We — as customers and account holders — can pressure the lending banks to take a stand.

If you are thinking of moving your money to a bank not financing the Dakota Access Pipeline, please note where you currently bank so that we can have greater and more specific impact.

Petition to the 17 banks on the project loan for the Dakota Access Pipeline (Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, BayernLB, BBVA, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Crédit Agricole, DNB ASA, ICBC, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Mizuho Bank, Natixis, SMBC, Société Générale, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, TD Bank, Wells Fargo):

Stop supporting the Dakota Access Pipeline and disregarding the inherent sovereignty and rights of Indigenous peoples, including self-determination, Free, Prior and Informed Consent and the rights recognized and affirmed in the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties with the Sioux.

The vast majority of you have signed the Equator Principles, in which you commit to resolve differences to the satisfaction of Indigenous peoples. And, according to the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, you all have a responsibility to respect human rights and remediate human rights violations linked to your business operations.

The militarized police actions against peaceful and unarmed water protectors have been widely and publicly condemned, and may result in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into police misconduct and civil rights abuses.

Continuing to finance DAPL signals your approval of the use of militarized force against those asserting their First Amendment rights and traditional spiritual beliefs and practices, and disregard for Indigenous responsibilities to protect people, lands and water.

We demand that you discontinue DAPL loan disbursements until outstanding issues with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation – Oceti Sakowin are resolved, and Equator Principle 5, which requires Free, Prior and Informed Consent from Indigenous peoples, is upheld.

For months the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Oceti Sakowin headmen and elders, other Indigenous peoples and other water protectors and allies have been under siege while peacefully and prayerfully resisting the DAPL.

The pipeline was approved without environmental reviews, adequate assessment of cultural properties and sacred sites, or the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the Standing Rock Sioux affirmed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

In addition to violating sovereign Indigenous rights and responsibilities, continued pipeline construction and any spills pose significant and direct threats to sacred sites and water supplies for the Standing Rock Sioux, who live less than a mile downstream, and threaten direct harm to the Missouri River, which provides drinking water to millions of people.¹

The companies responsible for the pipeline are Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) and Sunoco Logistics, who have a deplorable track record of pipeline spills and total disregard for Tribal rights, land and water.²

On December 4, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers denied the easement needed to finish drilling under the Missouri River, saying it was necessary to produce an Environmental Impact Statement and analyze alternatives.³Yet ETP insists that the companies “fully expect to complete construction of the pipeline without any additional rerouting.”⁴

This could lead to banks financing an illegal activity. ETP and Sunoco are rushing to build a pipeline that is economically unnecessary today, and will become a stranded asset as the world moves away from climate-destroying fuels.

If DAPL does not deliver oil by January 1, shipper contracts will expire and the project will be in jeopardy.⁵ The Morton County Sheriff’s Department has violently repressed the water protectors in service of the corporate desperation to meet this timeline. Given further project delays as a result of the December 4 decision, that January deadline won’t be met.

The 17 banks financing the DAPL project have not yet disbursed all the loan funds they’ve committed. These banks now face a clear opportunity to reconsider further funding a project steeped in controversy and demonstrating material loss.

Public pressure is forcing DAPL’s lenders to confront the reality that they are backing companies who are openly defying the rule of law, undermining the regulatory process and authority of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and setting a dangerous precedent. Now these lenders must take a stand.

It is time for these banks to cut their losses and for us to turn up the heat.

Sign this petition to support the sovereignty and rights of Indigenous peoples and hold DAPL banks accountable.

1. http://standwithstandingrock.net/history/
2. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipeline-nativeamericans-safety-i-idUSKCN11T1UW
3. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/04/dakota-access-pipeline-permit-denied-standing-rock
4. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161204005090/en/
5. http://ieefa.org/ieefa-report-dakota-access-pipeline-driven-high-risk-financing-overbuilt-region-little-known-economic-weaknesses-controversial-project

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

How to Reduce Mass Incarceration Under Trump

01/01/2016 Nativegrl77

Think nothing good can happen under a Trump presidency? Think again.

We’re about to take huge steps towards reducing mass incarceration.

