Liberal companies Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s joined a boycott against Facebook advertising this summer, but they continue to push donations to the extremist group Honor the Earth. The group was hit with an employment lawsuit for allegations of sexual harassment and pedophilia. Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s have donated over $100,000 to Honor the Earth collectively, and are continuing to push customers to donate to the group.
Also Read: https://www.benjerry.com/whats-new/2018/10/honor-the-earth
The hypocrisy of Patagonia and Ben and Jerry’s is stunning, especially given that they joined the Facebook advertising boycott after alleging Facebook was not doing enough to stop hate. Even after the disturbing details of the lawsuit against Honor the Earth alleging sexual harassment and pedophilia became public, both Ben and Jerry’s and Patagonia are contiuing to push their customers to donate to the group.
A Summary of the Extremist Group Honor the Earth:
Honor the Earth was founded in 1993 by members of the Indigo Girls folk band and Native American activist Winona LaDuke, who ran as vice president on the Green Party ticket alongside Ralph Nader in 1996 and 2000. LaDuke is well-known in Minnesota, having spent a large part of her career in the state. Honor the Earth was founded to focus on Native American environmental issues, and the group is at the center of the increasingly radical and violence anti-fossil fuel movement.
Honor the Earth organizes tribal opposition to pipeline projects across the U.S. heartland, including the Dakota Access Pipeline. The group was at the forefront of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, in which hundreds of protesters were arrested. Many of the protests were violent, including shots fired at police,
Honor the Earth is also focused on blocking the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline — a $2.9 billion project to replace a 1960s oil pipeline with a newer, safer one. The Enbridge Line 3 pipeline is a crucial infrastructure project for greater Minnesota that would provide hundreds of jobs for the state.
What it Means for Minnesota:
Two different sources confirmed to Politics.MN that they expect the radical activism that took place during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests will soon make its way to Minnesota upon the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline project moving forward. The protests were horrible for the state of North Dakota, with property being burned, pipeline workers being assaulted, and the state losing millions of dollars in income thanks to radical activists. Honor the Earth was one of the leading groups in that effort, and they will bring the same tactics to Minnesota as soon as they are given the chance.
Our friend Rob Port at Say Anything Blog summarized the anti-pipeline protests very well in his piece “The Dakota Access Pipeline Protest Which Isn’t Really About a Pipeline.” Port says “But then, these protests aren’t really about the pipeline. They’re about obstructing infrastructure which would support the on-going development of oil resources.The activists air-dropping into North Dakota from all over the country, and even the world, are not anti-pipeline so much as they’re anti-oil. That’s an important distinction. While it may be within the realm of the reasonable to protest a specific infrastructure project, I think most Americans would consider trying to choke the domestic oil industry to death by blocking infrastructure to be an extreme goal.”
Pipelines are important infrastructure for the state of Minnesota, and our country. Pipelines transport important products, like oil and natural gas, that are crucial for our daily lives. You’d think that, given the importance of Minnesotans having access to these products, we could reach bipartisan agreement on the importance of pipelines. And in the case of Enbridge Line 3, Enbridge isn’t even trying to build a brand new pipeline, they are simply seeking to fix an old one.
The Wisconsin portion of the Enbridge pipeline was finished years ago in 2017, and the Canadian portion is finished too. But in Minnesota, thanks to endless challenges from the Walz and extreme environmental groups like Honor the Earth, the project has been delayed for years.
Pipelines are crucial pieces of infrastructure for Minnesota. The radical elements of groups like Honor the Earth need to be exposed, and the companies that fund their violent tactics must be held to account. Stay tuned for more coverage exposing the extremist and violent behavior of Honor the Earth and their supporters.