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stop the money pipeline
18 Months Later, Our Fight to Clean Up Elon's DOGE Mess Continues
Our campaign is unrelenting because Musk and Donald Trump will not stop.
Jul 07, 2026
When the current presidential administration took office on January 20, 2025, the authoritarian firestorm they ignited was, sadly, rapid but somewhat expected.
Funding cuts to childcare, housing, healthcare, and food were swift, as were escalated and targeted attacks towards immigrants nationwide. Much of these reckless cuts were led by Elon Musk. Aside from Musk’s billions in government contracts and showering Trump’s campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars, he had no actual government experience. Musk’s tech bro ethos, and firestarter mentality resemble, in retrospect, that of a young Trump. A terrifying resemblance that made him the perfect actor to wreak total havoc on our federal government.
The proximity to Trump that Musk paved for himself laid the groundwork for creating the Department of Government Efficiency, better known by its tongue-in-cheek name of DOGE. The false promise that DOGE would save US taxpayers trillions was, of course, nothing but a disastrous ploy that cost us money, destroyed vital agencies, decimated regulation, and exposed the personal data of nearly every American. And to date, neither Musk or DOGE officials have been held accountable.
Americans from across the country were quick to protest outside of Tesla showrooms to show Musk that we wouldn’t stand by as DOGE callously dismantled our government. We immediately partnered with Tesla Takedown and organized our supporters to join Tesla showroom protests. We began building a network of activists across the country, and worked alongside Communications Workers of America (CWA), who were motivated by the idea of making Musk feel the real-time impact of the consequences of his actions.
We soon organized with activists from across the country to lead Divest Public Money from Musk campaigns aimed at hurting Musk's bottom line. We pushed local governments to pass resolutions instructing government agencies to not do business with companies owned by Elon Musk and urged public pensions to divest from Tesla or pause all new investments in Tesla.
Starting with the pension board of Lehigh County, PA, whose comptroller signed on to our campaign early on, they paused Tesla investments in their actively managed funds; the city of Davis, CA passed a resolution blocking contracts with Musk and his companies. And, as Musk eyes the launch of his own interagalactic mobile network, we have targeted T-Mobile with a boycott urging them to drop their contract with Starlink which resulted in thousands ending their T-Mobile contracts.
Accountability is necessary, and our elected officials have always held the power to step in and address the Doge destruction. This daily dumpster fire catalyzed our organization, Stop The Money Pipeline, to band together with thousands of other Americans, CWA, and Tesla Takedown, to call on Members of Congress to hold DOGE accountable. We are urging them to make public commitments to hold Congressional hearings and investigations into DOGE and Elon Musk’s role in potentially illegal and unconstitutional activities.
Our DOGE Accountability Campaign has garnered the support of more than 50,000 individuals who signed the Investigate DOGE petition. The campaign has also earned the backing of 54 unions and organizations. Just last month, we hand delivered our petition to the district offices of 26 Members of Congress. The goal is to get 75 Members of Congress to subpoena Musk and DOGE officials for hearings and investigations. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA) recently called for an investigation; Rep. John B. Larson (D-CT) has also vocally called Musk out; Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) released an extensive report detailing many of DOGE's failures. We are hopeful more members will commit. Others can keep calling on members to commit, join our campaign, and get involved in upcoming actions and organizing.
There is no rhyme or reason for Musk’s rampage. He targets the vulnerable, and moves fast and breaks our government simply because he can. While at the helm of DOGE, he fired federal workers who had been regulating or investigating his companies. If he gets sued he can throw money at the problem. People believe the hype because of how hard he allegedly works—but in reality it’s quite the opposite. His work ethic is power and greed, pure and simple.
Our campaign is unrelenting because Musk will not stop anytime soon. We encourage others who want to be on the right side of history to do the same.
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'No CEO Is Worth a Trillion-Dollar Pay Package': Unions Target Outrageous Elon Musk Tesla Deal
The world's richest man "has wiped billions off of Tesla's share value, trashed the company's reputation, and driven millions of its customers away," one campaigner said, urging shareholders to reject his pay plan.
Oct 22, 2025
A coalition of labor unions and progressive advocacy organizations on Tuesday launched the "Take Back Tesla" campaign, urging shareholders of the electric vehicle giant to reject a pay package that could make CEO Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire.
