When and Where:
Friday 7 April, 12.30pm
Westpac Bank, 49 Mitchell St, Bendigo.
Dear Climate Supporter,
We’re gearing up for our first Central Vic climate action for 2017 with a protest on April 7th at the Westpac Bank, 49 Mitchell St, Bendigo. We hope you can join us there at 12.30 in our campaign to stop Westpac from funding the Adani Mine.
2017 is the defining historical moment for the climate movement because of the proposed Adani Mine in Queensland. This carbon time bomb would be the biggest coal mine in the Southern Hemisphere. It is currently being supported by both the Federal Coalition and the Queensland Labor Government, and is seeking finance to go ahead. This mine has been referred to as game-over for a safe climate.
All around the country, people are stepping up and taking action to prevent this from happening. A very effective strategy is to focus on ‘secondary targets’, like the BIG FOUR banks, ANZ, NAB, Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank, who could finance the mine. These banks are referred to as the financial engine room of the fossil fuel industry, lending billions of dollars each year to projects that drive devastating climate change. We need to make it socially unacceptable for any company to be associated with Adani. Banks are extremely vulnerable to public pressure and reputational risk.
We have the Westpac bank in our sights. The Federal Government is frantically lobbying Westpac to fund Adani, and the bank is reported to have already loaned Adani $650 million.
Our first action is at the Westpac Bendigo branch on Friday 7th April. We are meeting there at 12.30pm to occupy the bank. There will be a range of ways you can join this action, so that we can all play a part in the movement. Some of us will occupy the bank, some will remain outside the bank, some will do theatrics, some will contribute to the planning. There are a variety of support roles. Non-violent direct action training will be offered prior to the action. We would love you to join us.
Our demand is that Westpac makes a public declaration to rule out funding the Adani project. Actions like these will continue until this happens.
Building this movement requires mass participation, and we need as many people as possible to turn out in the coming months.
Please rsvp to centralvicclimateaction@gmail.com to let us know how you would like to be involved:
-“I’m in! See you at the bank!”
-“I’m interested; not sure I can be there at the bank, but wish to remain connected with the movement in some useful way.” (You’re welcome to make suggestions, or we can contact you with a few ideas).
-“I wish to attend non-violence training”.
Feel free to pass this email onto your friends and networks.
Kind regards,
Susie Burke, Bernard Tonkin, Trevor Scott, Dean Bridgfoot, Tim Read, Lisa Minchin, on behalf of Central Victorian Climate Action, #StopAdani.
Excellent Guardian article for further reading:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/14/adani-coalmine-activists-gear-up-to-fight-this-will-dwarf-the-franklin-blockade
