Aerial Blockade Halts Enbridge’s Pipeline 6B, USA

7.8.13

UPDATE:
10:40 AM
Police had intend­ed to tie life-line off to two back­hoes. After some uncer­tain­ty, both pieces of equip­ment drove off with­out attempt­ing it.

UPDATE:
10:04 AM
Police have threat­ened to taze Felix and use dogs to attack folks on the ground sup­port­ing them. Please call the Cass Coun­ty Sheri­effs Depart­ment and let them know peo­ple are watch­ing. (269) 445‑8644

UPDATE:
9:28 AM
Police offi­cer throws large log up at Felix.

UPDATE:
9:20 AM
After turn­ing back work­ers and their equip­ment for the last sev­er­al hours, police have arrived on scene and threat­ened to cut Felix’s life-line.

from MI-CATS

This morn­ing, Michi­gan Coali­tion Against Tar Sands (MI-CATS) is tak­ing direct action in the Crane Pond State Game Area to halt expan­sion of Cana­di­an cor­po­ra­tion Enbridge Energy’s tar sands pipeline 6B. Enbridge’s claim that they have restored the Kala­ma­zoo Riv­er after the 2010 spill holds no mer­it, nor does it jus­ti­fy expand­ing the pipeline. Tar sands can­not be cleaned up; this mate­r­i­al is thick and heavy, it sinks in water, and clings to sur­faces. Expand­ing the pipeline increas­es the risk of anoth­er dis­as­ter for all of life and future gen­er­a­tions.

Felix of the uncon­fined Kala­ma­zoo Riv­er basin climbed into the trees ear­ly this morn­ing to halt the expan­sion of Enbridge’s tar sands pipeline 6B. A rope tra­verse, span­ning a por­tion of where con­struc­tion is tak­ing place, is the sole line that holds the plat­form they are sit­ting on up in the air. If it were cut and/or tam­pered with by police or work­ers they could fall from the tree, result­ing in seri­ous injury, pos­si­bly even death.

Our friend, Felix, sit­ting high up in the canopy to halt the con­struc­tion of Enbridge Line 6B

“Tar sands pipeline 6B is pump­ing a dan­ger­ous con­coc­tion which fuels glob­al cap­i­tal­ism. This pipeline is Canada’s promise that indus­tri­al­ized cap­i­tal­ism will con­tin­ue to exploit and oppress the peo­ple of the world and the envi­ron­ment. Cap­i­tal­ism guar­an­tees the con­tin­ued destruc­tion of the nat­ur­al world. It enables the rul­ing class to exploit the world’s resources and force the rest of the pop­u­la­tion to labor for the rul­ing class­es prof­its. Addi­tion­al­ly, we are way beyond the verge of cli­mate cri­sis. It is of utmost impor­tance that car­bon emis­sions stop imme­di­ate­ly. Tar sands infra­struc­ture is one exam­ple of indus­tries at the root of the oil addic­tion. By tak­ing action at the root of the prob­lem, we endeav­or to stop the symp­toms of the prob­lem. If we halt all car­bon emis­sions into the atmos­phere and remem­ber how to live in har­mo­ny with the earth, there might be hope for life as we humans have known it for a few hun­dred thou­sand years.”

MI CATS asserts that direct action tac­tics, includ­ing civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, are now nec­es­sary as Enbridge’s dom­i­nant pres­ence in our bio-region has allowed no room for any con­struc­tive alter­na­tives. After three long years of bla­tant lies and omis­sions, Enbridge has the audac­i­ty to triple the capac­i­ty of the same pipeline that poured an eco­log­i­cal­ly abra­sive sludge into the Kala­ma­zoo Riv­er. This cat­a­stro­phe was the largest inland oil spill this con­ti­nent has ever expe­ri­enced. While the Kala­ma­zoo spill was the largest, it is one of many dev­as­ta­tions brought on by Enbridge. Enbridge’s insid­i­ous busi­ness prac­tices caused more than 800 pipeline spills between 1999 and 2010; that is more than one tar sands spill a week.

All pipelines leak. All mar­kets peak. Cap­i­tal­ism can rot in hell. Enbridge places prof­it before our fam­i­lies, the ecosys­tem, our grand­moth­ers, our dogs (yo what up Smokey*?), our grand­chil­dren and the future of life on this plan­et. The con­tin­u­a­tion of tar sands trans­porta­tion through pipelines like Line 6B risk more than just our own back­yards; every­thing in the industry’s wake is left defiled and in squalor. Our actions against Enbridge won’t stop until Enbridge stops par­tic­i­pat­ing in the resource extrac­tion indus­try. We stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with all first peo­ples’ whose lands were forcibly tak­en from them, Idle No More, Fear­less Sum­mer, those work­ing to end cor­po­rate per­son­hood, all the species going extinct, those sick and dying thanks to the extrac­tion indus­try, and all folks fight­ing oppres­sion in order to live full and hap­py lives.

*Smokey was a dog who died as a result of the 2010 spill.

This is the third action MI-CATS has tak­en to stop con­struc­tion of Enbridge’s Pipeline 6B this sum­mer. On July 22nd they locked down to con­struc­tion equip­ment, and on June 24 an activist climbed deep inside a sec­tion of pipe, halt­ing work for the day.