Musk is already the richest person on the planet, with an estimated net worth of $458-485.9 billion as of Wednesday. His previous 10-year proposal, worth $56 billion, was invalidated by a judge. He's now on an interim plan that has not been approved by shareholders, who are set to vote on the $1 trillion package at the company's annual meeting next month.
Tesla's board unveiled the proposed $1 trillion plan—which would be the biggest corporate compensation package in history—last month. Musk would get the full amount if he boosted share value "eightfold over the next decade" and stayed at Tesla for at least that long. He would own 29% of the company, one of several in which he holds a leadership position.
Top unions, such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and Communications Workers of America (CWA), joined groups including Americans for Financial Reform, Ekō, People's Action Institute, Public Citizen, and Stop the Money Pipeline for the new campaign against "Musk's money grab." As part of it, they launched the website TakeBackTesla.com.
"How shareholders vote on Musk's trillion-dollar pay package and other important Tesla ballot items will likely set the stage for similar attempts by other oligarchs to consolidate their own power."
Several coalition leaders pointed to Musk's recent efforts to get President Donald Trump elected and then help the Republican gut the federal government—which has been shut down for 22 days due to a congressional funding fight—via their so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The billionaire's DOGE activities provoked nationwide protests targeting Tesla.
"In the last 12 months, Elon Musk's attempts to destroy the American government have caused huge damage to the Tesla brand and contributed to a significant decline in the company's sales in multiple key markets," Stop the Money Pipeline's Alex Connon noted, urging shareholders to "reject this insane proposal."
AFT president Randi Weingarten said that "the Tesla board, instead of upholding basic governance standards, wants to green-light an outrageous $1 trillion pay package for a CEO who has spent most of the year engaged in childish political brawls, rather than working to create shareholder value."
"To reward this destructive behavior with an obscene salary is a slap in the face—not only to the federal workers he's fired, but to the retirees whose pensions are invested in Tesla stock," she declared.
Dubbing the proposal "Musk's corporate heist," CWA president Claude Cummings Jr. similarly stressed that "Elon Musk is enriching himself by stealing from the American worker—from our infrastructure dollars for rural broadband to workers' private data from the Department of Labor—and now he wants to steal $1 trillion from our pensions and retirement accounts."
Natalia Renta, Americans for Financial Reform's associate director of corporate governance and power, emphasized that the vote is bigger than Musk. She said that "how shareholders vote on Musk's trillion-dollar pay package and other important Tesla ballot items will likely set the stage for similar attempts by other oligarchs to consolidate their own power."
"This new website allows people to get their voices heard by sending letters to their state financial officer and mutual fund manager (if they have one)," Renta added. State treasurers of Connecticut, Nevada, and New Mexico have already joined mounting calls for shareholders to vote down Musk's compensation package.
Ekō executive director Emma Ruby-Sachs argued that "no CEO is worth a trillion-dollar pay package, but especially not Elon Musk, who has wiped billions off of Tesla's share value, trashed the company's reputation, and driven millions of its customers away. Tesla's shareholders need to show the judgment Musk so clearly lacks, and reject this pay deal."
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Boycott T-Mobile—and All Trump Collaborators
Let's make it clear not just to T-Mobile but all of corporate America: There are costs to siding with this authoritarian government.
Oct 03, 2025
Ever since the Irish Land League organized community members in County Mayo to band together and refuse to serve, work for, trade with, or even deliver mail to the English land agent, Captain Charles Boycott, the boycott has become a staple in activists’ toolkit. And nearly 160 years since Captain Boycott was effectively ostracized—as US President Donald Trump and his cronies assail American democracy and send troops into our cities and masked goons onto our streets—it's a tool that’s gaining a renewed prominence once again.
After Target dropped its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) targets in February, Black faith leaders, including Pastor Jamal Bryant, called for a boycott of the company. “What we learned from the Montgomery bus boycott is that racist America doesn’t respond to speeches, it responds to dollars,” Pastor Bryant told his parishioners at his 10,000-member megachurch in Atlanta.
In the months that followed, Target’s sales, foot traffic, and stock price tanked. By August, Forbes was announcing that the boycott had cost the Target CEO his job and the company’s investors $12 billion.
After Elon Musk started his attempts to destroy the US government earlier this year, including bragging about putting USAID into the woodchipper, an act that may have killed half-a-million people so far, thousands committed to boycotting Tesla as part of the #TeslaTakedown movement.
If a company like T-Mobile believes that there are no economic consequences to siding with authoritarianism, they are much more likely to do it.
