Chalking Memo to BoA: Divest from Coal
As it turns out, the ubiquitous anti-Bank-of-America chalking all over campus today is taking its cue from a larger movement by activist groups like the Rainforest Action Network and Students for a Democratic Society to get major corporations like Citigroup and Bank of America to stop investing in coal.
I'm not sure how active SDS actually is at Wesleyan, but groups around the country have been trying to raise awareness of Bank of America's stake in coal since last year, with rallies, cough/die-ins, and info tables having been organized (and blogged about) in at least San Francisco and Philadelphia.
It seems unclear how much attention the company is paying to these (so far) relatively minor protests, but what with the ridiculous debate going on about "clean coal" in this year's election, here's hoping that major investors like Bank of America follow the lead of other banks and develop better energy policies in the near future than the relatively uncompelling carbon principles they have at the moment.
In the meantime, if the SDS members who I assume are behind the BoA chalking are serious at all, they should probably invest in coal-rock costumes and top hats for some entertaining Usdan public theater.
27 comments:
is this really the most important issue they could get behind? when sheeple play as activists you ruin activism for the rest of us
find a better cause, idiots. Energy is important, but this is the wrong way to go about activism. Do something constructive and remember, banks finance a lot of things, not just coal. That's what banks do. SDS is a shadow of its former self, and its campaign of "radicalization" plays into its opponents' hands.
SDS is looking like it'll be really active this year. exciting! yay frosh!
coal isn't the issue. it's the fact that ban of america supports a rather gruesome method of mining it.
bank*
sds should find something to be active about that doesn't make them look like foolish groupthinking naifs
more "protests just for the sake of protest"...
let me know when a viable coal alternative is found and can be invested in.
I hate how people protest something without offering an alternative. not investing in coal isn't an alternative because it's just treating a symptom, not the problem itself.
its a protest with a very specific goal, to get the boa terminal off of campus and replace it with a more socially responsible bank, and part of a national campaign with a very specific goal, to get bank of america to stop spending billions of dollars funding coal extraction and instead push money to clean energy investment.
its also just one of a number of campaigns sds is going to be working on this year.
i also love when people say to get behind a more important issue, and don't name one. fighting the expansion of coal power is an extremely important environmental issue (coal power produces 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions in the US) as well as a major social justice issue for people living in communities that are devastated by coal mining and mountain top removal.
if wesleyan really is committed to sustainability, this is a very simple thing for the university to do to help the climate and people.
not every company is going to be only staked in "clean" sources. everything is interconnected and you're never going to rid all of it. I understand the point of this, but attacking one company at a time simply frees up the opportunity for another to take its place.
definitely NOT a very simple thing to do. to replace the whole ATM that countless students have already switched over to use? how about SDS suggests a better, socially responsible bank that does the same job BofA does?
huh? none, right? then BofA should stay. citibank and BofA atms are literally on every corner in NYC. tell me where else you can get that convenience.
they could get rid of it at the end of the semester... its not like it would happen tomorrow
and i dont think your convenience is more important that peoples live.
When the impact is negligible? At this point, it's basically our convenience, or your skewed conscience. We win.
I'm signing up for a BoA account. So, yes, this has had some impact.
I hate how on this campus we are unwilling to consider social responsibility when money is involved.
Missing the point completely 7:18. Looking for a problem..
there are plenty of alternative banks that do socially responsible investing.
the fact that people switch over to B of A when they come here is a specific reason the ATM should go: they're making tons of money being here, and that money goes to really bad things.
but tell me what these banks are, and then maybe i'll believe you.
not obscure credit unions of the midwest that aren't as financially sound as bofa.
my point is, as privileged as i know i am, im nowhere near as wealthy as the majority of this campus and on lots of financial aid. i cant afford to have my bank charge me ridiculous fees to get my money out of an atm.
bofa also doesnt require a social security number to open accounts, which means that the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country probably turn to bofa for their banking. stopping the transactions here won't do anything. im sure theyre not thinking about mountain top removal when they need to feed their families.
Bank of America has helped tens of millions (if not hundred of millions) of people and businesses. And I am sure they have, as a result, put more money into social causes than you chalkers ever will.
Right. BoA is a bank, meaning they loan out money to anyone who has a business and thinks they can make money. It's entirely possible that the chalk used was, by extension, "funded" by BoA. The way to stop mountaintop removal and global warming is through environmental regulation, not by trying to stop global capitalism by shutting down one ATM.
8:46 said it best.
hey i looked into this shit, its pretty fucked up, here are some pictures. i dont see how we can keep doing this to the planet...
http://www.blog.thesietch.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/mountaintopremoval1.jpg
http://www.alleghenyfront.org/img/contrib/MTROverview1_med.jpg
http://www.gearthblog.com/images/images1006/coalmining.jpg
http://www.climatechange.umaine.edu/Research/Contrib/images/mountaintop.jpg
http://www.appvoices.org/images/uploads/Marsh_Fork.bmp
clean coal sludge pool above an elementary school.
and we shouldnt do something to stop this... cause it might be inconvenient?
how about we solve the greatest economic crisis since 1930, then think about other stuff? but hopefully the solution includes a green economy...
ATM go? no go. is it "idiota" in español?
1:25AM, we aren't saying we don't care about this. It's just that taking BofA off of this campus is not the right way to go about doing it. It's not effective. And from what it seems was discussed last night at Democracy Now and other internet outlets like the ACB and this comment box, an overwhelming amount of students are against this, so it's probably not going to do anything.
8:46... amen. you said it best. protesting the BofA ATM does absolutely nothing for stopping mountaintop removal. zip. zero. nada.
I've yet to see someone suggest an alternative bank haha
yay, you gals and guys are awesome! mountaintop removal coal mining is not only furthering and quickening the destruction of the environment, the appalachian mountains, the second most diverse ecosystem in the world and the freshest water systems in america, but it is destroying the appalachian people. it is genocide, justified as "god's will to destroy their land, homes and lives so that the northeast can have electricity". come on, let's grow up and embrace the fact that we DO have the capacity for cleaner energy, clean jobs and clean investments. let's keep pressuring the banks to stop destroying an entire people, culture and environment and take the leadership to start investing in clean jobs and the future!
mountaintop removal replaces hundreds of people-run coal mining jobs with machinery, so MTR is also destructive for the culture the region was based on - coal mining. MTR means less jobs in appalachia.
so, thanks guys for being in solidarity with the folks putting pressure on the banks to stop investing in destruction and start investing in clean energy & more jobs in appalachia! thanks for being part of the fight, it won't end until MTR does, we need all the solidarity we can get. go sds!
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