In the early morning, 6 water protectors locked to the gates of a key Enbridge office in Bemidji, MN in protest of proposed tar sands pipeline project Line 3. 2 chained their necks to the gate, risking personal safety for the hundreds of watersheds Enbridge proposes to send nearly 1M barrels of tar sands from Alberta through on its way to the shores of Lake Superior. Enbridge responded by closing its office for the day.

Wild rice season is nearing, when Anishinaabe people will take to their canoes to harvest the sacred food that is at the heart of Anishinaabe culture. Enbridge plans to send tar sands through dozens of wild rice watersheds, irrevocably impacting its growth and survival.

Line 3 is one proposed infrastructure project out of the Alberta tar sands, alongside TransCanada’s Keystone XL and Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipelines. Tar sands is the dirtiest fossil fuel in the world. Weeks ago, the Teck Frontier Mine, a proposed tar sands expansion twice the size of Vancouver was recommended by a board of Canadian environmental regulators.

“As an able-bodied and willing person, it is my duty to stand with Anishinaabe people who are putting their lives on the line every day standing up for all of us, for all of our water.” Kieran Cuddy said, while locked to the front gate of Enbridge’s office.

Redecorated sign at Ft. Snelling ICE building.

Rest in Power, Willem Van Spronsen.

May we learn from your direct action and build on it until every cage is empty.

A Minneapolis anarchist.

Tonight, in response to the day of action called in response to the repression of rebel queers in Hamilton, a few of us went out of our way to decorate the walls of our city. For us, it was not a question of whether or not to act, but quite simply a question of how to act.

For those of us whose for whom living is inseparable from fighting against the cops, klan, and the world that reproduces them, we must learn recognize one another across everything that divides us—across borders, and across predicates. In this recognition, we learn in the very core of our being what it means to say “an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”

And so for the question of how, we set out to tag a wall, and then another, and then another as our confidence grew.

Free Cedar and all rebel queers.

Forever fuck the pigs.

After 175 overdoses in two weeks, harm reductionists dropped a banner on the Little Earth trail overlooking Highway 55 demanding safe use space in Minneapolis. Opioid overdose deaths are preventable and the memories of those we have lost are our inspiration.

Safe use spaces, sometimes called supervised injection facilities or safe consumption sites, prevent overdose deaths and other health problems related to the criminalization of drug users and a drug supply poisoned by fentanyl. They provide the same injection supplies as needle exchanges, intervene rapidly when overdoses occur, offer help with safer injection practices, and generate supportive community so people can meet their health goals on their own terms. They are particularly important to drug users who do not have a place to live, yet these spaces are criminalized under federal law with penalties of up to 20 years in prison.

The recent surge in overdoses occurred after the June 3rd closure of the Navigation Center, a temporary shelter erected last winter in response to a months long encampment of predominantly Native drug users experiencing homelessness. 1000 opioid overdoses were reversed at the encampment with naloxone (Narcan) according to estimates from statewide distributors of the life saving medication. Workers at the Navigation Center diligently checked on active drug users in that space to rapidly respond to overdoses.

Native people across Minnesota are experiencing an ongoing genocide now fueled by drug poisonings and lack of housing. Native people are 6 times more likely to die from overdose than white settlers and 17 times more likely to experience homelessness.

The need for a safe use space is clear and need not wait for the state’s permission. As the death toll mounts, we challenge ourselves to build what the state will punish but not offer: sovereignty of body, health, and community by defending ourselves and our neighbors in a drug poisoning epidemic.

#endoverdose #yes2scs

This morning, water protectors supported by Ginew Collective, Northfield Against Line 3, and others, halted work at an active construction site on the proposed Line 3 route. Three water protectors locked themselves to logging equipment while over a dozen concerned citizens rallied in support.

Great River Energy, Enbridge’s named utility provider for numerous pump stations it needs to power its tar sands pipeline, is logging through water crossings and wetlands next to the Line 3 route.

Enbridge has significant unmet energy needs to power the Line 3 route, and notes its partnership with Great River Energy in its application to the Army Corps of Engineers to bulldoze through wetlands and water crossings. Great River Energy specifies in its Army Corps application that it is building the electric transmission line to power Enbridge’s pipeline unbuilt pump station.

Minnesota has not issued the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) or DNR permits required for Line 3 construction across wetlands or water crossings. Minnesota announced the 401 water quality certification process will not be complete until fall 2019.

“Enbridge pretends to follow the process while it is busy bulldozing through our forests and wetlands,” said Frances Weatherall while locked to logging equipment.

