The Dakota Access Oil Pipeline & Egalitarianism

What is valid vs. invalid sovereignty? & Is the environment sacred or just dead stuff?

Click here to take action.

Egalitarian Sovereignty

Egalitarianism says that the Local Assembly of Egalitarians is the SOVEREIGN authority in a local community. No higher governmental body can make laws that people in that local community must obey. All adult egalitarians (i.e., those who support the values of no-rich-and-no-poor equality and mutual aid and fairness, whether they’ve ever heard the word “egalitarian” or not) who live or work in the local community, and only they, have the right to participate as equals in the Assembly to democratically write the laws that ALL must obey in the local community. This is discussed in more detail here.

In an egalitarian society—which is a just society unlike our current one—therefore, the egalitarian people who live or work in a community are the ONLY people who have a right to decide whether or not a pipeline will go through that community. This is why the Dakota Indians, and NOT the State or Federal Government, have the sole right to decide if the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline goes through their land.

Egalitarian Environmentalism

Egalitarians also say (read about this in detail here) that the environment is NOT just dead stuff; that it has a value that some express by calling it sacred. And this is why egalitarians support the Dakota Indians who, on the grounds that the pipeline will endanger sacred ground, object to the pipeline going where the Federal government is considering placing it.