Christopher Peak Photo
Outside City Hall, protesters call for the mayor to withdraw funds from Wells Fargo.
Protesters outside City Hall called for the mayor to follow through on her promise to pull city funds from Wells Fargo Bank — and make sure the money doesn’t end up in another bank backing the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
At a Thursday afternoon rally, speakers took swings at Wells Fargo not only for bankrolling DAPL, the controversial pipeline that will cut through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, but also for funding private prisons and immigrant detention centers, defrauding customers with bogus accounts, and discriminating against minorities with pricier mortgages.
For all those reasons, they asked Mayor Toni Harp to stick by her promise, announced this week on WNHH’s “Mayor Monday,” to cut ties with the bank, as cities like San Francisco and Seattle have done. And to give them a deadline by when all the money would be cleared.
Elias Estabrook: Divest now.
The city keeps around $10-$11 million on any given day at Wells Fargo. One problem with pulling out: The government needs another alternative to handle the volume of transactions, but 17 major financial institutions are also implicated in funding DAPL, including CitiBank, Chase, Bank of America, and TD. On the radio, Harp said, “We’re going to see if there’s a big enough bank that is less” of a problematic actor than Wells Fargo.
After months of organizing in solidarity with Standing Rock, New Haven’s activists urged the mayor needed to move quickly. Watching Hurricane Harvey’s devastation reminded Elias Estabrook, an environmental activist and City Plan commissioner, of how dire a threat climate change poses.
“I had a pretty heavy heart this week, watching the scenes down in Houston, Tex., just the brutality of Mother Nature fed by climate change. That was a man-made storm,” he said. “As people fighting for climate justice, and for justice broadly, it’s important to remember this week that fight is urgent. That’s motivating me today. We have to move this money — now, before the next pipeline project. To stop the next one. To close down the coal plant. To make sure that we can actually have a clean, livable future.”
In the meantime, Stan Heller, another speaker, encouraged customers to also close their accounts.
Stan Heller: Shut down your own account.
In a statement, a Wells Fargo spokesperson pointed out that issues with DAPL are somewhat moot, now that oil’s flowing, but he said that the bank still funds plenty of renewable energy projects.
“The pipeline has now been operational since June, and our facility has been fully funded,” Kevin Friedlander wrote in an email. “Our commitment to the responsible development of all forms of energy remains unchanged, and since 2012, we have invested more than $70 billion in clean technology and other environmentally sustainable businesses. In 2016, more than eight percent of all solar photovoltaic and wind energy generated in the U.S. came from facilities owned in whole or in part by Wells Fargo.”
Friedlander added, “We value the relationship we have with the City of New Haven and look forward to discussing this issue with the Mayor.”
After the 45-minute rally, protesters chanted slogans as they marched half a block to Wells Fargo. Then they turned back to City Hall to deliver a petition with 500 signatures. Police barred the group of about 50 demonstrators from entering the mayor’s office, letting only Melinda Tuhus, the protest’s organizer, and Mary O’Leary, a reporter from the New Haven Register, inside.
Harp wasn’t there anyway.
Thanks to the Federal Reserve, money is extremely cheap, and the economy is awash in money. I doubt Wells Fargo would much care if New Haven withdrew its funds. I am sure that DAPL is a much more profitable customer than the City of New Haven is.