100 Years Of “Bread and Roses”

“One may live without bread, but not without roses…” - Jean Richepin, 19th century French Poet One hundred years ago this week, 25,000 textile mill workers, many of them women and young girls, walked away from their looms and out of the Dickensian sweatshops of Lawrence, Massachusetts in protest of brutal working conditions and pay [...]

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Occupy Movement Starts Showing Up on Bank of America Doorsteps

As the authorities attempt to evict Occupy protestors from public spaces, they are  showing up at Bank of America doorsteps across the country. Yesterday, in Charlotte, environmental activists showed up and were arrested at BoA’s Corporate HQ to demand the bank end their financing of coal – the primary driver of climate change. Today, in [...]

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More Evidence That Wall Street Banks Are Feeling The Pressure

They may be trying to play it cool, but more and more evidence keeps pouring in that the big Wall Street banks are feeling the pressure. They’ve tried to downplay the enormous transfer of funds that happened around Nov. 5, a.k.a. Bank Transfer Day. In the five weeks leading up to that day, more than [...]

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People Power Is Changing Our Banking Behavior

Over the last few weeks since we launched our “Not One More Dollar” campaign, thousands of you have committed to stop doing business with Bank of America until the bank quits underwriting the dirty coal industry. We’re working side by side with economic justice and democracy groups who are also pushing for the biggest banks [...]

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Remember, Remember The 5th Of November

Remember, remember the 5th of November — because this Saturday is “Bank Transfer Day.” BTD is a highly popular Facebook event (over 70,000 are attending) initiated by Kristen Christian, a young woman from California who decided she’d had enough of corporate greed. Her feelings resonated with tens of thousands of others, and the big banks [...]

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Why Are People Occupying Wall Street?

Why are people occupying Wall Street? And can this protest lead to real change in how banks treat people? Over the last two weeks I’ve watched momentum build in lower Manhattan as growing numbers of people are physically drawn together to express their deep frustration with the financial system. The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrators [...]

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PNC Bank’s Evolving Approach To The Energy Sector

PNC recently released their 2011 Corporate Responsibility Report. Documents like this  provide a window into how a bank thinks about its environmental and social impact. RAN has been paying close attention to PNC Bank and its approach to the energy industry for a couple of years, so I was eager to get my hands on [...]

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Another European Bank Voices Risks of Financing Coal Plants

 RAN is challenging the largest U.S. banks to address their financing of coal power and we’re concerned that they are falling behind their European competitors. Last week, French banking giant BNP Paribas released its new corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy on coal power. (Those of you who enjoy reading bank statements can check out the [...]

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How Did the Banks Get So Weak, Anyway?

A great article from Forbes appeared in my Google alerts last week and I had to share. The article begins as yet another article describing the sad state of affairs at big US banks, namely Bank of America and Citi. The article goes on, however, to give a refreshingly short and simple explanation of how [...]

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C – O – A – L Spells Money

Gimme a C! Gimme an O! Gimme an A! Gimme an L! What’s that spell? MONEY!!! By now, loyal blog readers, you are aware that RAN is calling on Bank of America out on their place as the #1 funding agency to the coal industry. To show the nation’s largest bank that we’re intent on [...]

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