Share Email 27 Shares

News Release — 350 Vermont

Oct. 23, 2017

Press Contacts:

National: Matt Remle (Co-Founder) [email protected], (206) 639-3610

Jackie Fielder (Organizer) [email protected], (562) 313-2324

Get all of VTDigger's daily news. You'll never miss a story with our daily headlines in your inbox.

Local: Maeve McBride, 802-999-2820, [email protected]

Vermont, October 23, 2017 —

Today, seven simultaneous actions in Vermont and New Hampshire target TD Bank and Bank of America as funders of tar sands pipeline projects. TD Bank and Bank of America are two of 17 banks that have loaned Dakota Access LLC $2.5 billion to build the 1,100 mile pipeline, which will carry fracked oil from the Bakken formation in North Dakota. Hundreds of people, mostly Native Americans, occupied an encampment for months to block construction of the pipeline under the Missouri River, the source of water for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.

This protest is part of a mass global action that makes it clear to banks: Financing climate disaster and the abuse of Indigenous Peoples will result in a massive global divestment movement.

Today, 92 banks are gathering at the annual meeting of the Equator Principles Association (EPA) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. During this time, an indigenous-led divestment campaign, Mazaska Talks, will lead a global protest known as Divest the Globe.

The protests are designed to draw attention to the futility of the Equator Principles in upholding indigenous rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent in the case of the Dakota Access Pipeline and other desecration projects around the world.

VTDigger is underwritten by:

Over 40 actions have been registered across United States, Canada, South Africa, and France, with more expected.

Many of the world’s largest environmental organizations have also lined up in support of the days of action, with environmental leaders adding their voices to a letter that threatens the banks with the pressure of a boycott until they cease funding tar sands projects – which Europe’s second largest bank promised to do last week.

Actions in Vermont and New Hampshire include:

Barre: TD Bank, 36 North Main Street

Time: 1:00-2:00 PM

Hanover: (Bank of America) Wheelock & Main Streets

Time: 3:30 PM

Montpelier: TD Bank, Main & State Streets

Time: 11:30-12:30 PM

What: Join us for music, theater and banners and signs.

Organizer: Upper Valley Affinity Group, [email protected]

Bennington (Wed Oct 25th): starting at 2nd Congregational Church, 115 Hillside St;

Time: 3:00-5:00 PM

What: TD Bank Action

Organizer: 350Bennington

Burlington: TD Bank, 111 Main St.

Time: 8 AM – 5 PM

What: All-day “picket line” action with a special divestment announcement at noon, and other collaborative contributions. Water ceremony at 8am.

Organizer: 350Burlington

Brattleboro: TD Bank, 215 Main St.

Time: 9am – 5pm, Speak out from 4-5pm

What: Divest the Globe Vigil & Speak Out, Post Oil Solutions & the 99th Monkee Affinity Group will be vigiling all day and calling upon TD to divest itself of its investments in tar sands and fossil fuel infrastructure, and for the rest of us who do business with the bank to end our relationship.

Organizer: Post Oil Solutions & the 99th Monkee Affinity Group, [email protected]

Manchester Center: TD Bank, Bonnet St

Time: 11:30-1:00 PM

What: Divest the Globe silent protest.

Organizer: Earth Matters

“Anyone with a brain, not to mention a conscience, should put their money in a bank that actually thinks the planet has a future, instead of one that scrambles for the shortest of short term gains at any cost,” Bill McKibben, Founder of 350.org

“Making the transition from fossil fuels to green power is no longer a matter of financial capital, but of political will. These banks have learned nothing from Standing Rock or the Great Recession, so it’s up to us to make our own public banks and finance our own communities,” Jackie Fielder, Organizer with Mazaska Talks