Winning #DivestNY… or 5,000,000,000 Reasons Oil & Gas Companies Hate Us

350.org – the global environmental organization – leads a growing movement to get large, institutional investors worldwide to dump fossil fuels. The campaign was inspired by divestment from South African apartheid, which helped topple that racist regime.

Now, we’re applying the same tactic to the fossil fuel industry: stigmatize them and interfere with their operations by taking away financing.

We thought we could win in New York City – so we joined 350’s effort. After an intense, hard-hitting campaign, NYCC and our allies convinced the nearly $200 billion NYC pension funds to end fossil fuel investments. Corporations like ExxonMobil will now lose $5 billion in city investments, which is a globally significant victory in the fight against climate change that has shaken the industry.

We’re extraordinarily proud of our members’ and organizers’ work, which was a core part of the #DivestNY campaign. Public Advocate Tish James and D.C. 37 paved the way for Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Stringer to listen to us — not Wall St. and the oil and gas companies. Now, the city is pushing other big institutional investors globally to divest from climate destruction.

We won through old-fashioned organizing.

Sure, we had intelligent briefing papers on the financial impacts of the issue – and we did plenty of meetings with pension fund trustees to make both the moral and financial case for divestment. In the end, though, it required an aggressive, hard-hitting campaign. Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Stringer deftly credited the intense pressure from activists with pushing them to focus on and consider this issue thoroughly.

In particular, NYCC led or co-led the organizing for the most-impactful events that moved the politicians to take much-needed action:

May 2017: 150 person high-visibility teach-in inside of Trump Tower on divestment – an energetic, creative, in-your-face and very fun event inside the tower, which was social media gold and also generated media coverage.

May 2017: 600 person town-hall style accountability forum which Public Advocate James and Comptroller Stringer attended - this public grilling was a real show of power, numbers and intensity.

June 2017: 1,500 person rally and march in reaction to Trump leaving the Paris Agreement - the day of Trump’s horrid announcement on Paris, we organized a fast reaction event that protested Trump and called on Governor Cuomo, Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Stringer to act, in particular on divestment. At this event, Public Advocate James, who casts a vote on the pension board, saw a large crowd chanting for divestment, and she came out in public for divestment for the first time on the spot. Driven almost entirely digitally that day, the turn-out was 1-2k and it was so energized it took over an hour for the crowd to disperse after we marched to City Hall.

June 2017: Direct action at the pension board meeting – along with 350.org, we organized a die-in that disrupted the pension funds quarterly meeting for a few minutes with a loud flood warning alarm as we held a banner and performed a die-in to dramatize the effects of climate change before marching out.

October 2017: Thousands Join #Sandy5 March on the 5th Anniversary of the Storm – the People’s Climate Mobilization, 350.org and NYCC led the organizing for this big march, which included thousands of people in a spirited rally followed by a large march over the Brooklyn Bridge. Over 100 NYCC members joined the march and our organizing staff spent much of the previous month building the large turnout city-wide from many groups.

November 2017: Public Advocate Tish James’ hearing – these events and our lobbying and relationships helped convince Public Advocate James to conduct a public hearing that, as planned, effectively turned into a rally for divestment, with a large overflow crowd and spirited pre-hearing rally. Indigenous leaders, experts and impacted community members testified.

In Summer and Fall 2017, we also handed out about 10,000 leaflets - not as sexy, of course, but handing out a ton of leaflets on the street and at events helped educate the broader public - as well as protest Comptroller Stringer at his events - we got up close and personal at his events several times with protesters, banners and leaflets.

While Public Advocate James and municipal workers union D.C. 37 were the first pension fund trustees to endorse divestment, Mayor de Blasio and Comptroller Stringer deserve real credit for seizing the moment and moving forward. The Mayor and Comptroller are pushing other large investors to divest, helping to spark what we hope will be the next big wave of divestment by large funds. We’re very grateful for their advocacy!

NYC’s announcement made news globally and the clips are still coming in weeks later. The announcement videos have been viewed nearly half a million times on facebook. Most importantly: the industry is reeling. As one energy industry analyst put it: “Divestment was once a little marginal. Now [after NYC’s action] it’s mainstream.” The financial markets are noticing and the fossil fuel industry has been shaken. Read about the movement activism that led to this amazing win in Nexus Media: https://nexusmedianews. com/bright-lights-green-city57203cb6b20e