XR BIRMINGHAM AT HSBC
Bank holiday Monday’s protest consisted of the XR Samba band and street theatre outside of the HSBC New Street branch. The demand was for the £67 billion that HSBC invests in the fossil fuel industry to be terminated. To illustrate the point, two rebels demanding divestment were covered in oil and sat through the hour-long proceedings on the carpet outside of the branch.
HSBC must be getting quite used to this. There have been many Palestine Solidarity Campaign protests outside of this branch as well as XR ones over the years.
Other well-known banks have been targeted as well.
This raises the question of why these institutions with vast financial reserves are in private hands anyway. Why not bring them into democratic public ownership, with transparent accessible accounting systems and with their employees being paid decent wages? Enough of fat cat unaccountable bankers treating the world as a giant casino, sloshing their huge wealth around the globe at the push of a button to make ever bigger profits, with no regard for the ethics of their actions.
Then the liberated money could be used to invest in renewable energy, mass building insulation, fare-free local public transport, electrified railways, and green jobs as part of a just transition.
So why not nationalise the banks and save us the trouble of all these constant protests?
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