Rainforest Action Network supports Chase-Manhattan , Citigroup and Bank of America

In Australia, people march in the streets by the tens of thousands to speak out for forest protection, but not here in this country. Until there is a popular American environmental movement made up of more than mostly academics and anarchists, organizations like Rainforest Action Network are the best hope we have to challenge the corporate takeover of life of Earth. In our current police state, the Big Greens are more comfortable building their memberships than a movement, and RAN is one of the few, if not only, NGOs that doesn't accept corporate money or ask their executives to sit on its board. I understand why you feel angry about the dire situation here on Earth. It's not about tearing down "the system." It's about transforming ourselves and it in the process.

How does RAN certifying the most vile of Banks as environmentally friendly, "challenge the corporate takeover fo life on earth"?
What do i propose in stead? Anything other than certifying that the enemy is now our friend.
And someone should explain RAN's criteria, Why is Wells Fargo worse than the Bank of Amerikkka, the Shittybank, and JP Morgan Chase?

David Rockefeller controls Chase Manhattan, with $9 trillion in custody, founded the trilateral commission and is chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, where the Presidents and Prime ministers of the American empire give speeches to the corporate masters. The other side of the Rockefeller family started Citigroup. These people are behind every war and atrocity america commits. Wells Fargo lent its airplane to the CIA for "Extraordinary Renditions".

Yes, the above comments are true, almost all banks have some sort of rap sheet of exploiting people and the environment by supporting manipulative corporations. The economic system in the US is so corrupt that dealing in US currency in whatever form will result in your fingers being stained red with somebody's blood. This is the unfortunate reality of our modern capitalist society..

"How many financial scandals does a banking company have to be involved in before the Federal Reserve will finally conclude it isn't up to the task of taking control of yet another big bank?

We still don't know the answer to that question, given the Fed's boneheaded decision last week to approve Bank of America's purchase of FleetBoston, creating a behemoth with nearly $1 trillion in assets. In a single stroke, the Fed managed to reinforce its reputation as a patsy for the banking industry while undermining efforts of other regulators to get tough with corporate wrongdoers.

Yes, this is the same Bank of America that agreed this week to pay $375 million, and reduce fees by $80 million, to settle civil charges that it defrauded mutual fund investors by helping a big hedge fund engage in illegal trading.

It is the same Bank of America that last week agreed to pay a $10 million fine for withholding and destroying documents requested by the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's in connection with an ongoing investigation into whether B of A's securities unit engaged in illegal trading based on inside information about its upcoming analysts reports.

It's the same Bank of America that helped Enron structure one of its infamous off-balance-sheet entities, then helped beat back an accounting reform that would have forced disclosure of such scams.

The same Bank of America that was so proud of the one-stop service it provided to Adelphia Communications -- loans, securities underwriting, strategic advice and positive analyst reports -- that it actually detailed it in a case study it used with its new employees.

The same Bank of America that helped dairy giant Parmalat place more than $1 billion in public and private debt, and now has three former employees under investigation by Italian authorities."

article continues @;

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=10409

Maybe what is needed instead of RAN catering to these corrupt lending institutions like B of A is people keeping their money in local credit unions or abstaining from currency exchange altogether. This seems an impossible task in today's system of currency exchange, though many people are working on using local currency, trade and barter or finding food and shelter without using currency altogether. Organic bioregional farming, labor for food, and native edible plant foraging are some options, for people in urban habitats community gardens are the way to go..

Ithica has local currency with pictures of their spotted salamandars on the bill (instead of slaveowners and killers of Native Americans)..

Here's a description from their website..

"Ithaca Hours is a local currency system that promotes local economic strength and community self-reliance in ways which will support economic and social justice, ecology, community participation and human aspirations in and around Ithaca, New York. Ithaca Hours help to keep money local, building the Ithaca economy. It also builds community pride and connections. Over 900 participants publicly accept Ithaca HOURS for goods and services. Additionally some local employers and employees have agreed to pay or receive partial wages in Ithaca Hours, further continuing our goal of keeping money local."

http://www.ithacahours.org/

In fighting the dreaded beast of US imperialism, the energy people expend cannot be easily wasted. If we find ourselves tirelessly banging our heads against walls we will only accomplish giving ourselves headaches. In real terms, banging our heads into walls consists of spending days and nights working for Democrat campaigns, praising large corporate banks like B of A as "environmentally friendly", depending soley on "left gatekeepers" for news info, (When's Micheal Moore's next movie on the medical insurance and pharma industry coming out? Will Mr. Moore select against the more radical opposition to big PHARMA as he avoided any discussion of Israeli apartheid in "Farenheit 9/11"? Only time will tell.) and other endless pursuits that amount to dogs chasing their tails..

If u want a good analogy to US imperialism, read about the mythology of the "Hydra", the multi-headed beast that grows two new heads any time one head is cut off. Originally the Hydra represented the diversity of oppressed peoples and Hercules as the Empire. However, it is equally valid to reverse the situation in modern times as a corporation can appear as the head of the hydra that reappears in a different name or is split into two. One example is the Nazi chemical conglomerate IG Farben monopoly later broken into Bayer, Hoechst, BASF, etc..

"IG Farben is the union of Agfa, BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and a few other smaller German chemical companies. At that time, they had a leading role as the world's biggest chemical company. With amounts of 81 million Reich Marks, they were the biggest single financier of the Nazi party from 1933 to 1944."

http://www.mega.nu/ampp/bayer.html

(BTW, Today Bayer advocates involuntary testing on humans, prisoners maybe?)

John Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly was broken up into Esso and Mobil, then Esso became Exxon, now merged into ExxonMobil. Reunited the olde monopoly at last, eh Mr. Rockefeller??

"Both Exxon and Mobil were descendants of the old John D. Rockefeller monopoly, Standard Oil. In 1911, after a United States Supreme Court ruling which upheld a federal court order to dissolve it, the Standard Oil Trust was split into 34 companies. Two of these companies were Jersey Standard, which eventually became Exxon, and Socony ("Standard Oil Company of New York"), which eventually became Mobil."

http://www.answers.com/topic/exxonmobil



If the corporate US Empire can take on the attributes of the many-headed hydra, so also can the resistance. We who resist imperialism in it's many forms must relearn to become as mobile and fluid as the corporation's we resist..

"The value and the lesson of such radical history is to teach us not to forget; that our future struggles might be enlightened by what has gone before. And Linebaugh and Rediker's proto-proletariat and its struggles against the rise of Atlantic capitalism can teach us some things that still have relevance. Primarily that the strength of resistance is in its hydra-headedness: it is the ability of rebels and revolutionaries to change and shift and merge, to disappear and then re-appear again in new places and in new forms, that keeps the forces of authority on their toes. And also that there will always be resistance, and resistance will always be international - when the struggle seems to have been vanquished, it will re-emerge in another unexpected place, on another level, but still with the same dreams held in our hearts."

Review: "The Many-Headed Hydra"
http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no10/books_hydra.htm