Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL): Has the Standing Rock Resistance been Co-opted by the Non-Profit Industrial Complex?
Global Research News Hour Episode 170
“Perhaps the best answer is that Standing Rock is the killing of three birds with one stone. [1) Protection of BNSF profits, 2) Continued colonization of Indigenous Peoples, 3) An integral observation lab to study NVDA training impacts/results on non-Anglo cultures in recognition that NGOs are now rolling out NVDA training “programs” across the globe.“
-from STANDING ROCK: PROFUSION, COLLUSION & BIG MONEY PROFITS [PART 1] by Cory Morningstar and Forrest Palmer
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Length (59:24)
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Standing Rock Sioux Nation, in what is called North Dakota has become the centre of what’s been dubbed an unprecedented convergence of tribal communities from across the continent and around the world.
Hundreds of tribes and thousands of people rallied behind this community in its fight to frustrate the development of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a fracked oil pipeline they claim will desecrate their sacred sites and threaten the quality of water in the Missouri River basin.
Joining the frey have been prominent Non Profit organizations, including the Rainforest Action Network, 350.org, and the Sierra Club. These groups and others helped publicize the action, utilizing websites, social media and e-petitions. Soon, the world would connect Standing Rock with fundraising concerts and celebrity visits.
Optimistic prospects as to the success of a strategy centred around prayer, ceremony and Non Violent Direct Action (NVDA) appear to have hit a wall. The US Army Corps of Engineers under the new Trump administration just granted the easement to allow the pipeline to pass under Lake Oahe.
This week’s Global Research News Hour attempts to take a fearless look at the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance, and what is at stake, not just for the people in the area, but for the future of authentic environmental and Indigenous struggles.
In the first half hour, we hear from two water protectors, who identify as Cedar Woman (Lorraine Clements) and Wopilawin (Paula Antoine, an organizer and veteran of a similar anti-Keystone XL action). They spoke from their vantage point on how the camp came together, the violent actions against campers by law enforcement and security personnel, mis-portrayal of the camp by media as ‘riotous’, and the importance of remaining united in the face of this common struggle.
Later on, retired Canadian biophysicist Dennis LeNeveu utilizes his own research and provides an assessment of the hazards stemming from the pipeline if it proceeds along the projected path.
Finally, London, Ontario based writer and researcher Cory Morningstar, returns to the program with a critical evaluation of the many non-profits, celebrities, and even corporations like Unilever, which have jumped on the Standing Rock bandwagon, to the detriment of the Tribal peoples and ecological causes those ‘allies’ purport to support. Following up on her research into the “non-profit industrial complex” (NPIC) Morningstar reveals the hidden and unwholesome motives of Warren Buffett, and other ‘philanthropists’, who finance anti-pipeline activism to the tune of millions of dollars through their foundations.
Even though there are, according to John Schertow of Intercontinental Cry, as many as 15 other pipeline developments in the U.S. alone threatening Indigenous lands, #NoDAPL has become the focus of attention in mainstream and alternative media. Morningstar notes that blocking the completion of one pipeline will not stop the ongoing genocide of tribal peoples in and around the Bakken. She also postulates that the NPIC- boosted profile of the Standing Rock protest may signal that efforts are underway to socially engineer grassroots Indigenous resistance, arguably the one grassroots movement left posing a serious challenge to imperialist plunder of the planet.
Cory Morningstar, a past guest of this program, is a native of London, Ontario. An independent journalist and researcher, she is published at Counterpunch, and Wrong Kind of Green, as well as her own site, theartofanniliation.com. Her six part series: STANDING ROCK: PROFUSION, COLLUSION & BIG MONEY PROFITS first appeared at Wrong Kind of Green in early December, 2016.
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Length (59:24)
Click to Download audio (MP3 Format)
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