Above Photo: From earthfirstjournal.org
ST. LOUIS: In response to a call from a camp in Louisiana resisting the #BayouBridgePipeline, L’eau Est La Vie Camp, for a day of global solidarity, St. Louis residents who have been to the resistance encampment organized a local action to bring attention to the struggle and put pressure on local targets in St. Louis.
The action started at the Bank of America Plaza Downton with a rally that hosted a variety of speakers, after that a march proceeded which ended at a U.S. Bank branch, where 10 activists took over the lobby and shut it down, while the rest of the march remained outside as auxiliary support.
The activits inside shutdown the branch for the last hour it was open and left the space without arrest at the end of the day.
Watch a live stream from inside the U.S. Bank disruption here: https://www.facebook.com/keithwilliamrose/videos/10212031201232073/
Why were these 2 Institutions targeted?
Bank of America
Bank of America is the 8th largest shareholder of ETP, holding $450 million in shares. Bank of America is also the 8th largest shareholder of ETE, with $410 million worth of shares. On the financing side of things, Bank of America has loaned money to ETP, ETE and their subsidiaries. In 2015 Bank of America declared that they were pulling back their investments in the coal industry, yet they still finance dozens of fossil fuel companies, including Energy Transfer Partners.
U.S.Bank
After a series of direct actions targeting them, U.S. Bank declared that they would no longer directly fund oil and fracked-gas pipeline projects. Despite this rhetoric, U.S. Bank recently helped ETP secure a $5 billion line of credit and began buying shares in ETP, that is now building more than 1,200 miles of pipelines throughout the U.S. “Broken Promises, WE SHUT DOWN YOUR OFFICES.”
Every single financial institution that lends money to #EnergyTransferPartners is complicit in crimes against indigenous sovereignty, communities of color, our water, climate, and future!
ETP has tried to silence us with violence. But today we multiplied, we didn’t back down, we joined people across the globe as they fought back! Solidarity with all those who resisted today, to #StrikeDownETP.
To LEARN MORE, DONATE, JOIN THE FRONTLINE, or HOST A SOLIDARITY ACTION: nobbp.org & https://m.facebook.com/LeauEstLaVie/