How? By getting rid of money bail. What’s that, you say? And why does it matter? Good questions. And all ones we answer in our new video, Breaking Down Bail, which was released today as part of a crucial effort to eliminate money bail in California and beyond.

Brave New Films is joining with the Pretrial Justice Institute, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch and many others to take on money bail, which is one of the main feeders of America’s mass incarceration crisis. It traps poor people in the system – and then keeps them stuck in it. In fact, over 500,000 Americans are in jail everyday without any conviction just because they are too poor to post their bail!

But all we have to do to change that is pass legislation and win litigation at the state and local levels! Aka, no Trump or Congress needed!

To get there, though, we need to start educating and informing people about this now.

And that’s where you come in. Check out Breaking Down Bail and share it to get this movement going!

Let’s do this,
Robert Greenwald, President

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

My son was shot and killed — now I’m taking on the NRA

01/01/2016 Nativegrl77

My son was shot and killed at UC Santa Barbara in May of this year.

Why did Chris die? He died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. I said it the day after my son was murdered, and sadly it’s still true today.

What has changed is that millions of Americans like you have stepped up to demand more of our country and its elected officials: Not. One. More.

And it’s working. Here in California, with the help of Everytown, we passed a law that will temporarily suspend somebody’s access to guns if they’re found to be a threat to themselves or others — somebody like the man who killed my son. Everytown can take winning strategies like this all across the country, but only with your support.

I’m asking you to join me in supporting Everytown with a year-end gift of $5 or more. With your support, we can save lives. Please join this fight before Wednesday’s end-of-year deadline.

Everytown is doing something no one else has ever done before. I’ve seen the passion that powers this movement up close. I’ve shared hugs and tears with others whose lives have been turned upside down by gun violence.

Everytown has given me a chance to share Chris’s story and a platform from which I can work so that fewer parents have to experience this pain.

Our work is fueled by gun violence survivors, moms, dads, and concerned citizens — and it’s backed by cutting edge research and policy analysis. Because of this movement, the NRA is losing its grip on our country’s state houses.

Help us move forward in 2015. Lives depend on it. I’m asking you to show your support with a year-end donation of $5 or more right now — before the Wednesday night deadline:

https://donate.everytown.org/donate/2015-NOM-donate6

As the father of a young person killed with a gun, I know that it’s not enough to just want change. We must work hard and keep the pressure on in 2015.

Thank you for your care and support,

Richard Martinez

Asa movement of Americans fighting for common-sense gun policies, we depend on contributions from supporters like you to fund important work toreduce gun violence.Paid for by Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund. Contributions to Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund are not tax-deductible.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

PLU adjunct faculty lose union vote, say they’ll try again

12/23/2015 Nativegrl77

Posted by Katherine Long

in seattletimes.org Jan.15

Adjunct faculty members at Pacific Lutheran University, who won a precedent-setting national victory last month when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) endorsed their right to form a union, appear to have lost a vote to unionize.

The faculty group announced Wednesday that they were withdrawing a petition to form a union, but say they’ll likely attempt a new vote later this year.

The decision comes a week after the impounded ballots from the election — which was held in October 2013 — were finally counted. The vote was 54 votes against union representation and 30 votes in favor, but 38 votes were uncounted because they were challenged by either PLU or the contingent faculty.

The uncounted ballots were impounded immediately after the election when PLU appealed to the NLRB, arguing the school was exempt from national labor rules because it is a religious institution, and because full-time contingents (as adjuncts are called at PLU) were managerial employees.The NLRB, in its decision last month, rejected those arguments.

“The election was hopelessly flawed so we decided a new vote was the best course of action,” said Jane Harty, a contingent music teacher at the university, in an email. She said there were so many challenges to the ballots that it “would be very expensive and take months to contest” the challenges to the ballot.

PLU Provost Steven Starkovich said the university would try to address the contingents’ concerns through its faculty governance committee and a task force of contingents. “As we have stated before, we believe our robust, general-assembly style of faculty governance can serve as a model for other universities,” he said in a statement.