In the midst of the boycott, Tesla sales collapsed, the stock price cratered, and before long Musk was out of the government and engaging in a very public bitching session about President Trump.More recently, after Disney suspended Jimmy Kimmel for comments following the tragic murder of Charlie Kirk, a boycott of Disney grew so rapidly, with tens of thousands of cancellations of Disney, Hulu, and ESPN, that it forced the company into reinstating the comedian.
Attempting to build on this, the labor union, the Communication Workers of America, the Tesla Takedown campaign, and the climate coalition I held lead, Stop the Money Pipeline, have launched the T-Mobile Boycott.
In the fight to save democracy, T-Mobile has chosen the wrong side: It’s hosting Trump Mobile on its network, despite the conflicts of interest being so great they may amount to corruption. T-Mobile is also partnering with Elon Musk’s Starlink, pouring billions into the far-right extremist’s pockets, and it lobbied in favor of Trump’s deadly budget bill, which will strip healthcare from millions of Americans. T-Mobile has also engaged in years of union busting so vicious it recently became the first telecommunications company to be added to the AFL-CIO’s boycott list.
We’ve set a goal of 10,000 T-Mobile customers canceling their contracts between November 14-16. In the process, we hope to build on the energy of the Target, Tesla, and Disney boycotts and make it clear not just to T-Mobile but all of corporate America: There are costs to siding with this authoritarian government.
If you’re a T-Mobile customer, you can take the pledge to hang up on T-Mobile here.
Even if you’re not a customer, we encourage you to take the pledge to boycott T-Mobile. The boycott is happening right before the holiday season, when a lot of people switch carriers—tens of thousands of people pledging to never switch to T-Mobile at this time of year is an important part of the campaign.
But I also want to be honest with you, I don’t know if this campaign will work. While we’re urging people to cancel en masse next month, I recently completed a test run and canceled my contract with T-Mobile and switched to Visible (saving more than $60 on my monthly cell phone bill in the process).
As economically advantageous as it was however, it took me about 45 minutes to switch from T-Mobile, including a call to the company to get a “port out pin.” In the grand scheme of things, 45 minutes isn’t an eternity, but it’s also not nothing. It took me less than four minutes to cancel my Disney+ subscription after Kimmel’s suspension.
I have no idea if we can get 10,000 people to do something that might take them nearly 45 minutes, even if we can convince them it is a small but important act in the fight to save democracy.
But I do know this, in On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the 20th Century, Timothy Snyder’s first lesson was, “Do not obey in advance.” And not only is T-Mobile obeying in advance, it's actively courting the administration, even as the horrors pile up: the attacks on free speech, the naked threats against political opponents, the vanishing of countless human beings into a gulag in El Salvador.
So, in this time of grave peril for this country and the world, let us use our money to build the world we want to see.
From Target to Tesla to T-Mobile, let us boycott the collaborators.
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50 Arrested in Final 'Historic' Summer of Heat Protest at Citibank
"We're here for you and your children," one campaigner told a police officer who was arresting her. "We're here for our world."
Sep 05, 2024
Closing out a "historic" summer of civil disobedience—but with no plans to back off their demands that Wall Street divest from planet-heating fossil fuels—the "Summer of Heat" campaign blockaded the entrance of Citibank's headquarters in New York for an hour on Thursday.
At the 32nd protest held by Stop the Money Pipeline, New York Communities for Change, and other groups since June 10, organizers said 50 people were arrested, including climate scientists and an advocate dressed as an orca—a reference to numerous cases of whales ramming and sinking luxury yachts in recent years.
"The water is too damn hot!" said the costumed protester. "Stop funding fossil fuels."
Summer of Heat has targeted Citibank due to its status as Wall Street's largest funder of methane gas extraction since 2016 and the second-worst funder of oil, coal, and gas projects in recent years, spending $396.3 billion from 2016-23.
For an hour, roughly 1,000 Citibank employees were barred from entering the building as protesters blocked the doors.
"I've been studying climate change since 1982 and no one is listening to the data," said biologist and anti-fracking advocate Sandra Steingraber—who has joined multiple Summer of Heat actions—as she was arrested. "So today they're going to have to listen to my body blocking the doors of the world's largest funder of new fossil fuel projects."
More than 5,000 people have joined Summer of Heat protests since June, and there have been more than 600 arrests. Citibank's response to the demonstrators has escalated to violence at times, with a security guard punching one protester in the building's lobby last month.
