Water protectors rally at Wells Fargo, demand DC divest from DAPL banks
Update 2-23-2017:German bank BayernLB divests from DAPL
On the 22nd of February, DC area water protectors gathered at Wells Fargo next to the White House as heavily-armored cops in North Dakota attempted to evict the Standing Rock water defender's camps. The police assault backed off after encountering a line of military veterans defending the camp. Here in DC and in cities all over Turtle Island, water protectors are seeking to starve out the pipeline with demands for divestment from 17 banks unless the banks divest from the Dakota Access pipeline.
The continent-wide divestment campaign is two-pronged. On the one hand water protectors are seeking to encourage states, localities, cities, and counties to divest from banks funding the Dakota Access pipelines. this is starting to bear fruit, with Seattle having pulled $ 3 billion out of Wells Fargo and NYC mayor DeBlasio threatening to do the same. In addition anyone with accounts, credit cards, etc with Wells Fargo, TD Bank or the other banks funding the pipeline is encouraged to move checking accounts, preferentially pay off these bank's credit cards first (costing the banks interest) and shift funds and accounts to credit unions or non-pipeline funding banks as they are able to do so. No matter what Trump does, an HLS style campaign of divestment can starve out the Dakota Access Pipeline and prevent it from ever going into service.
A newly formed Indigenous group called Rising Hearts Coaltion was backed by Black Lives Matter DC, SURJ-DC, and 350.org DC at the DC Wells Fargo protest. The opening blessing and song were by Sebi Tayac of the Piscataway Nation, owner of the land occupied by DC and Maryland. Maryland officially began as a colony as did Virgina, DC was founded on land ceded by those two colonizer settlements.
There were nine reported arrests at the Feb 22 assault on Oceti Sakowen, the camp closest to the pipeline route. One of the arrestees was livestreamer (journalist) Eric Poemz, whom bystanders reported had his hip broken by police. Some photos from Standing Rock show police armored up like stormtroopers in the Star Wars movies, yet at the end of the day the camp was still in the posession of the remaining water protectors. The attackers never got to Camp Sacred Stone at all by Twitter reports.
The round dance in front of Wells Fargo. Demand is either Wells Fargo divests from the DAPL, or the DC government divests from Wells Fargo
Banners behind speakers at Wells Fargo, a bank notorious both for the Dakota Access Pipeline and for funding private prisons
The stormtroopers advance on Oceti Sakowen before being turned back by a line of US military veterans: phto by Angie
Face to face with what might be called a "Colonial Stormtrooper"-photo by Robb
