samedi 19 novembre 2016

Bernie Sanders Calls on President Obama to Stop the Pipeline by Declaring Standing Rock a National Monument

source New American Journal

November 18, 2016 • 2 Comments

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A traditional Sioux teepee at sunrise in the overflow Sacred Stone Camp at Cannon Ball, North Dakota: Walter Simon

By Glynn Wilson –

Bernie Sanders’ new political revolution is calling on the American public to get involved to help stop the Dakota Access Pipeline in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, by putting pressure on the Obama administration to designate a “Standing Rock National Monument” on the site of the protest by the Lakota Sioux reservation at the confluence of the Missouri and Cannon Ball Rivers.

“The Dakota Access pipeline would carry some of the dirtiest oil on the planet across four states, putting at risk farms, native sacred places, critical water sources, and our flight against climate change,” the organization said in an e-mail blast on Friday calling on people to sign a petition to help the cause.

Authorities have already attacked the peaceful resistance at Standing Rock in North Dakota and arrested journalists and water protectors in the path of the pipeline, the organization points out.

“Even though the Obama Administration put a temporary hold on construction on one section, the company building the Dakota Access pipeline will be aggressively moving to finish construction before Donald Trump is president,” the announcement continues. “This means the best shot we have at stopping the Dakota Access pipeline is through bold action by President Obama to declare a ‘Standing Rock’ national monument that prohibits pipelines in, over or underneath the land and water. We must protect the Great Sioux Nation’s homelands.”

With a little more than two months left in President Obama’s term, there is very little time to organize and convince the president to declare the site a national monument.

The Vermont Senator who many believe could have defeated Trump in the presidential election if the Democratic Party had nominated him instead of Hillary Clinton, is using the spotlight he gained in his upstart, indepdenent candidacy for president to continue what he is calling a “political revolution.” In a new book called Our Revolution, the same name as the new organization he has formed, Sanders tells his story in his signature, no-nonsense style, from his humble origins in Brooklyn, N.Y. to his career as a Vermont senator, his decision to run for president, the complex and daunting challenge of organizing a campaign, and finally, the issues before us that desperately need fixing.

Now on a speaking tour accross the country to promote his book, Sanders continues to point out that the corporate media is a crucial part of the problem in the U.S.

Had the major networks and newspapers taken him seriously a year ago and lavished him with as much attention as Trump and Clinton were given, he says, the country might be in a different position today.

In interviews with independent journalists, Sanders says, “Corporate media is not going to talk about the real issues facing this country,” he says. “Let us not be naive — corporate media is owned by large, multinational conglomerates.”

While the first half of the book tells how he ran his campaign, the second half offers a deep and clear-eyed analysis of what is wrong with the U.S. economy, how it is fractured along racial and gender lines, and how corporate America and the federal government have screwed over workers.

To Sanders and his followers, the election of Donald Trump as president means the stakes are higher than ever in the fight against climate change.

“It means we need to be vigilant about any threats to our environment, and we must be ready to advocate for bold action,” he says. “Tens of thousands of members of Our Revolution have stood up to oppose the construction of the pipeline, and you’ve helped contribute more than one hundred thousand dollars to groups fighting the pipeline,” he tells follwers.

Tribal chairmen from Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Oglala, Rosebud, Crow Creek, Santee, Lower Brule, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate and Flandreau Sioux Nations have all endorsed this bold idea to get President Obama to protect the land, water and his legacy with a Standing Rock Monument.

“Our work up to this point has helped bring attention to the threat of this pipeline and the stakes in our fight against the effects of climate change,” Sanders says. “But in less than two months, our president will be someone who believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by China, who says land can be taken by private corporations against farmers and Tribal Nations legal rights, and who wants to do all he can to increase the use of fossil fuels.”

To add your name to the petition to President Obama asking him to declare a “Standing Rock” national monument in order to stop the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, click here.