One woman told police arresting her on Thursday that her grandson suffers from asthma resulting from wildfire smoke, which climate scientists have linked to fossil fuel extraction and planetary heating.
"We're here for you and your children," she told an officer. "We're here for our world."
As the campaigners blocked the Citibank entrance, cellist John Mark Rozendaal and Stop the Money Pipeline director Alec Connon were preparing to attend a court hearing on Friday regarding assault and criminal contempt charges. Connon has said he was "falsely accused of assault by Citibank security so they could get a restraining order" keeping him from returning to protests at the headquarters.
Mary Lawlor, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights defenders, expressed "strong concern at the charges" and said she would be "closely following" the trial.
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'What Real Eldership Looks Like': 69 Senior Climate Protesters Arrested at CitiBank HQ
Wall Street giant responsible for massive funding of fossil fuels accused of "robbing our grandchildren's future."
Aug 27, 2024
The " Summer of Heat on Wall Street" protests continued Tuesday with at least 69 elders arrested while blocking Citibank's New York City headquarters to demand an end to the bank's financing of climate-wrecking fossil fuel projects.
"I'm here for my children and grandchildren," one woman explained as she was led away by a New York Police Department officer, wrists zip-tied behind her back. "I have kids and they need to live a better future!"
She was among several protesters who wore signs hanging from their necks that said "I'm here for:" followed by photos of loved ones.
BREAKING: NYPD arrests 29 grandparents at @Citibank HQ for demanding an end to Citi’s financing of oil, gas and coal projects.
“I have kids and they need to live a better future!” #SummerofHeat #CitiDropFossilFuels pic.twitter.com/j93mMl1YhS
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) August 27, 2024
Bill McKibben, a 350.org co-founder arrested at a related action earlier this summer, welcomed Tuesday's protest on social media. Borrowing a phrase from Hip Hop Caucus' Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., he
declared, "Can't stop won't stop!"
"Old and bold!!" he added in response to footage of some arrests, also highlighting Third Act, his group for "Americans over the age of 60 determined to change the world for the better," which organized Tuesday's protest.
The Summer of Heat campaign was
initiated by a coalition that includes Climate Defenders, New York Communities for Change, Planet Over Profit, and Stop the Money Pipeline with support from more than 100 environmental and racial justice groups.
"Since the campaign launch on June 10, over 4,000 people have joined protests as part of the Summer of Heat," according to organizers. "And over 500 people have been arrested for engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience protests, urging banks like Citigroup to stop bankrolling new coal, oil, and gas."
Sharing a photo of one protester on social media Tuesday, Stop the Money Pipeline director Alec Connon said that "when I'm older I hope I will be like Pat, who was just arrested for blocking the doors to the headquarters of the world's largest funder of fossil fuel expansion since the Paris agreement. In a time of climate crisis, this is what real eldership looks like."
Tuesday's action in New York—which came as over 60 million people in the U.S. Midwest and Northeast faced heat advisories—followed a July demonstration in which Third Act members led a "funeral procession" near Citigroup's headquarters to honor elders who have died during recent dangerous heatwaves. That protest also led to arrests.
Other Summer of Heat actions targeting Citibank that resulted in arrests have been held by cello-playing grandfather, faith leaders, and mothers who gathered with their children outside bank CEO Jane Fraser's luxury apartment building.
This past weekend, over 30 self-described "climate feminists" were arrested in another demonstration outside Fraser's home, where they chanted: "Methane Jane, you can't hide. We charge you with ecocide."
More than 30 feminists sit down in the street in front of Methane Jane Fraser’s TriBeCa apartment. There’s nothing feminist about funding ecocide. pic.twitter.com/CtuQGWVaqh
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) August 25, 2024
An annual report released in May showed that in 2023—the hottest year on record—the world's 60 biggest banks committed $705 billion to companies conducting business in fossil fuels, bringing the total since the Paris agreement to $6.9 trillion. Citi's totals were more than $30 billion last year and $396 billion overall.
This post has been updated to clarify when Bill McKibben was arrested and to include additional arrests after publication.
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Elders Arrested Protesting Citibank Funding of Planet's Destruction
"We are on the cusp of a ruined planet, and the big banks like Citi are funding it, to the tune of trillions," said one organizer.
