[ad_1]
Local weather activists made a splash within the overcast Hamptons final weekend once they gathered exterior the Parrish Artwork Museum to denounce alleged financiers of our environmental downfall. With help from the Shinnecock Nation, organizers from Planet Over Revenue (POP) and New York Communities for Change (NYCC) joined forces on Saturday, July 15 to protest throughout the museum’s annual midsummer profit, sponsored partly by Financial institution of America this 12 months. With calls to “tax the wealthy” and warnings about lethal inequalities, the group of round 16 organizers known as out the ultra-wealthy and funding banks for “greenwashing” their photographs by attaching their names to the museum’s on-the-ground group work.
In an announcement, POP stated the motion was a part of a weekend-long marketing campaign organized to “go after the wealthy of their summer time haven, disrupting their every day lives and bringing consideration to the injury they’ve induced and proceed to trigger to our local weather and the setting.” The group pointed to the rich class’s work in industries that “gas the local weather disaster” in addition to their contributions to emissions through luxurious perks equivalent to non-public jets.
POP additionally highlighted the Banking on Local weather Chaos report, authored by a number of anti-oil environmentalist organizations together with Rainforest Motion Community, Indigenous Environmental Community, Oil Change Worldwide, and Sierra Membership, indicating that Financial institution of America has offered almost $280 billion in funds for fossil gas tasks from 2016 to 2022 alone.
Financial institution of America declined to remark.
The protest started at round 7pm that night because the protesters, clad in purple t-shirts and outfitted with indicators and banners, ran by the sector adjoining to the museum’s south façade towards the out of doors profit with chants like “Tax the wealthy, tax the motherfucking wealthy,” “Billionaires get off it, put individuals over revenue,” and “Hey, Hey, B of A [Bank of America], how many individuals did you kill right now?” as occasion safety closed in on them.
The midsummer profit celebrated a number of honorees together with Fred Seegal, the Parrish Artwork Museum’s board chair and vice chairman of TD Cowen, a division of the TD Securities funding banking sector of the larger TD Financial institution. Chad Leat, Citigroup’s retired vice chairman, was additionally an honoree. The Banking on Local weather Chaos report claims that Citi was the second largest fossil gas banking financier with $333B in fossil gas venture investments between 2016 to 2022, and TD was in tenth place with $173B. Neither Seegal nor Leat instantly responded to Hyperallergic’s request for remark.
Video footage captured by one of many organizers seems to indicate two safety guards tugging at and holding onto a drumming protester’s arms and torso, attempting to wrench their drumsticks away. The video additionally seems to indicate the guards grabbing at and shoving one other protester recording with their cellphone. The protest lasted round half-hour complete with no arrests and the protesters being escorted off the museum’s property.
The Parrish Artwork Museum declined to remark.
POP member Ella Mead-VanCort informed Hyperallergic that neither group has any situation with the Parrish Artwork Museum or its employees. “All these museums do good work, however these billionaires and banks are greenwashing their photographs by capitalizing off of the work these establishments do by monetary contributions that they’re capable of write off as tax deductibles,” she elaborated. “The Hamptons are a playground for the rich, and Parrish is only a instrument for them to seem extra palatable despite their crimes in opposition to our individuals.”
“We had no intention of being perceived as a bodily risk,” Mead-VanCort continued. “We simply wished to say that they shouldn’t know peace till we all know peace — till our planet is secure,” she added, referring to the rich attendees who paid hundreds of {dollars} to safe tickets for the profit.
This demonstration wasn’t the one one which focused the one p.c over the weekend as over a dozen protesters, together with 63-year-old Disney fortune heiress Abigail Disney, had been arrested for blocking the East Hamptons non-public airport to protest using non-public jets and those who revenue from the fossil gas trade in mild of record-breaking temperature will increase and local weather catastrophes which have characterised 2023. For POP and NYCC, the message is obvious: “You’re not going to take advantage of our world and poison our assets and get away with it.”
[ad_2]
