Dec 22, 2018 - More than 900 people gathered in a divest action against the French bank Société Générale
Paris, France – The Committee in Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples of the Americas (CSIA-Nitassinan), an Indigenous peoples’ support group established in Paris, France in 1978, took part, last saturday, with several environmental NGOs, including Friends of the Earth – France and Action Climat Paris in a direct non violent action to call the French bank Société Générale to divest from fossil fuel industry.
On December 14th, 2018, the last day of the COP24 conference in Poland, more than 900 people attended a divest action in front of the headquarters of the bank Société Générale in the center of Paris, France. People blocked the street calling the bank to act for the climate. The police in full riot gear attacked the crowd. They used violence, threw tear gas and arrested one person (who was released later on).
The CSIA-Nitassinan urges the French bank Société Générale to divest from all projects connected to tar sands in Canada, from the pipelines – Line3 / Enbridge and Trans Mountain, from Rio Grande LNG Terminal and the whole fossil fuel industry. We also call for the respect of Indigenous peoples’s rights fighting on the front lines against these projects, including their right to Free Prior Informed consent (FPIC) guaranteed by the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Furthermore, our organisation condemns the violence used by the police in Paris during last saturday’s direct non violent divest action against Société Générale and would like to express its support to the Indigenous peoples on the front lines against Line3 / Enbridge, TransMountain and especially to the people on the Unist’ot’en / Wet’suwet’en territory in British Colombia (Canada), currently under threats after Justice Marguerite Church’s December 17th, 2018 injunction connected to TransCanada / Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline .
We would like to emphasize that in 2017, after another divest mobilization in France connected to the fight against the DAPL pipeline and against the tar sands, one of the major French bank BNP Paribas announced that they will no longer invest in the fossil fuel industry. This announcement was released one day before their meeting with Indigenous representatives : Tara Houska (Anishinaabe, Honor the Earth), Kanahus Manuel (Secwepemc and Ktunaxa, member of Tiny House Warriors) and Cedar George-Parker (Indigenous young leader of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation fighting the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion). These three Indigenous delegates were present in France at the invitation of our organization.
The CSIA-Nitassinan will continue fighting in coordination with our Indigenous allies, with all land and water protectors, for the divestment of all fossil fuel projects.
Contact persons : Aurélie JOURNEE-DUEZ (President of CSIA-Nitassinan) – aurelie.journee@hotmail.fr or Edith PATROUILLEAU (Vice-President of CSIA-Nitassinan) – epatrouilleau@yahoo.fr
