As my partner and I left a DFL fundraiser in Alexandria's City Park on Saturday, a handful of people wearing Cows and Rocks Proud shirts stood on the side of the road. I had Mike stop his vehicle so I could ask if they were there for the DFL events.
The two women (a third wore a different shirt) said they were simply visiting the pleasant town and the nearby event was simply a coincidence.
A few feet away, a man wearing the same shirt said that he had been told that Walz was simply doing a whistle stop in and so the conservatives choose not to engage.
He apparently got a bum steer--or was telling a tale.
This happened:
BREAKING: A speech by @GovTimWalz at a Democratic party event in Alexandria, MN was SHUT DOWN by 50 water protectors demanding he #StopLine3!
— Resist Line 3 (@ResistLine3) September 4, 2021
Minutes into his speech and vastly outnumbered, Walz fled the event.
Direct action gets the goods! pic.twitter.com/5oC9EJ7dD3
I was at the event as a journalist to cover speeches by regional Minnesota legislative candidates, and thus didn't donate or consume any of the available food and water. We saw perhaps five people other than DFL staffers--state chair Ken Martin was there--with professional cameras taping and taking pictures. It's our impression from the angle of the edited video above that these pleasant people might have been members of the Resist Line 3 Media Collective.
Here's the press release the group sent out, used heavily in Declan Desmond Bring Me the News story, Line 3 protesters disrupt, shut down Gov. Walz speech.
The press release, Water Protectors Confront MN Gov. Tim Walz at DFL Event, Demand Answers About Line 3 Tar Sands Pipeline:
ALEXANDRIA, MN. — On Saturday afternoon, dozens of water protectors with the movement to stop Line 3 interrupted a Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) event hosted by Governor Tim Walz. The activists confronted the Governor about the Line 3 tar sands pipeline and his administration’s failure to take action to halt the project.
Multiple people confronted Governor Walz with questions about Line 3. One water protector stood up and asked, “Line 3 would emit more carbon than your entire state. How can you still be serious about climate change and let Line 3 be built?” Governor Walz failed to address any of the audience’s questions, instead responding by saying, “I ran and got the votes, and I have to make the decisions, and I know some of them are unpopular. But we have to make everybody’s voices heard.” Walz left the event after water protectors took the stage while singing and chanting.
Today’s intervention follows a week of action in St. Paul where thousands of water protectors across the political spectrum gathered at the Minnesota State Capitol to highlight the failure of the Walz administration to stop Line 3. Following that week of action, more than 60 water protectors were brutally arrested during a peaceful protest at Governor Walz’s mansion on Saturday, August 28th.
Indigenous water protectors and climate activists have called on the Governor to take action to stop Line 3 over the years, citing threats to Anishinaabe treaty rights, water, Indigenous cultural resources, and the future of global climate. In November 2020, the Walz administration approved Enbridge Energy’s Section 401 Water Permits, allowing construction to begin in Northern Minnesota. Having opposed Line 3 prior to his election and claiming to be a climate leader, Walz has now allowed the tar sands pipeline, which will have the carbon equivalent of building 50 new coal fired power plants, to be built.
While the Walz administration remains silent as tensions escalate, President Biden too has yet to take a definitive stance on Line 3. Since construction began, more than 800 water protectors have been arrested for peaceful demonstration along the frontlines and over 26 spills have been reported by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Dozens of federal lawmakers, including Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips, have voiced support for the movement, urging President Biden to cancel the pipeline as he did with Keystone XL. This weekend, “Squad” members Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Cori Bush traveled to Minnesota to meet Indigenous water protectors on the frontlines and call on Biden to halt the project.
We interviewed a member of the collective last night and have been in contact with DFL members involved in organizing the fundraiser. When we're finished reflecting on the highly disciplined, profanity-free (at least on the part of water protectors) action, we'll post here or at another venue.
Back to the Rocks and Cows Proud bunch. On Sunday, Minnesota National Action Task Force (NATF) state representative Keith Haskell shared the tweet of the video on Facebook:
As we said, we'll have more on this remarkable action after we've touched base with more of those involved in the episode.
The Rocks and Cows crowd has its own narrative developing about what happened. Alpha News' retweet of the Resist Line 3 tweet of the video was shared on Rocks and Cows Facebook page, along with the author's comment that Walz paid the protestors:
Given the anger of many of the organizers of the fundraiser, we have our doubts about this conclusion.
Earlier, Rocks and Cows of Minnesota's Facebook page credited the action to Black Lives Matter:
We don't recall seeing a BLM sign held by or hearing BLM chants from the Water Protectors, who seemed focused on calling out the Governor from backing off from an earlier campaign pledge and past refusals for requests to meet with them.
The woman wearing the Rocks and Cows Proud shirt in the screenshot at the top of this post looks remarkably like one of the people we saw leaving the fundraiser, though none of the four people we saw carried a sign, but as our phone camera had temporarily crashed, we didn't get their picture. Here's the link to the Rocks and Cows of Minnesota post of the photo.
As we say, we'll have more after we touch bases with additional people who were at the fundraiser. It's likely the story will be different from the evolving RACMN narrative.
Screengrabs: Via Facebook; links in post.
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