Jul 08, 2024
As Earth sizzles during what's likely to be its hottest summer on record amid a worsening planetary emergency, dozens of elder climate campaigners including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben were arrested Monday in New York while protesting Wall Street giant Citigroup's continued fossil fuel financing.
Members of the group Third Act—who are mostly aged 60 and older—led a "funeral procession" near Citigroup's Manhattan headquarters in remembrance of the senior citizens who have died during recent dangerous heatwaves and to call out the bank "for being the number one funder of fossil fuel expansion in the world," according to Summer of Heat, which is organizing a series of ongoing climate protests.
Summer of Heat said McKibben was one of 46 demonstrators arrested Monday, and that "with today's protest, there have now been 305 total arrests in this summer's historic campaign of relentless, disruptive protests to stop Wall Street funding the oil, coal, and gas projects that are making our planet unlivable."
According to Summer of Heat:
Older Americans are worried about growing climate extremes and how Wall Street is using their savings to harm the planet and their grandchildren's future. Third Act supporters are retired teachers, healthcare professionals, lawyers, union members, parents, grandparents, great aunts, uncles, and now activists. They are taking action—together with youth and families—to make a difference! They are calling on banks like Citi to invest in a peaceful and livable world for all.
"It might feel very hot to us, but it was 122 degrees (Fahrenheit) in New Delhi two weeks ago. Lots and lots and lots of people died," McKibben told protest participants before his arrest. "Things like this now happen every day around the world, and they happen worst [and] first in the places that have done the least to cause this crisis."
"This is the deepest question of justice the world has ever come across," McKibben added. "And the bank that we're outside has done more than almost any institution on Earth to make it worse. Given full warning by scientists of all kinds for the last 30 years, they have decided instead to try to make profit off the end of the world."
Margaret Bullit-Jonas, an Episcopalian priest and author who took part in Monday's protest, said that "Citibank is destroying the world that God loved into being and entrusted to our care."
"At this decisive moment in history, we teeter on the brink of climate chaos," she added. "Now is the time for Citibank to choose life and to stop financing fossil fuels."
Third Act members were joined by activists from various climate, environmental, and social justice groups. Summer of Heat organizer Liv Senghor said that the campaign "is an intergenerational and intersectional movement."
"We know that there is no climate justice without social justice," Senghor said. "And we know that if we do not stop financial institutions like Citibank right now, we will all feel the deadly consequences today, tomorrow, and for generations to come."
HipHop Caucus president and CEO Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. asserted that "to limit ongoing damage, and ensure a bright future for the next generations, we need bold action now to curb emissions, transition to clean energy, and to help households and communities mitigate current and future risks."
Gus Speth, a former U.S. Council on Environmental Quality chair, warned that "we are on the cusp of a ruined planet, and the big banks like Citi are funding it, to the tune of trillions."
"It's time for the Citigroup board of directors to wake up to their responsibility," he added. "Citi talks about environmental sustainability but practices environmental destruction."
Citigroup contends that it is "supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and our $1 trillion sustainable finance goal," and that its "approach reflects the need to transition while also continuing to meet global energy needs."
However, since the 2015 signing of the Paris agreement, Citi has provided $204.46 billion in financing for new fossil fuel projects, according to Stop the Money Pipeline, a Summer of Heat co-organizer.
"From the Bronx to the Gulf South, Black, Latine, Asian, Indigenous, and low-income communities living on the frontlines of the climate crisis—and the ones least responsible for it—face the highest asthma rates and staggering cancer rates while an unprecedented number of people are dying from heat waves," Summer of Heat said.
"Instead of staying home and hiding from the heat, organizers are calling on all New Yorkers and climate defenders from across the globe to take to the streets and demand that Wall Street stop destroying our future," the group added.
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68 'Summer of Heat' Activists Arrested in NYC Protesting Citgroup's Fossil Fuel Financing
"Citi's business model is frying our planet," said one campaigner.
Jun 28, 2024
Scores of activists were arrested Friday during a protest outside Citigroup's New York City headquarters, where demonstrators condemned what organizers called the megabank's "racist investments devastating Black and brown communities" and fueling the worsening climate emergency.
Around 1,000 people including environmental leaders from the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana gathered at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan's Financial District, where they rallied before marching to "demand that Wall Street stop funding the fossil fuel projects causing environmental devastation in mostly Black and brown communities in the Gulf South and across the globe."
