Right now most of our focus is on the Kavanaugh hearings, GOTV efforts, and the latest stupidity or atrocity in the news. And rightly so. But if you have a bit of outrage left over, a target that will have an immediate impact is where you bank.
There are reasons to boycott both Wells Fargo and Bank of America, but Wells Fargo in particular is the go-to bank for gun manufacturers and they have explicitly refused to stop partnering with the NRA to offer discounts to NRA members. In addition, the Wells Fargo CEO is trying to shut this up:
thehill.com/...
Sloan (the Wells Fargo CEO) had called to complain... about the reporter's conduct and that as a result he would be moved off the banking beat to cover the Trump Organization
So I closed my account. I wrote a personal story about it here, titled
“Goodbye, Wells Fargo”, and tried to explain it in a way that people who aren’t already on board would understand:
Wells Fargo turns a deaf ear not only to gun violence survivors, but to the onslaught of attacks on them. NRA board member Ted Nugent said that the Parkland teens “have no soul”. If the CEO of Wells Fargo could pick up the phone and tell Bloomberg to reassign Nasiripour for his reporting, why couldn’t he pick up the phone and tell the NRA to push Nugent off the board for his vicious attacks on teenagers? Surely Wells Fargo has some leverage on the NRA with their close and special relationship — or are they the ones on a leash?
We have an app, too, for signing up to this boycott: LiveBoycott.com. Boycotts are a tricky thing to do effectively, but the idea is that by targetting a bank — switch once, and you are done — it can have more economic clout. And by switching to a local credit union, you’re building relationships in your community. Many Kos-pers probably already do use local banks, but if not its a simple thing to do that has real power.