities in Mexico. This is a fight that concerns us all. How can we stop the profiteers who will stop at nothing—including destroying the Earth—to keep the oil, and their profits, flowing?

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