Nadeem SalaamSinger / Activist Bethany Yarrow Literally Made It Rain | NYC NoDAPL Action
Native Americans taught us that the earth is alive and that all things, no matter how small or apparently inanimate, are precious. To the Native Americans, water is life. When we covered a NYC action for the Defund DAPL movement, we were joined by legendary singer / activist Bethany Yarrow. Upon singing a prayer for water, like some spiritual mystical act, it began to drizzle over our heads. There was a deafening silence, we were all experiencing the power of her prayer, a 500 year old tradition nearly extinct at the continual hands of greed.
As Trump signed his illegal executive order to push the Dakota Access Pipeline through, organizers across the U.S. are working harder than ever to put pressure on the weakest point in the system, the banks funding the project.
On Feb. 1st as part of a global day of action, with cities in Germany, France, Netherlands, Canada, and Japan Defund DAPL targeted one of the 3 main financiers of the project, Mizuho Bank. In the video, we were there when activist Caleb Bushbinder of Defund DAPL handed in a petition of 500,000 divestments.
“The time is now to stand up for what we believe in they shouted. Our system is clearly broken and at the heart of it lies our banks mindlessly seeking profit at the very costs of life. When the government will not listen we have to use the only language that works, money.”
For more information on how you can divest from the banks funding Big Oil please visit http://www.defunddapl.org
DefundDAPL is a movement pulling the plug on the system by having everyone pull their money from the Banks until they can show they have any sense of integrity or care for our planet and our people.