Local Action Against the Coal Industry

On Saturday, Nov. 17th, activists in Athens protested outside the CitiFinancial office on East State Street. (I've lived here for years and never noticed it, but it is there next to the Napa Auto Parts Store with which it shares a parking lot.) The story in the Monday's A-News (Nov. 19) got many of the details wrong.

The protest was part of a national day of action against CitiGroup and Bank of America, which are both complicit in the ongoing devastation of mountaintops in Appalachia through their funding of the coal industry. The protest included folks from Athens, other parts of Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Protesters arrived around 11:45 a.m., after spending the morning handing out flyers at the Athens Farmers Market. Some flyers were accompanied by lumps of coal, gathered from an unknown location. Activists asked people to stop by the Citi office, leaving their lumps of coal with the message that Citi should stop funding the coal industry. It is unclear how many people actually took coal to the Citi office before the protesters arrived there, though at least 10 people said they would.

Upon arriving at the Citi office, protesters unloaded their signs with messages such as "Coal Kills" and "CitiGroup: Funding Climate Change" and moved to the sidewalk in front of the office. Two protesters stayed in the parking lot, one held a sign against the window so employees could read it (the staff locked the door within minutes of our arrival) and the other attempted to write "No New Coal" on the sidewalk with a piece of coal. Soon after, the police arrived, questioning the two protesters who were still in the parking lot. One protester was eventually arrested for Criminal Mischief for her act of writing "No Ne . . ." on the sidewalk and presumably for dumping a bucket of coal in front of the door to the locked office -- though it is unclear who actually did that.

All in all, it was a positive action with many honks of support for the 20 or so protesters who lined both sides of E. State Street for an hour on a busy Saturday morning.