STANDING ROCK, December 4 — After months of protest, thousands of courageous, multiracial fighters forced a small concession from the Obama administration. The Army Corp of Engineers decided to deny the permit to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). But the oil billionaires behind DAPL and their politician puppets are already vowing to finish the pipeline.
The victory in this struggle is the fighting ethos, cooperation, and class-consciousness that have developed in the protesters’ camp. As some leaders are telling the protesters to go home, many are staying. Join the Progressive Labor Party in the lifelong struggle for an egalitarian, communist world without racism and sexism.
Racism, Oil Pipeline Threaten Indigenous Workers’ Water
DAPL was rerouted because it was too close to water sources near the mostly-white city of Bismarck, North Dakota. Because of racism, it was rerouted under the Missouri River near the Sioux Reservation, potentially ruining the water supply for thousands of indigenous workers. Businesses and the U.S. government have been devastating reservation lands for decades by dumping nuclear and chemical waste. Whether at Standing Rock or Flint, Michigan, the bosses kill workers with poisoned water or radioactive material. Pipeline leaks are routine. And so, thousands of protesters began setting up camps in to block DAPL.
Cultivating Communist Values
These courageous fighters faced fascist conditions and countless brutal attacks by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department. Within the main camp, you see the DAPL floodlights, and police drones circling overhead 24 hours a day. On Thanksgiving weekend, protesters attempted to remove a barricade in the middle of the road. The militarized police attacked with tear gas, concussion grenades, rubber bullets, and water cannons in below freezing temperatures. Over 167 were injured and one young woman almost lost her arm from a concussion grenade.
One victory of this struggle was the communist values realized in the camp. A PLP comrade at Standing Rock said:

It felt like communism because the interactions aren’t premised on what I can get from you but on how I help your wellbeing, and there was an understanding that this would be reciprocated. Everyone knew that feeding one person was also nourishing the collective, because they would be able to help the camp in other ways by putting that energy into the struggle. People willing to work for the wellbeing of the collective with no money incentive sustained the camp. Whether you were working in the kitchen, the medic tents, the art collective, or chopping wood, it was clear that you were working so that the struggle could continue moving forward. That was motivation enough.
At the end of a long day of work in freezing temperatures, you could expect to be invited to eat a communal meal with workers you’d just met that day. People were genuinely happy and willing to work hard for the betterment of the entire camp. In times of struggle, we come closer to communistic practices. Experiences like these help me see that the world PLP is fighting for is possible.

Losing Strategies
In the face of massive government violence, spirituality, non-violence and negotiating with politicians are losing strategies. They are prominent parts of the NoDAPL movement, led largely by tribal “Elders.” These strategies will not stop the pipeline and will not end the violent capitalist system. The bosses and their government clearly do not care how many workers live or die.
Now the tribal chairman of the Standing Rock Sioux wants to end the protests: “’I’m asking them to go,” Dave Archambault III told Reuters, saying that the Obama administration ‘did the right thing,’ and that he hoped to ‘educate the incoming administration’ of President-elect Donald Trump” (NPR, 12/6).
The thousands of workers involved in this courageous fightback are told to go home. PLP fights for a mass Party where all workers are involved in making decisions and providing leadership. We don’t rely on a few leaders or “Elders” of the tribes.
Smash All Borders
Another inspiring part of the fightback at Standing Rock is that it is multiracial. Workers from all over the world have come to fight. They understand that these attacks are similar to attacks all workers face under capitalism. Everyone should have access to clean drinking water. However, the struggle is limited by the identity politics that make the fight an “indigenous fight.” This prevents us from uniting as a class. From the protesters at DAPL, to the refugees in Syria, to the iPhone factory workers in China, we are all part of the same struggle.
Fighting for the right of indigenous tribes to own land is a dead end. Drawing more borders cannot liberate the working class. Only the bosses have “self-determination” under capitalism. Regardless of historical treaties and agreements, the Standing Rock reservation has never had actual autonomy from U.S. state power. Making this an “indigenous fight” abandons the fight of Black, white, Asian, and Latin workers who are also terrorized and oppressed by capitalism. PLP fights for a world with no borders where all workers can live and work together.
Need Communism
The Army Corp of Engineers has put the current DAPL plans on hold, but the capitalist owners and their politician stooges have vowed to push it through to completion. But it is impossible to build the pipeline without crossing a body of water. Whether it is a water source that supplies indigenous, Black, white, Asian, or Latin workers, we still need to fight against DAPL and all other capitalist threats to our class. We cannot be fooled into thinking that the capitalists have given up, and we cannot give up either. We must build for a communist revolution to get rid of the violent capitalist system once and for all. The world we want is possible if we fight for it. Join us in fighting for a communism!