The march ended at Citigroup's headquarters on the west side of Lower Manhattan, where organizers from New York Communities for Change said 68 people were arrested. The group said a total of 259 activists have been arrested during ongoing Summer of Heat on Wall Street protests, which it organized along with Stop the Money Pipeline, Climate Defenders, and Planet Over Profit.
"On Monday, climate activists from the Gulf South and allies held a roving speak out in front of financial institutions backing the fossil fuel industry, including KKR, BlackRock, and Bank of America," New York Communities for Change said. "On Wednesday, protesters held a civil disobedience action in front of the insurance conglomerate Chubb, which insures petrochemical projects destroying the climate in the Gulf South and around the globe."
One of the protest's organizers, Roishetta Ozane—who founded the Vessel Project of Louisiana—said that "projects that kill our communities like Freeport LNG (liquefied natural gas), Cameron LNG, Corpus Christi LNG, and others would not exist without the backing of financial institutions like Citigroup."
"Money made from them is blood money," Ozane added. "Since they destroy our homes, we're coming to pay them a visit. We will break this cycle of violence and exploitation now because later is too late. We want Citigroup to stop funding fossil fuels and to stop hurting our communities and our families."
As Stop the Money Pipeline coordinator Alec Connon explained in an opinion piece published earlier this month by Common Dreams:
Since the adoption of the Paris agreement in 2015, Citi has provided $204.46 billion in financing to the company's most rapidly developing new coal, oil, and gas fields. Remarkably, Citi has provided more money to those oil and gas companies than even JPMorgan Chase―the bank that climate activists like to call the 'Doomsday Bank.'
To be clear, I'm talking here only about the financing Citi has provided for companies developing new oil and gas reserves, not merely investing in infrastructure to keep the oil pumping from existing reserves. When we take into account financing to all fossil fuel companies, Citi has provided a little shy of $400 billion to coal, oil, and gas companies since 2015.
Citigroup contends that it is "supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and our $1 trillion sustainable finance goal," and that its "approach reflects the need to transition while also continuing to meet global energy needs."
However, Climate Defenders organizing director Marlena Fontes countered that "Citi's business model is frying our planet."
"Every credible climate scientist says that we can't afford to put one more penny into fossil fuels, but Citi is the number one funder of fossil fuel expansion in the world," Fontes added. "Until Citi stops funding fossil fuels, they can expect resistance from everyday people like us who want our children to be able to play outside without coughing on wildfire smoke or getting sick from deadly heatwaves."
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'Financing the Arsonists': Scientists Arrested During Citigroup Climate Protest
"I invite you to join us, at any level of risk tolerance," said one participant in the New York demonstration. "It feels deeply meaningful—even joyful—to be a part of this movement and to stand on the right side of history."
Jun 12, 2024
Police arrested 28 people, including several scientists, protesting outside Citigroup's headquarters in New York City on Wednesday as climate campaigners continued a series of actions targeting the bank for financing oil and gas projects.
Dozens of scientists and allies, some wearing white lab coats, marched to the bank's entrances holding signs and banners with messages like "The Science Is Clear," as they condemned Citigroup for financing nearly $400 billion in fossil fuel extraction in the eight years after the 2015 Paris agreement was signed.
Several scientists gave speeches before or as they were being arrested.
"I have studied climate change since 1982," Sandra Steingraber, a biologist and retired scholar in residence at Ithaca College, said in a speech outside the Wall Street giant's entrances. "I've testified. I've sent letters to the White House. I've met with the science advisor. I went to the Paris Climate talks. But carbon dioxide levels just reached a new high, and Citi here is financing the arsonists."
Police arrested Steingraber, who, as she was being taken away in handcuffs, declared: "I'm not interested in writing eulogies for the species that I study!"
BREAKING: Scientists arrested for blockading the doors of @citibank, the world’s second largest funder of fossil fuels.
Citi is ignoring the science, so we’re bringing the crisis to their doorstep. #SummerofHeat pic.twitter.com/7sIvfr7kML
— New York Communities for Change (@nychange) June 12, 2024
The scientists' protest was part of a series of climate actions undertaken as part of the Summer of Heat, a program organized by Climate Defenders, Climate Organizing Hub, New York Communities for Change, Planet Over Profit, and Stop The Money Pipeline (STMP).
