Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon Join Anti-Dakota Pipeline Protest

By teleSUR

25 October 16

 

The demonstrators were also protesting climate change and the environmental consequences of fossil fuels on the planet.

everal Hollywood stars, including Mark Ruffalo and Susan Sarandon, joined more than 800 protesters gathered in Los Angeles Sunday to show support for activists demonstrating against the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline on Native American lands in North Dakota.

Rally goers carried signs that read "shut it all down now" and chanted slogans like "water is life." The demonstrators were also protesting climate change and the environmental consequences of fossil fuels on the planet.

"Not only is it an environmental (problem), but it's a problem in terms of social justice," Sarandon told the rally. "We can do it. We can stop fracking. We can stop the pipeline. But really it's only because of great numbers of people."

Also among celebrity attendees was actress Shailene Woodley, who earlier this month was arrested in North Dakota while protesting the planned pipeline in an incident that was live-streamed on Facebook.

There were no reports of arrests at the Los Angeles rally, where demonstrators assembled into the evening decrying climate change, hydraulic fracturing and oil pipelines as a threat to the safety of future generations.

"I'd rather walk miles today to protest the building of the pipeline than have my children walk miles to get clean water in the future," 22-year-old college student Steffany Urrea said.

Meanwhile, 126 protesters were arrested over the weekend in a series of clashes with police in ongoing demonstrations at the contested construction site in North Dakota. Police also used tear gas against demonstrators.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and environmental activists have been protesting construction of the 1,100-mile pipeline in North Dakota for several months attracting national and international solidarity.

The action against the pipeline has attracted more than 300 Native American tribes from across the United States in a show of unity that is being called historic.

Last month Dave Archambault II, chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux nation, spoke at the United Nations in Geneva, calling on the U.N.’s Human Rights Council to intervene to stop the construction of the pipeline while complaining that U.S. courts had failed his people.

More than 1,200 archaeologists, anthropologists, curators, museum officials and academics signed a letter in support of the protests against the Dakota Access pipeline and calling on the U.S. government and its agencies to put an end to the construction of the oil facility.