Do you work from home?
Do you want to save the world?
If yes, read on!
Many people work from home these days. I’m one of them. It dawned on my recently that instead of working in my basement or at the coffee shops I’ve been at since the pandemic began, I could be sitting outside of the branch of a bank that funds the fossil fuel industry. Why protest banks? The same reason Willie Sutton robbed banks. Because that’s where the money is! Climate change is fueled by big bank investment. We must press
So, on 10 days (so far) since July, my bulldog and I have “worked from protest” outside the PNC Bank branch in Queens Village in Philadelphia with a sign informing passersby that PNC Bank funds the fossil fuel and firearms industries and asking them to: 1. Demand PNC Bank diverse from those industries and 2. Switch banks to ones that don’t of PNC refuses. I’ve also recently added a sign and begun chalking the sidewalk about unionizing for PNC’s employees to see.
That’s 2 pressure points that PNC can remove by divesting from the fossil fuels and firearms industries.
At least one person each day has stopped to talk to me about it. All supportive. I’m on public property and can be there so long as I don’t block the sidewalk. And I just do my work on my laptop while my sign does the protesting!
One person is next to nothing. But if this expanded to enough branches for long enough, PNC Bank will feel the pressure. Once we start growing in numbers, we deliver the offer to PNC: we will cease protesting you and move on to one of your competitors the moment you divest from the fossil fuels and firearms industries. And then when we win, we follow through and move on to, say, Wells Fargo.
Reply here or email me at [email protected] or dm me on Twitter @miltime8. if you want to organize with me.
We had massive bank protests here in California in 2007-2008 financial crisis. I bet few / none of you have heard or remember them. They shut down freeways and it never made any news. There were hundreds picketing and very little coverage outside progressive outlets.
They are nerfing protests at an alarming rate the meta is to counter. A protest isn’t a protest if it is in a empty field.
The Occupy protests were’nt very specific about demands and had little leverage. Why does a bank care if you shut down a freeway? Those protests were trying to get, I guess, the government to do something about the banks. With what leverage? none.
This is very targeted. We’re targeting the bank’s customers and employees. Informing their customers that the bank is fueling climate change and informing their employees of their right to unionize and the benefits of same. If and when the bank decides the ongoing protest (I can work on my laptop from outside the branch for the rest of my career) is costing more than what they’re gaining by investing in fossil fuel and firearms companies, I/we can/will move onto the next bank company.
There is no publicity needed. The only eyes needed are the customers walking in and out and the employees.
I think this is my entire point that had nothing to do with occupy they were local before occupy. They may have some overlapping time. So occupy may have grown from these. They were news here regionally and seemingly no where else. Maybe that is how occupy started I am not sure.
The idea behind the freeway was to get press coverage.
Divestment is a great idea but I think it should become more sophisticated at some point.
There are no guarantees, but my theory is that this will be effective because it doesn’t require the organizing and sacrifice that those protests required. shutting down a freeway is a big ask. This costs nothing. Day in and day out people working outside of bank branches (PNC Bank is first) informing customers that PNC is profiting off of the destruction of the world and informing their employees about their ability to organize. Becoming a fixture at their retail locations. Eventually, the theory goes, they will break.
No single plan is a silver bullet. It takes many plans, failures and successes, over time to cause change. This is what I’m doing. I think I need around 100 people to join me in it to learn whether it is effective or not. That’s enough to be at a good percentage of their city locations.
Well I don’t remember exactly when those bank protest started but they were going for years I would guess around 2005 is when they started. They would just get bigger and bigger. They were not sustained you would see them roughly once a month. They started to get more common and larger. I think the freeway thing was just the evolution when they were not getting covered.
We need more effective team lobbying tools. Maybe you would get people if others were seen to join the cause. This entourage effect is very powerful and must be accounted for in our endeavors. It is hard to know when you have 100 people as well. Also a plan needs to exist for those to commit to it. Sometimes key details must be agreed to from the start.
Still working on team member #2! all ears for suggestions though if you have any. I plan to continue soliciting for people to join me on here and other venues.
We are on the same page. I just don’t think I could join your effort given how much I have invested in mine. Also given that we are on the same page we need to mash our ideas together. This is what I think of as a way for ideas to be presented and for others to see and praise / pander them.
I think we all want to play on this stage/court/field but we have to build it first.