Adjunct faculty make up at least half the higher-education workforce nationwide, according to some studies. They are not eligible for tenure and teach anything from one class each quarter to a full-time slate of courses. They usually make less money than tenured professors and often have fewer benefits.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

RE: White supremacy in children’s textbooks

12/09/2015 Nativegrl77

Wow! ColorofChange members have already helped us purchase more than 500 books for Texas schools!

We’re delivering racism fighting books like A Young People’s History of the U.S. and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to Texas schools next week during Banned Book Week to emphasize that the whitewashing of slavery, Jim Crow, and the KKK in our children’s textbooks is not ok! To get the books to the schools on time we need to close out the donation window in 24 hours. Help us make a final push to reach as many schools as possible!

Click here to buy a racism fighting book for a Texas school library!

If you’ve already donated, please share this message with your friends and family!

Thanks and Peace,

–Brandi

———————————————————————————-

Texas is using textbooks to distort Black history and deny systemic racism

But we can fight back by putting books about Black history directly into the hands of children across Texas!

Donate

Schools should be a place for learning, not spreading racist ideology. But not in Texas. This fall, five million children across Texas were given textbooks that profess the same toxic and distorted view of history professed by Dylann Roof and defenders of the Confederate Flag.

These textbooks omit, sanitize, and downplay how horrible slavery was and glorify historical figures who defended slavery. All because the Texas State Board of Education has an agenda to promote a neo-Confederate ideology.

And if the Texas State Board of Education has their way, future textbooks could be even worse than they are right now.¹ Future textbooks could remove altogether any references to Jim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Codes- the foundation for modern day prison labor exploitation. The half-truths and omissions in these educational materials will teach a new generation of children a deliberately distorted view of American history and the story of race in our country.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. If we put factual and accurate educational materials about Black history in school libraries across Texas, we can give countless students access to the resources they need to learn the truth. Join the fight to get books about Black history directly into the hands of children across Texas.

Chip $16 in to get racism fighting books like A Young People’s History of the U.S. into school libraries!

The harm that these textbooks do is real. Not only are these whitewashed textbooks inaccurate and racially damaging, they even hurt the academic performance of both Black and white students. Studies have shown that both Black and white students who are exposed to negative racial stereotypes about Black people perform significantly worse on standardized tests.²³

The intentional whitewashing of the story of the Civil War happens as early as grade school and not just in the books you read. Right now there are 29 schools in Texas named after generals like Robert E. Lee. There are textbooks and educational videos that glorify politicians like John C. Calhoun, who believed that owning, abusing and exploiting Black humans was key to achieving the American dream and was the architect behind the enforcement of the Indian Removal Act. Too often, the stories and truths of all the Black and Brown folks that built this country are either censored or completely left out of the books we consume from early on in life.

But by getting books like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry and March into Texas school libraries, we can provide the students of Texas the materials they need to learn about the generations of systemic oppression of Black people and counter the negative racial stereotypes that hinder the academic development of Black and white students.

These books are excellent stories detailing the struggle of Black Americans fighting to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice throughout our shared history. These books accurately reflect the highs and lows of the Black struggle for freedom and equality, and will give Black and white children throughout Texas the knowledge they need to overcome the half-truths and racist rhetoric in their textbooks.

By clicking any of the below links and donating, you will personally be helping a whole school of children fight back against racism.

Chip $16 in to get racism fighting books like A Young People’s History of the U.S. into school libraries!

Thanks and Peace,

–Brandi, Rashad, Arisha, Evan, Brittaney, and the rest of the ColorOfChange team.
Help support our work. ColorOfChange.org is powered by YOU—your energy and dollars. We take no money from lobbyists or large corporations that don’t share our values, and our tiny staff ensures your contributions go a long way.

References:

1. “Here’s How New Texas Public School Textbooks Write About Slavery,” Jezebel, 9-1-2015
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5278?t=8&akid=4824.1174326.pHzIVv

2. “Think Unto Others: The Self-Destructive Impact of Negative Racial Stereotypes” Ohio State University, 7-24-2000
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5279?t=10&akid=4824.1174326.pHzIVv

3. “Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans,” Journal of Personality and Social Pyschology, 1995
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/5280?t=12&akid=4824.1174326.pHzIVv