Occupy Forum: STOPPING A PIPELINE

The west coast of Canada is home to several indigenous territories whose lands have come under threat as the fossil fuel industry seeks to transport its product to empty tankers via numerous new pipeline projects. Freda and Toghestiy of the Wet’suwet’en nation decided 4 years ago to take action in helping their people stop the destruction of their lands. Exercising their right to practice their cultural customs on their land, they chose to build right in the path of the pipeline projects setting the stage for an ongoing blockade and reclamation of their lands at the Unis’tot’en camp.

In the ensuing years, they have confronted numerous pipeline employees who have come onto their lands, often without permission and by helicopter, to do surveying and other exploration activities. Support for the camp has been growing steadily in nearby towns and all across Canada as the camp raises the bar for what a non-violent resistance effort can achieve.

A website for the camp has been created and can be viewed here: http://unistotencamp.com/

First and foremost, the camp supports an effort to bring Wet’suwet’en people back to their lands to live traditionally and begin healing their families from the destruction wrought by western society on their culture. The plan for the future is to build homes and places of tribal gathering for those who wish to return to the land that sustains them. In order to make this happen, the camp needs the support of settlers and other indigenous tribes to hold off the development efforts of fossil fuel giants TransCanada, Enbridge, Chevron, and others. The camp organizers are opening their doors to anybody willing to provide their time and resources to building and maintaining the efforts at the blockade.

At tonight’s Forum, hear from a supporter who stayed at the camp for 3 weeks in February of this year, and how you or someone else can help get involved. Discussion and pictures of daily life at the camp will be shared. Success at the camp relies on spreading of information, fundraising, solidarity actions, and networking with other groups to find people willing to provide their labor on the grounds at the camp. There is a year round need for supporters at the camp with a couple specialized events planned for the summertime — an action camp for sharing skills and strategy, and a separate work camp for building new structures and implements needed at the camp. The continued organized effort will be desperately needed as pipeline crews converge on the eastern and western borders of the Wet’suwet’en territory sometime this year.

Other camps have started to emerge across Canada with the newest one going up only a few hundred kilometers north of the Unis’tot’en camp. This new blockade, known as Madii Lii, stands in the way of a new LNG project proposed by TransCanada. They will undoubtedly need the same outpouring of support to be successful. The continued existence of these ecosystems rests on the shoulders of those willing to put their bodies in the path of fossil fuel tycoons.