Cut it Out or We Cut it Up!
Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

Washington: One day after the release of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report that cited increasing and substantial damages to all ecosystems across the world, on March 20, 102 cities across the country engaged in holding banks accountable for their complicity in the climate crisis.

Here in Washington, it was an action and march targeting four “dirty banks” that have partnered with fossil fuel companies in providing untold billions of dollars in financing and investment.

In what passes for a “financial district” in downtown Washington, the large mass of climate activists marched twice to Bank of America, Citibank, Wells Fargo and Chase Bank in demonstrating their desire to disassociate themselves with the banks for the financial support they have afforded fossil fuel companies over the years.

In morning’s march the group Th!rd Act paid each bank a visit to support activists from the Elders Climate Action who had manned rocking chairs overnight on adjacent sidewalks at the institutions where after a short rally at each they marched to Franklin Square to hear speakers at a second rally before their afternoon visit.

Among the speakers was longtime, now retired, Washington, DC labor activist Jos Williams who, speaking from personal experience, told of “… the sorry history of workers who became sick and died mining and processing fossil fuels for the world’s needs. I know the toll it takes on workers who are only trying to live and breathe and raise a family and enjoy a healthy retirement and environment. We are here today to demand that the mega banks and the billionaires and the oil merchants pay the price to clean up our environment and to keep fossil fuel in the ground.” He promised to stay the course every day as long as it takes to “…stop the industries that threaten to obliterate a safe and healthy future for us all.”

Also speaking was Bill McKibben a Middlebury College professor and author from Vermont and founder of the Th!rd Act, the group that organizes seniors over 60 for climate and racial justice. He founded the first global grassroots climate campaign, 350.org His book The End of Nature, (1989) is a classic work on the environmental crisis.

He opened his comments by saying he has been receiving messages from all over the country saying “It is time that these banks start acting responsibly. He commented on Monday’s IPCC report by saying that “Truthfully, it didn’t say anything really that we didn’t know 35 years ago when I wrote The End of Nature. We know it will get worse until we get up and act until we make it stop. Today is an important day along that path.”

The report has been characterized as a “How-to guide to defuse the climate time bomb” by UN General Secretary António Guterres, if it is not already too late.

McKibben went on to praise the seniors present who he said, “… may be sitting down in the rocking chairs but they are standing up too!” He noted that seniors also vote in large numbers and are more socially conscious and active than previous generations of seniors have been, saying “There are 10,000 more people becoming seniors every day.” Since money talks, seniors who hold a  large share of the  country’s assets are not going unnoticed by Washington and Wall Street when they speak out and thusly have a responsibility to call attention to matters in a way others may not be able to do so.

McKibben introduced Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. head of the Hip-hop Caucus who he praised as “The guy who has been at the head of the climate movement from the absolute start.”

During his talk Yearwood said “This is not a game as the same banks that funded the slave movement are the same banks that are funding the fossil fuel movement. The banks used slaves for collateral for loans. Now a hundred and fifty years later, these same banks are still investing in things that are killing us. They are now funding fossil fuel projects that are literally putting us on a suicidal march ending our existence. Literally meaning their business plan is a death sentence for our existence. Shell and Exxon they understand the science better than we do. I don’t need to find a scientist to know what is going on.”

On the second march activists returned to each bank, pausing long enough to block the entrances while performing a short climate-based skit while chanting and calling out the banks for their dirty investments and fossil fuel lending practices. Many of those present who were bank customers cut up their bank and credit cards in an act of withholding their business with the institutions. Among them were those who have also closed their bank accounts and moved their financial business into smaller “clean” institutions that are not involved or invested in supporting fossil fuel companies.

At the final stop, protesters demonstrated simultaneously at Wells Fargo and Chase Bank across the street from each other, where activists blocked the doors to the two banks and took over the intersection.

They intended to paint a climate-based street mural they had outlined in chalk but the police, not noted for their sensitivity to art, were standing by to put a quick end to the project while being heckled by activists.

Shortly afterward the group had a “die-in” along with a moment of silence for the planet. Afterward as the crowd disbursed, activists continued their vigil by occupying their rocking chairs in front of the banks. But before leaving they promised to be back as long as it takes and to continue encouraging others to move their business to clean institutions.

(Phil Pasquini is a freelance journalist and photographer. His reports and photographs appear in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs  and Nuze.ink. He is the author of Domes, Arches and Minarets: A History of Islamic-Inspired Buildings in America.)