Seattle Looks to Divest From Key DAPL Funder Wells Fargo

By teleSUR

15 December 16

 

Socialist Councilor Kshama Sawant says the act of solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux is also an "important step against Trump’s agenda."

n Monday Socialist Seattle City Councilor Kshama Sawant introduced a bill, co-authored by local activist and member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Matt Remle, which would sever the city’s ties with major bank Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest funder of the Dakota Access pipeline project which is currently on hold.

"The pipeline executives have arrogantly announced that they intend to wait until (U.S. President-elect) Trump comes to power with the hope that his new administration will reverse the Army Corps’ decision," said Sawant when introducing the bill. "By urgently taking steps to divest from Wells Fargo, starting today, our city will have taken an important step against Trump’s agenda."

Sawant added that the bill will "send a clear warning signal to the Dakota Access Pipeline executives and the oil lobby and a message of solidarity to the courageous activists," who have opposed the multi-billion dollar pipeline project.

Currently, Wells Fargo, which according to Food and Water Watch has US$457 million invested in the multi-billion dollar pipeline project, manages the city’s US$3 billion operating account, including payroll. The legislation proposes to terminate the city’s contract with the bank.

After a massive nine-month blockade of the pipeline project, led by a historic alliance of Indigenous nations from across North and South America, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Dec 4. that it would not grant a permit allowing further construction of the pipeline.

While many have celebrated the victory, others have warned that it may be temporary given statements by Energy Transfer Partners, the company in charge of the project, and President-elect Donald Trump who have both said that the project will continue once Trump is inaugurated in January. Donald Trump has had up to US$1 million of his personal money invested in the project and his appointee as energy secretary, former Texas Governor Rick Perry, currently sits on the Board of Directors of Energy Transfer Partners.

The Dakota Access Pipeline would carry millions of barrels of toxic bitumen oil from the Bakken oil fields across the territory of the Standing Rock Sioux, who are opposed to the project given that it both violates their treaty rights and threatens to catastrophically increase carbon emissions, thus threatening life on earth as we know it.

Seattle is one of several municipalities looking to cut ties with both the controversial pipeline project and its equally controversial funder, Wells Fargo. Last week Minneapolis City Council asked staff to report on ways the city could "stop doing business with financial institutions that invest in the fossil fuel industry and in projects such as the Dakota Access Pipeline," including Wells Fargo. The City of San Francisco and the State of California are both looking to divest from Wells Fargo after the bank’s chairman admitted criminal liability in a massive fraud involving fake bank accounts.

The introduction of the divestment legislation comes on the heels of the lighting of a new All Nations Fire at the Oceti Sakowin Water Protectors Camp in North Dakota. The lighting of the new fire, led by Indigenous youth, represents the ongoing resistance to the pipeline, despite the Army Corps announcement.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe member Chase Iron Eyes told Democracy Now!, "There is probably a thousand people still here who are committed to staying until the pipeline is dead. They’re committed to staying to protect our treaty rights and to create a new existence for our people. They’re committed even to protecting American constitutional, civil and human rights. And so we approached the elders, and they told us how to conduct ourselves and to build a new fire. It’s all young people who came out."