On October 23rd, ninety-two of the world’s largest banks met in São Paolo, Brazil to discuss policies on the climate and Indigenous People’s rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). These banks include financiers like JPMorgan Chase — the #1 Wall Street funder of tar sands, the dirtiest oil on the planet.
Indigenous leadership is critical to the climate movement. That’s why Indigenous-led coalition Mazaska Talks called on allies EVERYWHERE to join in for 3 days of mass global action targeting the financial institutions funding climate chaos. The message was clear: banks need to know that financing climate disaster and abuse of Indigenous Peoples is not an acceptable business practice. (In case you missed the action, RAN has a few different ways that you can get involved with the fight to #DefundTarSands–just keep reading).
With actions in over 60 cities, 10 countries and 4 continents, #DivestTheGlobe was the LARGEST protest of banks investment in fossil fuels.
RAN staff were on the ground in Oakland, California and Seattle, Washington. In Oakland, the Indigenous-led organization, Idle No More, started us off in prayer, connecting us to the land we were standing on, and called on gathered participants to continue the fight to divest banks from dirty fossil fuels. After several moving speakers, Idle No More led the crew on a Tour of Shame. First stop, Citibank. The Tour continued with divestment actions Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase — THREE of the biggest climate disaster funders.
At RAN, we know the sure fire way to challenge corporate power, is to follow the money. That’s why we’ve launched a full scale campaign targeting JPMorgan Chase, demanding they end financing to tar sands pipelines, and the sector as a whole.
We asked our network of supporters and allies to take action and join in with the #DivestTheGlobe movement, and to specifically call out JPMorgan Chase, as the #1 Wall Street funder of tar sands. In Seattle, folks protested outside and inside over 100 banks across the state (including Chase bank branches)! In Oakland, folks divested their funds from the local Chase branch and in New York City, our Indigenous allies held an ‘art intervention’ and disrupted business as usual when they distributed “Out of Order” signs on ATM’s.
It was an incredible few days of actions that spanned the globe. We know that this type of action works — just a few weeks ago, BNP Paribas (the 9th largest bank in the world) announced they would cut funding to tar sands, all tar sands pipelines, fracking, LNG, and Arctic oil projects.
This fight isn’t over. There are SO many ways for you to get involved and take action with us today:
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Check out and share the #DivestTheGlobe wrap-up video produced by Mazaska Talks and 350 Seattle (and like their Facebook pages)! Join their email lists, and stay up to date about what you can do to #DivestTheGlobe in your own community
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…Got goosebumps? TAKE ACTION TODAY and demand banks like JPMorgan Chase defund the Line 3 Pipeline!
- Email Jamie Dimon (the CEO of JPMorgan Chase) directly, and tell him to #DefundTarSands
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Join our campaign and keep the pressure on JPMorgan Chase to stop funding tar sands! Email us at defundtarsands@ran.org
In Solidarity,
Tess Geyer
Climate and Energy Organizer
Rainforest Action Network
