Today. Copley Square, Boston
Members of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) have connected themselves with metal tubes in front of Bank of America at Copley Square to protest the corporations funding of the coal industry which destroys communities. Police are currently breaking them apart.
RAN should jump in the Pride parade this year since the theme is sustaining our world/communities.
Join their facebook group. Join the QueerToday.com facebook group.
Thanks to Trevor for sending photos from his fancy schmancy I-phone!
From Their Flyer:
While the world is calling for immediate action to confront climate change reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and end our reliance on dirty coal energy, Bank of America (Boston Pride Corporate Sponsor) is continuing to use your money to invest in the most destructive and polluting industries.
Coal:
- responsible for 40% of US greenhouse gasses (2 billion tons/year)
- largest source of toxic mercury contamination
- power plants are the leading cause of asthma and lung cancer responsible for over 24,000 death annually
- Mountaintop removal mining has destroyed over 450 mountains in Appalachia, buried thousands of miles of streams and poisoned water supplies.
Bank of America made headlines with an environmental initiative pledging support for "environmentally sustainable business…. (and) to address global climate change." While hailing themselves as leaders in addressing climate change – CEO Ken Lewis' lofty rhetoric is at odds with his company's track record. This pledge commits less than 2% of their assets to this cause, spread out over the next 10 years. What are they doing with the other 98% of their $1.4 trillion in assets? Raking in record profits from America's fossil fuel addiction.
6 comments:
Speaking as one of the four who was locked down, we are not members of the Rainforest Action Network. The action was organized by Rising Tide North America with support from RAN, which is why we were handing out their literature and using their banners.
Thanks for covering our action! And if it helps, an unspecified number of us locked down are, in fact, queer <3
Thanks for the clarification, and welcome to QT!
Would you be interested in working to build a coalition of folks to demonstrate during Boston Pride?
Depends on what kinda demonstration you're wanting. My co-defendants and I, collectively known as the Fantabulous Four, can't get arrested again till our court shit is over or we'll get sent back to jail. Jail sucks, bee tee dubs.
I know a great many of Boston's radical queers, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no longer a specific radical queer group operating in Boston and those of us who would be interested in such a thing are already head-breakingly overcommitted to other projects.
Adriene,
QueerToday is an active radical queer group operating in Boston... make no mistake ;)
Last year at pride we formed a coalition of folks opposed to the theme who jumped into the parade creating a large queer, anti-war contingent.
Something of that nature could be cool....
I totally hear you on both the jail stuff and the overcommitted stuff.
All of the blogavists on QueerToday are very very busy with all kinds of non-profit work and volunteer stuff.
Oh yeah, I heard about that-- I might even have promoted it.
I think the misunderstanding originates from the fact that we're operating under different definitions of the word radical, which is cool.
Find me on facebook, if you're so inclined. Too many Mark Snyders for me to figure which one you are.
perhaps... or perhaps you're not familiar with some of our past direct actions and campaigns... i'd be happy to fill u in via facebook ;)
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