April, 08 2019, 12:00am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Alec Connon, 206-258-9176, alec@350Seattle.org -- Rachel Heaton, 253-455-2229, 79rheaton@gmail.com
Activists Promise Disruption At All 44 Chase Branches in Seattle Region
Seattle, WA
350 Seattle and Mazaska Talks are promising numerous disruptions at all 44 branches of JPMorgan Chase this Wednesday, as well as a major protest at an undisclosed downtown branch.
What: #ShutDownChase 2019
When: April 10th, 1PM
Where: Meet at Westlake Park. Details here.
According to the recent Banking On Climate Change 2019 report, Chase is the world's largest funder of fossil fuels and fossil fuel expansion. Since the Paris Agreement, JPMorgan Chase has provided $196 billion in finance for fossil fuels.
April 10th is a national day of action with protests promised at Chase branches in New York, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago, Boston and seventeen other cities around the country. The protests are a part of an ongoing campaign to pressure Chase to stop funding fossil fuels and fossil fuel infrastructure.
"At this late date, it is simply nuts for banks to keep financing the ongoing destruction of the planet's climate. Bankers are acting as radical agents of physical and social chaos; it's time for them to pull back and pay attention to science and society," said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org.
"The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report makes it clear that we only have a little more than a decade to halve emissions in order to limit the Earth's temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This means banks must end their support for fossil fuels and cease financing further expansion of any fossil fuels," said Alec Connon, 350 Seattle.
The disruptions will start at 9AM on Wednesday morning. 11 separate "action groups" are participating in the protests. Every Chase branch in the cities of Seattle, Bellevue, and Kirkland will be subjected to disruptive protests, with activists delivering this letter to every branch manager in the region.
All of the "action groups" participating in the protests will then meet at Westlake at 1PM, where they will then attend a major protest at a nearby Chase branch. The central protest will be led by organizers with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.
"As thousands of male workers move to the "man camps" that service fossil fuel extraction sites, it's well-documented that there is a sharp rise in the rates of violence against Indigenous women in nearby reservations," said Rachel Heaton, founder of Mazaska Talks. "We are calling on Chase to stop investing in the fossil fuel corporations that are causing both the devastation of Mother Earth and such huge harms indigenous communities."
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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