With our action in front of the headquarter of Deutsche Bank today we want to visualise how financial market players in Frankfurt contribute to enviromental destruction and oppression of minorities by building a pipeline in the USA. We want to draw attention to the struggle against this pipeline and in doing so develop a (further) praxis in which the global financial capital faces a social movement beyond borders: protest at the location of accountability as a resonance to the resistance in the directly affected area.
No Dakota Access Pipeline – water is life
The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) is supposed to tranport crude oil, which is extracted through fracking in the Bakken Formation, from North Dakota to Illinois; alongside and through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Since months resistance has been taken place against the construction of the pipeline because it endangers the enviroment and drinking water supply. Furthermore a continuing of the construction would destroy even more sacred sites of the Sioux.
Neither legal mandatory enviromental impact assessments nor treaties with the Native Americans were taken into regard during the planning and construction of the pipeline. They call the construction enviromental racism for good reasons, as formerly the DAPL was supposed to be tunneled underneath the River Missuori near the City Bismarck, where 90% of the inhabitants are white Americans. But near the city the risk of a possible leck in the pipeline for the drinking water supply was estimated as too high.
Standing Rock – unification of the movement in diversity
The resistance of the Standing Rock Sioux and their allies – the diversity of composition and tactics – symbolizes a praxis which is pioneering for social movements in times of authoritarian capitalism. In the Sacred Stone Camp more than 20.000 people were living in collective self-organizing structures. Already early in the beginning US veterans participated, 4.000 of them were asking the Native Americans for forgiveness for the past and current atrocities in a ceremony.
Furthermore political activists from climate and envirmonental protection initiatives, the civil right movement, anarchists, internationalists joined in together along with people just politicizing in this process. So the movement of water-protectors formed and has been resisting since with all means. Also virtually: Millions of users from all over the world checked in at Standing Rock after it leaked out that police is tracking activists through the facebook feature 'check in'.
All of this contributes to a greater capacity of acting in future conflicts. Obama stopped the construction after the situation escalated when the police attacked unarmed water-protectors with rubber bullets, tasers and teargas. Four days after his inauguration Trump signed an ordinance to continue. The Sacred Stone Camp was evicted. But the resistance has been continuing, a new camp was established in Washington.
defund DAPL – Deutsche Bank as profiteer of enviromental destruction, exploitation and war
DAPL is financed by 35 financial institutions from all over the world (among them JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, Goldman Sachs, CitiBank, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanly, BNP Parisbas, ABN Amro, Credit Agricole, HSBC Bank, Societe Generale and Bank of Amerika) which all together invested more than 10 Billion Dollars in the four corporations financing the project.
Deutsche Bank didn't invest directly but they co-fund three corporations of the 'Energy Transfer Family' with $ 275 Million, which hold revolving credits for construction and operating.
Today we demand the Deutsche Bank to cancel the DAPL investment. Just as the german BayerLB, ING from Netherlands and the norwegian DNB announced after petitions and protest took place – although they have not proved it yet. We support the campaign to defund DAPL but we don't want to engage in window dressing. Anyways other inverstors are happily ready to take the shares. And assuming the realeased money will be reinvested more socially or ecologically would be just naive. However, attempted greenwashing of Deutsche Bank due to the fact they cancelled DAPL funding would be too ridiculous. For over one hundred years Deutsche Bank has been known for funding wars, enviromental destruction, exploitation, authoritarian regimes, oppression and other crimes all over the world – too many to even start a selection.
That is why we targeted Deutsche Bank for our action today. Locally we have to visualize the bullshit happening in this sterile monuments made out of glas and ferro concrete and on which 'our wealth' is based on. In solidarity with our allies in the local struggles we want to undermine the legitimation of funding here as more and more people stop to look away. We need this period of the expansion of consciousness to developthe strength to attack the capitalist system as a whole as soon as possible.
Solidarity and actions against repression
Our action is dedicated especially to all of our friends who were arrested for their engagment in our movements: You are with us, we are with you – no bars, no walls, no fences and no borders can ever devide us!
The week of solidarity in support of detainees [cwc.im/weekofsolidarity] from 1st to 7th of April offers the frame to express the global connection of our local struggles. But it also forces us to create a global basis for the financial needs of anti-repression. Here you find organizations for legal support of criminalized Standing Rock water protectors: waterprotectorlegal.org and freshetcollective.org (donation-options there).
The week of solidarity was called out because of a harsh wave of repression which came along with Trump‘s inauguration and the numrous actions of protest and resistance. More than 700 friends were arrested only in Standing Rock resistance. But there is no need for a moral pointer on 'right-wing populists' which suspend 'democracy' or 'nation of law' somewhere else.
At the moment Germany wants to toughen the §113 criminal code. This would mean a minimum sentence of three month prison for 'nudging' a cop.
In Spain you risk a financial penalty up to 600.00€ for 'demonstrating illegally'.
President Hollande from the 'Socialist Party' has been ruling France in a state of emergency for one and a half year up to now.
It looks bad – but now more than ever
We will not be intimidated by these developements!
On the contrary, they challenge us and examples like the movement of waterprotectors inspire us: Our friends united in diversity to resist militarized police and 'private security' called paramilitaries to stop DAPL with all means: protest, prayers, petitions, sieges, road blockades, civil disobedience, direct action and sabotage.
We have understood that we need to overcome our own demarcations because out of new constellations new balance of power will evolve.
Having these
things in mind we chose this form of action today. We are conscious
of the fact that our protest can't generate a proper local echo in
Frankfurt for a resolute resistance.
More initiatives of this kind will be undertaken in the future. We refer to the counteractions at the G20 Summit in Hamburg in the beginning of July where friends from all over the world will visualize their rejection of the global system of rule together in diverse ways. Water is life! One movement.
#NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #DefundDAPL @DeutscheBank #Frankfurt #StandWithStandingRock
music:
taboo of black eyed peas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onyk7guvHK8
prolific the rapper and a tribe called red: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdeHUrL1FEM
