How Funders, Intermediary Groups and Activists Are Working Together to Stop the Line 3 Pipeline
In a May 14, 2021 Inside Philanthropy article by Michael Kavate, Solidaire is highlighted as one of the key funding intermediaries working to back Indigenous-led groups who are racing to stop the construction of the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline:
Running from Alberta to Lake Superior, Wisconsin, the completed pipeline would cross 337 miles of Minnesota, including lands and waters that many tribes rely on for hunting, fishing and harvesting wild rice. Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the project, bills it as a replacement of an existing 60-year old pipeline, but the project would effectively double the pipeline’s capacity, and one section takes a substantially different route through untouched lands.
Time is running out to stop the project—construction is on hold due to state law until the end of this month, but the pipeline is nearly completed. Activists are gearing up for large mobilizations in early June.
Solidaire board member Laura Flynn gets a special shoutout for her deep involvement in raising funds for frontline organizations:
Nearly everyone I spoke to about how philanthropy is responding to Line 3 mentioned Laura Flynn. Flynn, who lives in Minneapolis and is a donor herself…
Within Solidaire Network, a progressive donor group focused on social justice, Flynn has helped organize donors. Solidaire held a December call featuring four Indigenous women leaders that roughly 50 funders attended. It also does regular one-on-one calls. The network has also made grants to front-line Line 3 organizers “facing really heavy police surveillance” through its Janisha R. Gabriel Movement Protection Fund, Flynn said.
Read the full article—How Funders, Intermediary Groups and Activists Are Working Together to Stop the Line 3 Pipeline—by clicking here.