Why I am not a fan of PNC Bank?

I was a fan of PNC Bank

and I am a fan of George Lakey.

Why was I a fan of PNC Bank?
Because PNC Bank had the brilliantly simple idea to let thousands and thousands of people who are not PNC customers use their ATM machines free of charge. Here is a cheap and simple way to make yourself lots of friends and future customers. Considering that the Commercial Banking industry is more interested in finding what other fee they can raise from their customers, free access to PNC ATM machines is like a breath of fresh air.

PNC’s value statement reads like the value statement of the most progressive firms in the country: Performance, Customer Focus, Respect, Integrity, Diversity, Team Work and Quality of Life. All the key stuff is there. Better still, its website has a link to a page reviewing PNC’s Green Commitment. Unfortunately that page is now “under construction”.

When PNC’s Green Commitment web page  was available, you could read the following:

• In 2002, PNC Bank became the first major U.S. bank to apply green building standards to all newly constructed or renovated retail branch offices.
• PNC is one of the most active companies when it comes to environmental stewardship.
• PNC has more newly constructed buildings (66 branches and 3 other facilities) certified by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) than any other company in the world.
• PNC offers a Green Lending Program to small businesses who also commit to environmentally friendly changes.
• PNC Firstside Center opened in 2000 as the nation’s largest corporate building to earn USGBC certification

This all sounds impressive. I was a fan of PNC Bank until last week.
Last week I received the email below from George Lakey.
You probably do not know who George Lakey is.
George is this older gentleman, white hair and blue eyes, very respectful, very peaceful and very main stream in appearance.  In 1992, George founded “Training for Change” in Philadelphia.

Training for Change trains social activists to Leadership, Team Building and Facilitation skills of the same quality that you may find in corporate settings at a cost that fits the budget of most non-profits. Understanding how a disparate group of people becomes a healthy, self-empowered high performing team is key to social activism as much as to entrepreneurs.
In terms of social actions, George teaches and practices non violent action.

Back to PNC Bank.
It turns out that in spite of PNC’s impressive Green credentials, PNC’s Investment Banking Division is one of the largest investors in Appalachian based coal strip mining operations.
So much for PNC being “one of the most active companies when it comes to environmental stewardship”.

Earlier this year the Rainforest Action Network published a Report Card on 9 US based Banks that are key lenders to companies that practice mountaintop removal.
There are lots of information available on the web if you are interested in finding out more about the impact of Strip Mining on the Environment and on our Health. Here are a few sources:

• A January 2010 article in Science Magazine on the Consequences of Mountain Top Mining.
• Beyond Coal – Sierra Club Fact Sheet.
• Wikipedia entry on Mountain Top Removal.

For PNC Bank, this crisis is a chance to actually demonstrate their leadership and align their words with their actions.  Let’s watch…
Bellow I reproduced the account that George Lakey wrote of his incarceration following a non-violent protest in a PNC Bank branch located near the White House:

“Pop-pop?”

I tunnelled up from sleep, realizing that my six-year-old great grandson was at the foot of my bed, all dressed for his school day and wanting to touch base with me before he left.

“Hi, Yasin,” I said groggily.  ”Come into bed if you want.”

He jumped in and crawled into my arms while I woke myself up a bit more.  ”Good morning,” I said as I gave him a squeeze.

“Why did you go to jail yesterday?” he asked, alert with curiosity.
I could feel his worry about me ebbing as he felt the familiar strength of my arms around him.

“I didn’t think President Obama knew how strongly your Pop-pop and lots of other people felt about his letting coal companies blow up mountains,” I said.  ”We thought if we let ourselves be arrested it would get his attention.”

“Yasin, time to go to school.”  It was Yasin’s mom Crystal at the door of my bedroom.  She came further in to take a look at me; she too worried sometimes about her seventy-two year old grandfather.

“Have a good day at school,” I said as he wriggled out of bed.

