Who We Are
We are a collective made up of individuals with experience in a wide variety of activist legal defense organizations, including: Coldsnap Legal Collective (RNC 2008), The Civil Liberties Defense Center, Water Protector Legal Collective (Standing Rock), The RNC 8 Defense Committee, Anarchist Black Cross prisoner support, and more.
We are working to facilitate and support legal planning for activists targeted by the state during the Line 3 pipeline resistance campaigns. We hope to help prepare people and support their efforts to build their own legal support structures within their affinity groups and organizations, rather than having a service model of legal support. We are also aware that not everyone comes prepared to the resistance, and sometimes people are swept up in mass arrests without support or resources. We aim to make sure no one falls through the cracks—please contact us if you or someone you know needs support with their Line 3 related arrest.
Our Guiding Principles
We are committed to restoring a paradigm that recognizes humanities’ dependence on our shared and living Earth. We join in resisting extractive industries and colonization. We respect the inherent autonomy of indigenous groups. We recognize that we are on stolen land and that Line 3 is but one example of modern day colonization.
We embrace the concept of abundance and are committed to centering relationships as part of this vision. We promote non-competition within this ecosystem of resistance. We humbly seek to share space in this struggle and welcome other groups engaged in anti-colonial, anti-extractive efforts. We seek to practice the values and visions we desire for the future, today.
Our work will expand the realm of possibility for transformative action by pushing back against repression, and reducing the harm caused through the legal system. The legal system is a colonial imposition and an essential tool for those wishing to consolidate power, wealth, and control. We will equip water protectors with knowledge and resources to strengthen movement against extractive industry and reduce harm associated with criminal charges.
We will prioritize organizational structures that support individual autonomy while acting in ways that honor our interdependence. We will support groups and individuals in making their own informed decisions by decentralizing information, power, and resources.
Our work will be rooted in a respect for a diversity of tactics in our shared struggle to stop Line 3 and end the fossil fuel era. We recognize that the state takes advantage of tactical differences to divide movements. Movements that include diverse tactics are resilient in the same way diverse ecosystems are resilient.
We see oppression as intertwined and systemic. We commit to work to end all relationships of domination and subjugation, including but not limited to those rooted in hetero-patriarchy, racism, classism, anti-semitism and transphobia.
We reject the narrative of “workers versus environmentalists”. Climate catastrophe disproportionately impacts poor and working people. If the system requires us to sell our future to survive today, then the system must be changed.
Our work is movement work and our solidarity is with those who stand with their comrades and movement. We will not provide support to those who undermine movement through state collaboration.
Get in touch
Do you want to volunteer, get legal trainings to your community, or get help and resources for Line 3 legal support?