A total of 28 people were arrested Wednesday, including several scientists, Alec Connon, STMP co-director, told Common Dreams. Dozens of campaigners were also arrested at Citigroup's headquarters on both Monday, in a highly-attended kickoff to the summer activism series, and Tuesday, in an orca-themed follow-up.
During Wednesday's protest, the scientists delivered a joint letter, published Monday by the Union of Concerned Scientists and addressed to Citigroup's leadership, urging the bank to stop financing fossil fuel projects scientists delivered a letter addressed to Citigroup's leadership urging the bank to stop financing fossil fuel projects.
Activist pressure on major banks has risen in recent years following revelations—notably in the annual Banking on Climate Chaos report, published by nonprofit groups—about the key role they've played in funding oil, gas, and coal projects. The most recent report found that the world's 60 largest banks had provided $6.9 trillion in funding to the fossil fuel industry in the eight years after the Paris Agreement.
The pressure has had an effect on some banks: HSBC and, more recently, Barclays have declared that they would stop financing new oil and gas projects. However, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported that HSBC remains involved in fossil fuel deals.
Bank loans to fossil fuel companies are used not just to continue extraction at existing sites but also to explore and develop new reserves, even though the International Energy Agency has said there can be no more such development if climate goals are to be met. Citigroup has funded more new extraction than any bank in the world, the Banking on Climate Chaos report found.
Yet in response to Monday's action, Citigroup claimed it was part of the transition to a green economy.
"Citi respects the advocacy of climate activists, and we are supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy through our net zero commitments and our $1 trillion sustainable finance goal," a bank spokesperson said a statement, according to media outlets. "Our approach reflects the need to transition while also continuing to meet global energy needs."
The statement did not win over climate activists. "This is the sort of bald-faced corporate lie that could cost us our planet," Peter Kalmus, a NASA climate scientist, wrote in a Newsweek op-ed published Wednesday.
Kalmus attended Wednesday's protest. Standing outside Citigroup's headquarters, he said, "We've written thousands and thousands of papers and they have not listened to us. They're fools. They’re stupid. They're being unwise. They have to start listening to scientists."
Summer of Heat organizers have events planned throughout the summer. In the op-ed, Kalmus reached out to readers to join the effort.
"I invite you to join us, at any level of risk tolerance," he wrote. "In my experience, and in the experience of many other climate activists I know, civil disobedience has been a very effective way to create social change. And a big change is happening: A transition from a profit-above-life, colonial-extractivist, genocidal mindset, to a loving, sharing, interconnected mindset. It feels deeply meaningful—even joyful—to be a part of this movement and to stand on the right side of history."
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Dozens Arrested as Activists Target Citigroup for Bankrolling Climate Breakdown
"The atmosphere is electric as hundreds gather to shut down Citibank's Global HQ," one group declared. "We are here to demand a future free from fossil fuels."
Jun 10, 2024
To kick off a season of climate activism, Summer of Heat campaigners on Monday morning blockaded the entrances to Citigroup's headquarters in New York City to protest the bank's role in perpetuating climate breakdown.
The campaigners locked arms and held banners at the doors to the Citigroup offices, blocking hundreds of employees from entering, according to social media posts by Climate Defenders, one of the organizations behind the Summer of Heat. They are targeting Citigroup, owner of Citibank, because the conglomerate financed more fossil fuel expansion than any bank in the world in the eight years after the 2015 Paris agreement was signed. Monday is the first day of a series of nonviolent direct actions the organizations have planned under the Summer of Heat banner.
"The atmosphere is electric as hundreds gather to shut down Citibank's Global HQ," Climate Defenders announced on social media. "We are here to demand a future free from fossil fuels."
"Big banks like Citi must stop financing fossil fuels and funding climate chaos!" Stop the Money Pipeline, one of the other convening organizations, wrote on social media.
🚨BREAKING: Hundreds of Climate Activists have shut down @Citibank’s Global HQ in Tribeca, blocking off all entrances. @Citi is the largest funder of fossil fuel expansion since the Paris agreement. #SummerOfHeat #StopFossilFuelFinancing 🌍✊ pic.twitter.com/I9pcbRRlem
— Climate Defenders (@ClimateDEF) June 10, 2024
Police have begun arresting some of the activists, video and social media posts from Climate Defenders and other organizations show. Renata Pumarol, deputy director of Climate Defenders, told Common Dreams that dozens had already been arrested by 10:50 am ET on Monday, but didn't yet have an exact figure.
The arrests were expected and didn't dampen morale among the protesters.
