The week of July 12th 2021, activists around the country will organize art actions & protests at the branches, offices and headquarters of the banks funding Line 3. Imaginetens of thousands of wheat-pasted colorful Defund Line 3 posters on public walls in 100’s of cities across the US.
Tens of thousands more of these beautiful posters by movement artists are displayed in windows or turned into signs and held during actions. Many cities project the images at night onto the Banks, and hold art builds to download the designs and paint or screen print them into signs and banners. Get creative!
Why We Must Act Now
There are $4.6 billion in bank loans to Enbridge, the company behind the Line 3 tar sands pipeline, that are due to expire on July 22nd and July 23rd. We expect that Enbridge will be asking major banks, such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and the Royal Bank of Canada, to renew those loans.
However, the $9 billion Line 3 project, which is the largest in Enbridge's history, violates treaty rights, is incompatible with the goals of the Paris Agreement, and is facing fierce resistance from Indigenous Water Protectors and their allies in northern Minnesota. More than 500 people have been arrested for taking action to stop construction since the beginning of the year.
If major banks are serious about climate action, their commitments to racial justice, and respecting treaty rights, they will walk from Enbridge when their current loans expire this July.
Why We Must Stop Line 3
Line 3 is being built through Indigenous territory without consent. The Red Lake Nation, White Earth Nation and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe are all suing to stop the pipeline. Prominent native activists have described the pipeline as “cultural genocide” and Indigenous activists in northern Minnesota are leading the direct actions on the ground.
If built, Line 3 would release as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as fifty new coal-fired power plants. It would release as much greenhouse gas as the entire rest of the state of Minnesota.
The fight to stop this pipeline is the fight to save our planet.
“Now is the time for us to defund the White Supremacist, carbon bomb that is Line 3. We're going to make the financial companies that support Enbridge and its toxic Line 3 pipeline feel the heat.
The fight to stop the Line 3 tar sands pipeline is about justice for the land. It’s about justice for the water. Justice for Anishinaabe people whose culture and way of life it threatens. Justice for people all over the world who are being impacted by the climate crisis.
If enough of us take these actions together, we can make the companies funding Line 3 feel enough pressure that they will walk away from Enbridge.
Throughout history people-powered movements have changed the world. And they sure as hell can stop Line 3.”
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