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Wet’suwet’en Nation Resists Attacks by Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Energy Companies

Wet’suwet’en people are defending their lands from TransCanada/TC Energy and the Canadian Police (RCMP).

By Meg Maloney

The government of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and Coastal TransCanada/TC Energy are openly violating Wet’suwet’en, Canadian, and international law by forcibly entering Wet’suwet’en Territory. TransCanada is proposing a 670-kilometer fracked gas pipeline that would carry gas from Dawson Creek to the coastal town of Kitimat, British Columbia. All five Clans within the Wet’suwet’en Nation have opposed all pipeline proposals and have not provided consent to TransCanada. Land protectors had set up two encampments where they had been physically blocking entry to TransCanada. The RCMP responded by organizing a violent militarized campaign which included police carrying assault and sniper rifles.

Solidarity rallies, sit-ins, and railroad blockades have been organized from coast to coast, as well as internationally, demanding the RCMP leave Wet’suwet’en Territory. Protesters have successfully blocked major ports in the cities of Vancouver and Delta, BC. Service was suspended along the popular Toronto-Montreal rail road line as a result of a blockade in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory in Ontario. Protesters in the city of Vaughan blocked trains en route to London (ON), Hamilton, New York, and Michigan. Indigenous people and their supporters also blocked access into the provincial legislature in Victoria.

Canadian National Railroad (CN) invested over $95 million into Louisiana rail in 2019. CN’s infrastructure connects the Port of New Orleans to markets across the continent and links some of the states most important businesses in Baton Rouge and River Parishes to their suppliers. Across this continent and around the world, we are more connected than we may think. The South and Louisiana particularly have been a hub for land grabbing, resource extraction, and exploitation. So many capitalists come here to take advantage of the lack of labor rights and immense tax breaks politicians advertise to them.

We’re in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation. In solidarity, our collective strength is found.

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Global Environmental Crisis: Support Oil & Gas Workers’ Fight for a Just Transition

Oil workers in West Africa commemorate the 11 workers killed in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS NEED TO FIGHT FOR WORKERS

By Meg Maloney

Workers in the fossil fuel industry feel the effects of polluting industries on their families’ lives, including the threats to their homes due to loss of wetlands & sea level rise, water and air pollution, and the destruction of wildlife habitats. Some unions have put out statements saying they are for stopping climate change but express concerns over the transition to a sustainable energy economy. Will their new jobs be unionized and have good pay? Will their pensions be safe? Will they have access to health care? Society owes a lot to oil workers and their communities who suffer from the ups and downs of the global oil market and who often have dangerous jobs. The environmental movement needs to stand behind a just transition that recognizes oil workers and communities as leaders in the fight for their demands.

We cannot trust the Democrats or Republicans to secure a just transition for workers; we must fight for ourselves. All the benefits or rights that we have—and that we defend from constant attack—have come about as a result of workers and communities organizing.

Both bosses and their politicians seek to increase profits. Neither care about the effect on workers or the environment. We’re nearing the 10 year anniversary of the BP disaster where 11 workers were killed on the job. On top of dangerous work environments, workers face under staffing, and bosses replacing union jobs with independent contractors. With continuous layoffs, increasing climate crisis, and an increasing push towards sustainable energy, workers will have to fight to make sure that the transition is carried out on the workers’ terms, not the bosses.

A just transition could include the following demands:

  • Fossil fuel companies fully fund workers’ pensions and healthcare funds before anything else
  • Full unrestricted access to labor unions
  • Workers must receive the union access, pay and benefits they were receiving at their previous jobs
  • New workers should have full access to a union, living wages, and benefits
  • Full reemployment for all workers coming out of dying industries.
  • Priority to local hiring and paid training for affected communities.
  • Reparations from the old industries to communities affected by their negligence
  • Investment in job creation and training for sectors that are needed to address changing climate, such as jobs building infrastructure, wind, solar, environmental research, and wetland and forest restoration
  • Giant fossil fuel companies take responsibility for funding retraining, retooling, and remediation of polluted land
  • Demand the state fund initial stages of transition by finally taxing big oil.

For a just transition to happen the environmental movement and the workers must unite to draw up a plan and mobilize to demand its implementation. We cannot put our faith in congress or any politicians to do what is needed. Just like the housing crisis they will bail out the banks before the people, the bosses before the workers. We must organize and unite the labor and environmental movements to demand a just transition that meets the needs of the workers, and fully addresses climate change.