"Arrests are happening now!" Stop the Money Pipeline announced on social media. "Our message is clear: If you keep funding the fossil fuel companies that are disrupting our climate and lives, we will disrupt your ability to do business."
"Citibank is the largest investor in expanding fossil fuels," a protestor wearing a lab coat with a Scientist Rebellion badge said as he was being arrested by police. "It is a crime. It is a crime against the planet."
Scientist explains why he’s getting arrested at @Citi @Citibank HQ today, the largest financier of fossil fuel expansion #summerofheat #endfossilfuels pic.twitter.com/j9xisYvMhM
— Climate Defenders (@ClimateDEF) June 10, 2024
In support of the action, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) on Monday published an open letter to Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser calling for the bank to stop funding new fossil fuel projects.
"The financial industry must recognize the physical harms and economic risks it is exacerbating by enabling fossil fuel expansion, and rapidly adopt new policies that align with a safer climate future," the letter states.
UCS plans to hand deliver the message on Wednesday at a "Scientists Speakout" Summer of Heat event outside the Citigroup headquarters, its statement said. That's just one of many upcoming events that organizers have planned.
"All summer long, we're going to be shutting down and blockading the headquarters of Citigroup and other banks financing new coal, oil, and gas projects," Alec Connon, co-director of Stop the Money Pipeline, told Common Dreams. "We're calling on New Yorkers and people from all over the country and work to join us. The time to hold Wall Street accountable for its role in the climate crisis is now."
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'Summer of Heat' to Take Aim at Wall Street for Funding Climate Chaos
"We know that they're enabling the fossil fuel industry, and we know that to end the fossil fuel era, banks like Citibank must stop funding fossil fuels," an organizer said.
Jun 07, 2024
Climate activists will engage in nonviolent direct action at Citigroup's headquarters in New York next week to protest the bank's large-scale financing of fossil fuel companies, organizers told Common Dreams on Friday.
Five climate action organizations have banded together to create the "Summer of Heat," a monthslong activism program targeted at Citigroup and other Wall Street companies for their role in the climate crisis.
The world's 60 largest banks provided fossil fuel companies with more than $6.9 trillion in financing in the eight years after the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, a report published by nonprofit groups in May showed. Citigroup, which owns Citibank, has poured the most financing money into new extraction projects of any bank in the world and is the second-worst in terms of overall fossil fuel financing at nearly $400 billion since 2015.
On Monday, climate organizers will seek to change that. "We're starting big," Climate Defenders deputy director Renata Pumarol told Common Dreams. "We're starting with a complete shutdown of Citi headquarters in New York. We have a 150 people."
Actions at Citigroup headquarters will continue all week, she said.
Climate Defenders is one of five convening organizations of Summer of Heat, along with Climate Organizing Hub, New York Communities for Change, Stop the Money Pipeline, and the youth-led Planet Over Profit. The groups believe that consistent activism over a prolonged period will be more effective than one-off actions, and so, since November, they've been planning a series of summertime protests, Pumarol said.
"We know that big banks are heavily investing in coal, oil, and gas, and we know that they're enabling the fossil fuel industry, and we know that to end the fossil fuel era, banks like Citibank must stop funding fossil fuels," she said.
She said she was inspired by the 75,000-strong March to End Fossil Fuels in New York City in September. That week, climate activists, including many from the same groups leading Summer of Heat, also organized a blockade at Citigroup's headquarters, denying employees access to the building; 25 were arrested. In April, they returned for two more days of direct action at the headquarters, calling it a prelude to the Summer of Heat; more than 50 were arrested.
Climate activists block entry to Citi headquarters on September 14, 2023. (Photo: Ken Schles)
Organizers chosen Citigroup not just because they consider it to be a bad actor but also because they sense that the company might be responsive to public pressure, Pumarol said. It was the first Wall Street bank to take a stand on gun policy, setting restrictions on sales made by business partners amid a national debate following a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser has also expressed an interest in changing business course on account of the climate, Pumarol noted.
In addition to Citigroup, Summer of Heat organizers have asset managers and insurance companies such as KKR, Blackrock, AIG, and Chubb in their crosshairs, the program website says. They have what they say will be a fun-filled summer of activism planned, including even a "road trip" to the Hamptons in August to "disrupt the vacations of Wall Street's fat cat CEOs and executives making a killing off of killing the planet," according to their media advisory.
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