Who's Got All Our Money?

          This week, activists trying to avert the climate crisis embarked on a series of stunts designed to draw attention to the fact that Barclays continues to be one of the biggest funders of fossil-fuel extraction worldwide, even as the said world’s governments gathered at CoP 27 trying to agree on ways to put an end to this folly of self-destruction.

          Our local branch of Barclays received the attentions of a small team who symbolically cleaned the ‘dirty’ bank, inside and out with nothing more than dusters, though whether those who observed the action registered the connection is open to question. For its part, the bank chose to inconvenience its own customers by temporarily closing its doors, the blame for which fell, of course, on the cleaners who were going about their business without causing any actual obstruction. Far from appreciating the reason for the protest, those queuing outside either vented annoyance or remained stoically indifferent. The fact that their money is being used to hasten ecocide is apparently no concern of theirs, which highlights the age-old conundrum for activists-for-change of how to get people to think critically about the status quo.

          Meanwhile, on the side-lines, I was brandishing signage inviting passers-by to compare the green credentials of the various high street banks, in the hope that, moved by conscience to do something positive that would neither cost nor inconvenience themselves, some would switch to one of the many banks that have eco-friendly credentials. (Check for yourself at bank.green). Now, I appreciate the fact that passers-by are doing just that – many with families in tow and missions to accomplish – but a higher level of interest would have been gratifying, even so. Some of those who did stop to talk were converts who wanted to tell me that they had been with the near-saintly Nationwide or Co-operative banks for years. But in so doing they succeeded only in blocking my signage and hindering me from the business of attracting the interest of the unconverted, amongst whom there were a few who shrugged off the issue with a jocular comment such as, “I don’t care which bank I’m with as long as they look after my money (ha,ha)”, or “It doesn’t matter what we do if the Chinese don’t get on board”, to which the answer is, “they got on board years ago and now monopolise the green industrial landscape”; but by then, your passer-by has passed by. The good news, however, is that I can report positive interest from young people who have just come of banking-age and who have not yet developed irrational, misplaced loyalties to cynical banking corporations.

          Activists face the problem of overturning complacent acceptance of the status quo, too often the result of passive belief in the stories woven by those who are ‘in charge’, whether elected or otherwise. One such story – as told this week by the Chancellor of the Exchequer – is that we cannot afford a decent and equitable level of collective services, despite having the 6^th largest economy in the world. So where is all the wealth that our economy has produced? Could it be in off-shore tax-havens, billionaires’ pockets, and fossil-fuel extraction companies’ accounts? Could some of it have been squandered by governments on projects like HS2?

          The plea of state poverty deserves scrutiny and, fortunately, there is a growing band of economists doing just that by refuting established doctrine. Think of it this way; “His mother had often said, ‘When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action’. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: ‘When you desire a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.’’” *

* Lois McMaster Bujold, writer (b. 2 Nov 1949)