It’s Still Time to Stand for Standing Rock!

Standing Rock Activists Face Harsh Prison Sentences

Clergy members join activists in 2016 protests over the Dakota Access pipeline at Standing Rock, N.D. (unitedchurchofchrist / Flickr Creative Commons)

Thousands of Native Americans and environmental activists came to North Dakota in 2016 to protest the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, which now runs through the Standing Rock tribe’s reservation. They were fighting both the desecration of Native American land and the environmental impact of oil drilling on that land. Hundreds of activists were arrested for civil disobedience, but the movement was a source of purpose and hope for many of them.

Two years after the protests faded from national headlines, The Guardian reports that many of these activists, also called “water protectors,” are accusing the U.S. government of “an aggressive campaign … to suppress indigenous and environmental movements, using drawn-out criminal cases and lengthy prison sentences.”

Michael “Little Feather” Giron, 45, a member of the Chumash tribe, was among those arrested. His wife, Leoyla Cowboy, told The Guardian that Little Feather had been battling drug addiction prior to participating in the Standing Rock protests, and that the protests gave him purpose, a renewed connection to tribal elders and sobriety.

“He has been taken from us, and it’s a huge void in our lives,” Cowboy said of Little Feather, who has been sentenced to three years in prison. She added, “He is a political prisoner. … We were protecting our land. It’s something we have to do, and we’re going to be met with this violence from these agencies, from the federal government, from the state.”

More than 141 activists were arrested at Standing Rock. Now that many movement leaders, including Red Fawn Fallis, who was charged with attempted murder, are being sentenced, activists have started to speak to the press about the toll these court cases are taking on their lives and those of their families.

As The Guardian notes, under President Trump, prosecutions of water protectors have increased:

The US Department of Justice has pressed forward with six cases against Native Americans. North Dakota prosecutors meanwhile have pursued more than 800 state cases against people at Standing Rock, including 165 still pending, according to the Water Protector Legal Collective, a legal support team.

Some activists, including Little Feather, and Rattler of the Lakota tribe, have agreed to plea deals. Like Little Feather, Rattler was charged with civil disorder and the use of fire to commit a felony. The civil disorder charges stemmed from a standoff with police on Oct. 27, 2016, when water activists set up a roadblock to the proposed pipeline. The Guardian says, “The arson charges related to the fact that ‘several fires were set by unidentified protesters’ to thwart police, as prosecutors wrote in one court filing.”

Rattler maintains that these were exaggerated charges. As he put it, “They needed these convictions to make examples of people.”

Had Little Feather and Rattler not taken plea deals, they would have faced a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison. Rattler’s attorneys expect that he’ll get three years. As reported by KFYR, a Fox affiliate in North Dakota, Falliswas sentenced Wednesday to 57 months in prison. KFYR says she was charged with “one count of civil disorder and one count of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon. The sentences will run concurrently.” She’ll then have three years of supervised probation.

Meanwhile, Cowboy has been separated from Little Feather since his arrest in March 2017. While she’s relieved that sentencing is over, there are obstacles to manage when he gets out. In addition to maintaining his sobriety, he’ll have to contend with another challenge that Standing Rock activists have been coping with since the media gaze faded: a feeling that their hard work has stalled, that they’ve been left behind.

As Cowboy said of the rest of America, “They are forgetting that we are still here.”

from:    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/standing-rock-activists-face-harsh-prison-sentences/

Global Witness & Environmental Activism

Special operatives hired by powerful industries are assassinating environmental activists trying to protect Mother Nature

Global Witness

(NaturalNews) Environmental activists are being murdered at record rates, with as many as three deaths occurring per week, according to London-based advocacy group, Global Witness.

A report released last year by Global Witness, found that 185 killings occurred in 2015 – a 60 percent increase over the previous year, and “the deadliest year on record.”

The majority of the murders were committed against activists involved in opposing logging, mining, agribusiness and dam projects, with Brazil’s logging protestors being the most common victims of violence.

In Brazil’s Amazon states – and elsewhere throughout the world – the murderers are being shielded by “collusion between state and corporate interests.”

“In cases that are well-documented we found 16 were related to paramilitary groups, 13 to the army, 11 to the police, and 11 to private security — strongly implying state or company links to the killings. There was little evidence that the authorities either fully investigated the crimes or took actions to bring the perpetrators to account.”

Governments are ‘turning a blind eye’

And, although the Global Witness report finds these trends more prevalent in locations such as South America and Africa, the United States government is also complicit in the persecution of activists, labeling them as terrorists, and using infiltration and illegal surveillance tactics against their organizations.

In fact, many governments throughout the world are not only “turning a blind eye to corruption, illegalities and environmental degradation,” but are also publicly condemning activists as being “anti-development.”

The sad truth is that most of the violence is being perpetrated against indigenous people trying to protect their land from pillaging by loggers, ranchers and plantation owners.

Indigenous people accounted for 40 percent of the total deaths.

Anti-logging activists were the most frequently targeted, but the palm oil industry in places like the Philippines was also responsible for a number of deaths.

From Free Thought Project:

“The top five most deadly countries for environmental activists and land defenders were Brazil, with 50 deaths; the Philippines, with 33; Colombia, with 26; and Peru and Nicaragua, with 12 fatal attacks each.”

Globalization: the human and environmental cost

Globalization has created a whole new level of government and corporate collusion in terms of exploiting resources and crushing any opposition.

The rise of corporate fascism has led to extreme levels of violence and corruption amid the wholesale destruction of entire ecosystems – and, at this point there seems to be little hope of stopping it.

Free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will make it even more difficult to oppose global corporate interests, leaving activists squeezed between legal obstacles and government-sanctioned persecution.

The TPP will weaken regulatory agencies globally, making it easier for corporations to exploit natural resources, and leaving little legal recourse for those who oppose them.

And, as long as governments continue to turn a blind eye to violence against activists, while simultaneously passing legislation favoring corporations, the problem will only continue to grow worse.

Global Witness is calling for the protection of activists and their right to speak out, as well as a full investigation into, and prosecution of, those responsible for the violence.

To find out more about their work, and to join in the struggle against the corruption and violence being carried out by those who wish to exploit the world’s natural resources, visit the Global Witness website.

And, as corporate influence becomes more powerful by the day, it’s crucial for the average citizen to become as self-reliant as possible. Don’t wait for the total collapse of the system; start preparing today.

It’s becoming increasingly clear that our governments do not represent the people anymore, but rather the corporations who get them elected while lining their pockets. And these corporations have shown that they will stop at nothing – even murder – to get what they want.

Sources:

TheFreeThoughtProject.com

GlobalWitness.org

AlterNet.org