By Katharine Harrison, SanDiego350 Legislative Team Lead
Article by The Jumping Off Place
“One of the most powerful [tools for political pressure], when well organized, is the boycott: to change where you park your money and where or what you buy.”
There are many tools for exerting political pressure: strikes, marches, letters to the press, letters or calls to politicians, public comment at meetings of elected officials, town halls, petitions. One of the most powerful, when well organized, is the boycott: to change where you park your money and where or what you buy. Famous boycotts that made a difference include the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and the California grape boycott of 1965. Th!rd Act, the seniors’ activist group started by Bill McKibben (350’s founder), and several other organizations are currently calling for a boycott of corporations that support the ICE raids. Here’s a link to an NPR article about February boycotts of Big Tech and big box stores. If you’re already doing this, bless you! More on my personal response coming up …
If you bank at any of the big banks (JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Capital One, U.S Bank, etc.) they invest heavily in fossil fuel companies while highlighting their promises and weak efforts to make their practices more sustainable, a practice which we call “greenwashing.” Despite all the horn tooting, fossil fuel investments actually rose by $162.5 billion in 2024 compared to 2023, with top US banks significantly increasing their investments. Compared to the big guys, a local non-profit credit union provides all the same services that the bamls provide and is significantly less likely to fund large energy projects. We have several robust credit unions in San Diego County. However, the devil is always in the details and it pays to do a little sleuthing. Th!rd Act offers resources for moving your money to institutions that are more aligned with your climate values.
Also, that credit card you use to garner rewards, such as airline miles, is almost certainly underwritten by one of the large banks. I loved my Southwest Rewards card and used it for many years, until I realized it is underwritten by Chase. I cut up the card, closed the account, and stopped flying so much, which is a good, carbon-reducing practice in and of itself. It hurt. I encourage you to consider this, but only if you know your financial standing and can evaluate the tradeoffs. Note: if you close your accounts at a big bank, be sure to write to the bank’s CEO and Customer Service and let them know why! Request a response, so you at least know they received it.
And don’t even get me started on security investments. I was fortunate to inherit some money several years back and immediately put it into some long-term investments that, within a year, I regretted, as I learned more about what some of those investments might be funding. I spent the following years adjusting what I could without losing my shirt. This included redirecting maturing funds to green investments or short term CDs. I may not get the highest returns on my money this way, but I feel so much better it’s worth it.
Back to the boycott: There are some pretty awful things happening out there and Th!rd Act and other organizations are asking conscientious folk to boycott the companies that are enabling ICE raids and DHS lies. Amazon is at the top of their list.
An Amazon convenience junkie, my heart stopped at considering this. I was particularly concerned about losing my dozens of Kindle books which are digitally tied to Amazon, quite a few still unread. I slept on it and the next morning spent some time listing all the products I regularly order from Amazon and searching for cost effective alternatives. It turned out to not be the nightmare I had anticipated. Kind of fun, actually. I decided to stop my Prime subscription but not close the account, so that I can still access the unread Kindle books I already have. This includes the sacrifice of streaming services through Prime Video. I just will buy everything, including Kindle books and streaming services, elsewhere, and I will order multiples at a time, to lower the carbon footprint for their delivery – until such a time as CEO Jeff Bezos changes his tune and practices. Note: If you use the Capital One Shopping tool to sidestep Amazon, consider that Capital One is one of the big bad banks.
Contributing significantly to my spurning of Jeff Bezos, also owner of the Washington Post, is a February 10th WaPo Board Editorial which applauds the Trump administration’s decision to rip up the federal government’s authority to regulate climate pollution. The rescinded Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding was a foundational legal and scientific determination made by the EPA in 2009. On Feb 12, Trump announced he had ended it, saying that it was a “radical rule,” the basis for the “Green New Scam” that “had no basis in fact — none whatsoever — and … no basis in law,” bragging as usual at how BIG his move is. Few things have gotten me so heated. The Post editorial argued it was responsible and legally sound because the original Finding was “overreach.” I summarily ended my Washington Post subscription and I will use Th!rd Act’s guide to make my Amazon boycott known.
I hope this information is useful to you, more than just my rant. I invite you to take a day or two and evaluate for yourself if any of these boycotting efforts call to you. Here are links to the Th!rd Act anti-ICE campaign and an anti-Big Tech campaign, both examples of how we can use the boycott for advancing our values – right now!