We just learned something startling: on Thursday, JPMorgan Chase contacted the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion and requested meetings with all of the First Nations impacted by the Trans Mountain pipeline.
This is a huge development. Five months ago, when we joined the founders of Mazaska Talks for a meeting with Chase’s VP of Sustainability and PNW management, they had never even heard of the Treaty Alliance — and Chase had never met with any of the First Nations or tribes opposing the construction of the three major new tar sands pipelines (the Trans Mountain, Keystone XL, and Line 3). This, despite the fact that Chase’s own policies state that its clients must respect indigenous communities’ rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
When Treaty Alliance representatives contacted our friend Matt Remle to relay this news, we were humbled by one other thing they told him: Tell people we said thank you for Monday’s action.
With Chase’s AGM starting tomorrow, we want to keep the pressure on. Can you help do that by doing the following 3 things?
- Send A Message Chase’s Entire Leadership (60 secs)
- Call Chase Leadership (3 mins)
- Write a personal email to Chase’s Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Matthew Arnold, and PNW Chairperson, Phyllis Campbell. Personal emails are much more impactful than form letters!
There are talking points here.
The road is long. By taking on the nation’s largest bank, we’re taking on one of the most powerful institutions in the country — but these are the fights we must pick: JPMorgan is facilitating the destruction of everything we know; our best hope of stopping them lies in standing up and taking the sort of bold action we took on Monday. If you haven’t shared the wrap-up video of that powerful day yet, you can do that here.
Onwards,
The #ShutDownChase team