I was one of nearly a hundred people from many walks of life, from famed NASA scientist James Hansen to the son of many generations of coal miners, from West Virginia’s Larry Gibson who has spoken to the United Nations about the pillage of his mountains to a multiply-pierced young anarchist woman from Chicago.  We were there with thousands of of supporters on September 27 to participate in Appalachia Rising, the first mass nonviolent direct action in Washington, D.C. to oppose mountain top removal.

I dislike arrest and jail, personally.  Been there, done that, as long ago as the civil rights movement in the ‘sixties.  I dislike the loss of freedom, being put under the custody of someone with a gun. Most of what I dislike are the reminders of that seizure of my body and my destiny:  the tight pressure of cold metal handcuffs on my skin, the awkward angles my body  takes getting into police vehicles (I’m not as limber as I once was), the temperature in the cells (always, it seems, too hot or too cold), the uncertainty about whether I’ll be able to stay with my comrades or be isolated, the awful clang of metal against metal when the cell doors close.  I’m lucky in that I’m rarely beaten and in those situations I have some protection from my white skin and my peaceful disposition.

But this mountain top removal thing has to stop.
And I have yet to meet the political scientist who can argue convincingly that Big Coal and the financiers behind it can be stopped without the countervailing pressure of people power through nonviolent direct action.

I know plenty of people who believe that the President “ought to” stop mountain top removal (and the wars and poverty and the looting of our treasury by giant corporations) but their “Obama ought to” complaints imply, as complaints do, the powerlessness of the speaker.

The powerful way to handle an ally in the White House is to act in such a way as to “force him” to do what he wants to do already.  The powerful way for a citizen to act in our country is to acknowledge the reality of its corrupted politics, as black students and Dr. King did years ago, and participate in campaigns that force change. That’s part of the legacy of power that moves Earth Quaker Action Team, the group I’m part of.  Why hold back from taking nonviolent direct action?

I’m remembering the aboriginal woman who asked me a burning question during our break during a labor union training in Canada.  Taking the stance of a warrior, fixing me with her brown eyes, she asked: “Why, George, have your people abandoned your president?”

I had no answer in the moment.  It was a year ago, and indeed so many people had walked away after casting their vote, leaving Obama the job of cleaning up the mess.  In reflecting on her question I realize that some people really do maintain the image of U.S. politics given by seventh grade civics textbooks, and keep their innocence despite everything they’ve experienced since.  Others just want someone “on top” to blame: it used to be mom or dad or the teacher, and now it’s the president.  Others cherish their comfort zone and continue to talk and sign petitions and lobby and talk some more, keeping themselves almost-convinced that spending their hours in meetings away from their families is the sacrifice that will bring social change.  If only they let themselves consider a different paradigm.

Luckily, I was around when Dr. King reminded us that ‘the truth shall make us free.”  The truth about how politics works in the U.S.  The truth about climate change and the radical change it requires of us — of all of us.  And the promise of freedom to re-join our planet, to have a decent future for our six-year olds.

Yesterday’s action for me had a curious blend of power and sweetness. We walked into PNC’s ornate and historic bank near the White House. Reverend Billy set down on the middle of the marble floor a tarp and the rest of us poured dirt on it, creating a kind of mountain complete with twigs and leaves and a little red sign saying “Stop.” Eleven of us made an arc around the dirt mound, sitting as we did so, while behind us the Gospel choir of the Church of Life After Shopping began to sing.  A banner was held aloft: “PNC Bank: The Mountaintop Removal Bank.”

Supporters dialogued with the bank manager while photographers did their thing.  Police checked us out and went away to deal with more pressing matters.  Those of us sitting in — from Earth Quaker Action Team, Swarthmore College, Rainforest Action Network — held a meditative silence while the choir sang and Reverend Billy preached and the bank locked its doors.

When it was clear that the authorities would “wait us out,” we alternated the singing with reflections, spontaneously as in Quaker Meeting, and personal stories of meaningful times with Nature.  The closeness grew; communion happened.

The police returned and four of us were handcuffed and walked out of the bank to the waiting police cars and the cheers of our comrades.

This time the jail cells were cold.  Our hearts, however, were warm.”

George Lakey, September 28, 2010