Vol. 80/No. 43      November 14, 2016

 

SWP: Defend sovereign rights of Dakota Sioux

 

The following solidarity letter to Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Chief Dave Archambault II and other tribal elders in the Dakotas was sent by Osborne Hart, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. vice president, Nov. 2.

On behalf of the Socialist Workers Party, I join you in protesting the Oct. 27 brutal cop assault on members and supporters of the Standing Rock Sioux defending their sovereignty. It was an honor to sit down with you when I visited Standing Rock two weeks earlier.

The Dakota Sioux’s struggle to defend land and water rights at Standing Rock against government assault and the intrusion of profit-hungry Dakota Access Pipeline bosses deserves the solidarity of workers and farmers everywhere.

Socialist Workers Party members explain and champion your fight as we talk with workers on their doorsteps, at strike picket lines and protest actions. We all face growing attacks from the bosses and the government as they try to make us pay for the deepening crisis of their dog-eat-dog capitalist system. Our answer must be growing solidarity against their attacks.

Instead of using the federal Emergency Management Assistance Compact to mobilize armed police power against you, we demand a federally funded public works program to provide jobs at union wages, building schools, medical facilities, child care centers and other necessities — something sorely needed at Standing Rock where unemployment approaches 90 percent.

The SWP backs your fight to defend your sovereignty and treaty rights. We demand immediate withdrawal of all the cops arrayed against you. We call for all the charges brought against protesters there to be dropped. And we demand an immediate halt to efforts to push the pipeline over your sacred ground and threaten your drinking water.
 
 
Related articles:
Rallies oppose cop attack on Standing Rock Sioux protest
 
 
 
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