Over 13 weeks, the Summer of Heat on Wall Street climate protest campaign targeted Citibank headquarters in lowere Manhattan, because Citi has been the biggest investor in new global fossil fuel projects since the 2015 Paris climate accords. That landmark agreement aimed to keep global heating below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but the world is now getting dangerously close to that threshold. Exceeding that temperature raises the likelihood of climate destabilization, chaos and greater suffering, especially in countries in the global South that have contributed the least to the problem.
On the last day of the protest actions Sept. 5, 50 people were arrested in non-violent civil disobedience actions, at the same time dozens of others acted out of what organizers described as “militant joy.” As a band played, activists danced, sang, and carried out other acts of creative resistance. During the three-month climate protests 450 people were arrested a total of 700 times – one individual as many as 14 times.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus participated in the Summer of Heat protest campaign, and was arrested in non-violent direct actions such as blocking the doors of the Citibank building. She spoke with Alec Connon, executive director of the group Stop the Money Pipeline, one of convening organizations of the protest campaign, as they waited for activists to be released from jail on Sept. 5.
ALEC CONNON: It’s been really inspiring to see people who care about this enough that they’re willing to show up and get arrested for engaging in civil disobedience not just once, but over and over and over again, because that’s what it’s going to take to move these incredibly large, powerful institutions that are complicit in the crisis that’s threatening all of us and ecosystems around the world, and that kind of dedication has been one of the highlights of the summer for me.
MELINDA TUHUS: You talked about the theme or the emotion of today’s action as “militant joy.” I didn’t get arrested today, but I was in the plaza dancing to “Stayin’ Alive,” which I felt very joyful. I saw a mother and daughter who were dancing together – they were actually dancing with us, because they’re part of Extinction Rebellion. It was just so beautiful to see two generations, supporting each other and in the fight together. I was kind of blown away. Many of the actions – today was different because we kept them out for over an hour – and there were long lines of hundreds, maybe thousands, of Citi employees who couldn’t get in for over an hour. But a lot of times, they take people away so fast, and I know you can’t say what the impact will be based on the end of the summer, because we don’t know what the impact will be.
We know that Jane Fraser, the CEO of Citibank, has not met with anybody from Summer of Heat and we know that as the summer went on, they seemed to get more and more annoyed, and you and others were arrested on completely bogus charges, so I think we had some impact. But what do you think so far about the success of the campaign?
ALEC CONNON: Yeah, I think there’s several different ways to measure the success of the campaign. One thing we were trying to do here was to grow the climate movement and grow the number of people who are dedicating their energy and their time to ending the era of fossil fuels and it’s been so heartening to see so many people who are new to the climate movement getting involved this summer – literally dozens of people who have shown up and played leadership roles in the campaign, many of whom are new to the climate movement altogether. That’s one way we measure success: Are we building power, are we building community? So that in the next campaign we’re in a better position to run it even more effectively.
And then, on the more concrete and narrow goal of moving Citibank away from the fossil fuel industry, we’re under no illusion that moving one of the world’s largest banks to stop doing business with one of the world’s most powerful industries is no small task and we were never gonna win that over the course of the summer. But this is a multi-year campaign we’re going to be pushing on for as long as it takes, and we will be paying very close attention to what Citi’s fossil fuel financing has looked like this year, especially as we look ahead to 2025 and start thinking about how we’re going to be campaigning in the months and years ahead.
MELINDA TUHUS: I know you were trying to raise a lot of money and I don’t think you’ve reached your goal yet – money to pay staff, I guess to pay for all the accoutrements that people have needed for the different actions, and money for pizza when people get out of jail, and for the jail support people right down the street from where we’re talking, at Luna Pizza. Where can people go if they want to donate to this amazing summer-long effort?
ALEC CONNON: Yeah, I appreciate that question, because a campaign like this has a significant number of costs in addition to the ones you mentioned. We also have lawyer fees that we have to pay for supporting people who have to go to court. We also have the beautiful movement space where we’ve held trainings and meetings all summer long. So we have been running a grassroots fundraiser, and if you type Fundraiser.com/summerofheat you should be able to find it or just go to StoptheMoneyPipeline.com, and find a way to donate there as well.
MELINDA TUHUS: Great. Is there anything else you want to say?
ALEC CONNON: Just, I would encourage anyone listening to get involved in the climate movement. The fight to end the fossil fuel era is going to be the fight of our lives, and we need many, many more people to get involved. So, if there’s anyone out there who’s listening who hasn’t already gotten involved with their local climate group or isn’t plugged in to their local climate activist community, I would hope that if the Summer of Heat can play any role in inspiring you to get out there and do what you can, that would be a huge accomplishment.
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