“This is a years-long plan to send more dirty tar sands through Minnesota, don’t be fooled into thinking they won’t destroy as much as they can while they wait for their final state permits,” said Mollie Weatherall, locked with her sister on the same machine.

Jonas, who was also locked to a machine said, “This is a step towards decolonization, Enbridge is carving up the planet and our government doesn’t care. Today it’s my turn to put my body between the planet I want to protect and the attacks against our water, our climate, and Native sovereignty.”

On May 11th, 1858, Minnesota became an official member of the United States of colonization. On this weekend of “celebration” in 2019, it’s clear we have no choice but to decolonize and build anew. As every day passes, it becomes more urgent. We cannot wait. We have little time left as the destruction of colonization harmed the land and water that gives us life. You need to walk no further than to the river right behind this bleeding statue to see it’s swollen banks. Those banks further downstream are currently flooding towns. In Iowa, these towns are flooded with both water and politicians. Politicians that promise a brighter future; that promise changes to reduce some harms. Words that are meaningless without radical change to end colonization, destructive capitalism, and the state itself. We can vote all we want in a crumbling empire and dying earth, but it doesn’t change enough to remove us from this path towards extinction.

The future is bleak, but life demands we struggle if we want to exist. May we struggle with those who push us forward and take actions that reduce harms. May we open our senses and be careful of all the distractions that blind us. Recently, the flood waters temporarily took back a colonizer statute in St. Louis. The flood waters won’t wait around for the next election.

Happy Birthday, flood waters. Here are our gifts. We won’t miss any statutes you take from us, but we grieve for the life that you take. In your path of destruction, may new seeds be planted if we have any time left at all.

This morning, water protectors erected a tripod in front of the Enbridge Great Lakes office in Superior, at the terminus of the proposed Line 3 tar sands pipeline. One water protector locked down to the top of the tripod, with a message for the Enbridge shareholders: Line 3 will never be built in Minnesota.

Across northern Minnesota, water protectors gathered in Duluth and Bemidji, in solidarity against Enbridge’s promises to its shareholders that Line 3 will be fully operational by the second half of 2020. Enbridge lacks state permitting.

Resistance against new tar sands pipeline expansion projects has been fierce. Delays or cancellations of the Energy East pipeline, Keystone XL pipeline, TransMountain pipeline, and Line 3 pipeline resulted in an announcement by the Alberta Premiere that tar sands production would be reduced by 8.7% for 2019.

When asked why they would take such a personal risk to their own safety, Anthony Graham (Chumash) said, “I stand in solidarity with my relatives up north and across Turtle Island. This is for the future. We have to be brave and fight. The oil industry is trying to grow when we know climate change is killing us. No more tar sands.”

May Day in Minneapolis is a unique experience. May 1st is known around the world as an anti-capitalist holiday. This tradition exists here as well, although like many cities in the so-called United States it has been severely tamed. However, the big attraction is the first Sunday’s May Day parade and festival. These festivities instead primarily draw their inspiration from the far older pagan traditions of welcoming Spring.

This year, 2019, a call was made for “autonomous and decentralized” actions on May 1st, drawing on these twin legacies, pushing to give them “new life.” And indeed, as the sun rose on May 1st, anti-fascist graffiti was seen adorning the city. A banner against the police was displayed over a highway. One crew claimed numerous acts of sabotage and vandalism overnight. At the same time, several signs had the name Lake Calhoun erased, in defiance of the legal system’s decision. And these are only the actions that were publicized in some way.

To communicate about an action is to undo the silence imposed when the streets are tidied up. The term “social peace” is often used to describe ways in which conflict, particularly political conflict, is obscured in favor of appearing as a harmonious and smoothly functioning society. While actions indeed speak for themselves, communicating about them amplifies their words.

These coinciding events around May Day provided a clear opportunity experiment with this communication. On the night before the festival, posters with different reports about actions on or around May Day were wheatpasted around Powderhorn Park. The goal being, as the park fills with people on Sunday they will be able to directly encounter word of these actions, without having to follow certain hashtags or check certain websites. And by doing so, contribute an element of combative joy to the festivities.

This May Day, we took to the night to capture American flags, sabotage rental bikes, and re-decorate the city in the name of our fallen friend, toor.

May Day has a long history, a history perpetually obscured by the leftist protest marches and sponsored parades. Yet underneath all of this, we know there is an insurgent legacy that still carries on today. May Day is our day to express the joy of living against the prevailing reign of death.

Toor’s memory lives on!

We are forever ungovernable!

– The 250 Crew