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Stop Police Harassment of New Orleans Musicians


By Meg Maloney

On Sunday, July 21, musicians, hospitality workers, and community members rallied together in outrage after local musician Eugene Grant, who plays with the Slow Rollas Brass Band, was pinned to the ground and arrested. The arrest came after the owner of Frenchmen Art and Books called the cops because the band was playing outside their store. Grant and his family are calling for musicians to have the freedom to play music in the streets without being forced to pay permits to the city. Musicians should be able to play in the street without fear of police violence. The city should be paying local musicians to play in the street because they help bring in billions of dollars to the city. The Hospitality Workers Alliance stands in solidarity with musicians in their fight. Without musicians and hospitality workers, there would be no tourism in New Orleans. We must come together and organize for our long overdue rights! The time is now!

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Indigenous Peoples of Peru Strike to Defend their Lands

By Meg Maloney

Indigenous people have long been at the front-lines of resistance against multinational corporations who pollute the environment through deforestation and mineral, oil and gas extraction. The indigenous peoples of Atalaya are demanding action be taken to stop extractive industries from further polluting their territories. Atalaya is the largest of four provinces in the Central Amazon Rainforest in Peru. Natural resources are being given to corporations without the consent or consultation of the indigenous people. Gas and wood are being extracted without the permission of the people who have lived on these ancestral lands for over 7,000 years.

The indefinite strike which began August 15 is to protest the negligence of national, regional and local authorities who allow the Ucayali and Urubamba rivers to be polluted by extractive industries. “We want the central government to enter into a dialogue with us,” said Edwin Jumanga an indigenous rights activist with AIDESEP. The groups involved have stated that they will block the routes used to transport cargo through the rivers. Through unity and organization, the Quechua, Aymara, Ashaninka and other indigenous peoples are resisting large multinational corporations and armed groups. The strike will continue until Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra agrees to meet with the affected communities and their representatives.

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Louisiana House of Representatives Moves to Criminalize Water-Protectors

By Meg Maloney

The fight against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline intensifies in Louisiana. The Indigenous-led L’eau Est La Vie (Water Is Life) camp, located in the swamps of Houma, Chitimacha, and Chata Territory, have been peacefully protesting the Bayou Bridge Pipeline for several months now. Community leaders have been organizing to spread awareness on the high-risk project, which puts 700 bodies of water in danger, including our precious Atchafalaya basin, the last growing delta in the state.

Big Oil is trembling in fear of the people organizing to fight back against companies who continue to make messes in our communities. From this fear has stemmed the bill HB727, which passed the Louisiana House of Representatives in April Next it will go to the Senate. Then it will land on our governor’s desk. If passed this bill could land water-protectors in jail for up to 25 years, and a year for even “conspiring” to protest pipelines.

Knowing how quickly our elected officials fall in line behind corporate sponsors, this bill is very worrying. The HB727 bill is meant to hyper-criminalize water-protectors, fisherfolk, environmentalists, journalists, justice organizers & anyone who wishes to exercise their First Amendment rights in relation to defending their lands and waters.

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is the organization guilty of writing the HB727 bill. ALEC is an organization that has over 300 corporate sponsors, including Walmart, the Koch brothers, AT&T, and Exxon Mobil. ALEC uses their corporate contributions to draft legislation that legislators across the country take back to their states and introduce as their own “reform” ideas. ALEC is known for promoting privatization and corporate interests in every sphere, including education, healthcare, the environment, voting rights, etc.

If the HB727 bill is passed our tax dollars will be used to protect private companies who are destroying our waterways, wetlands, and crawfish habitats. Our wetlands are vital in protecting us from storm waters, and we’re losing a football field worth of land every hour. Protecting waterways and wetlands should go without saying in South Louisiana. We should be focused on restoring them, because our culture and livelihood depends on it. Both Democrats and Republicans have supported the HB727 bill. It is not an issue of party; it’s an issue of whose pockets are getting filled by big oil.

Cherri Foytlin, an indigenous community organizer at the L’eau Est La Vie camp, says they’re not backing down. That if the people can’t put their bodies on the line to protect the water, on the route of the pipeline, they will bring the fight to the offices of all our corrupt politicians. Our officials can stand on the opposing side of the people, but when organized & united the peoples power will always win. The question is how far our corrupt politicians are willing to take it.

If you wish to support the work against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, visit nobbp.org. Donate, sign up for camp, and help spread awareness in your community. Call your representatives and say no to bill HB727.