JANUARY 10, WILLOW SPRINGS, IL – CHICAGOLAND: HOME NOISE DEMO IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE AT HOME OF ERICA LORD, CHIEF FIDUCIARY OFFICER FOR BNY MELLON MIDWEST, PRIMARY FUNDER OF ELBIT, PRIMARY SUPPLIER OF ARMS ISRAEL IS USING TO COMMIT GENOCIDE
I. THE ACTION
Around dinnertime on a Wednesday evening, an autonomous group visited the home of a BNY Mellon Bank chief fiduciary officer, Erica Lord, in the quiet wealthy suburb of Willow Springs. BNY Mellon Bank is a major funder of the largest weapons manufacturer supplying Israel, Elbit Systems, and is the sole manager of the Friends of the “IDF” fund. Their shares in Elbit were valued at over $13.4 million this fall, and they increased their shares in Elbit by over 20% directly after October 7th.
The group made noise, chanted, played music and let Erica and her neighbors know that she is profiting off the genocide & mass death of Palestinian people. Body bags representing the 30,000 Palestinians who have died in the US-backed genocide were thrown on her lawn. Flyers were handed out to passersby to alert them of their neighbor’s complicity in ethnic cleansing. Erica’s family was in the house and packed up to stay elsewhere within an hour of the group’s arrival. Two Willow Springs police who arrived on the scene early on departed with the family, leaving the house unattended and open to additional decorations to cement the message that a war profiteer resides there.
We must continue to ceaselessly confront those who allow this genocide to continue– at their places of work, at their homes, their churches. No peace, no business as usual, for those who value their blood money over life. We don’t know how they sleep at night, so let’s not let them.
II. PLANNING
Prior to the action, a small group of comrades picked a target on the basis of Palestine Action’s target map. Of the targets listed, only BNY Mellon has sites in zhigaagoong (Chicagoland). BNYMellon’s actual offices are largely on anonymous floors of various skyscrapers, but finding BNYMellon employees on LinkedIn or through press releases about the Cool Community Work That BNYMellon Employees Are Doing wasn’t too difficult. From there, a single search on whitepages was enough to find an address. This address was then confirmed to be correct through surveillance of location.
This sorted, these comrades made a simple flyer containing the name and address for a meetup location, asking people to meet there at a given time for a noise demo in solidarity with Palestine, more details to be given out in person, please send this image along only to trusted comrades on signal. Wear grey bloc and a mask. This was sent along to comrades to disseminate.
The first group of comrades then made a banner, cardboard signs, flyers to hand out, and fake bodybags (trash bags filled with trash and wrapped/shaped by duct tape), and prepped a few chants.
On the day of the action, everyone met up at the location, walked over to the house, and shouted away. Post action, the police weren’t even around, and comrades dispersed without difficulty.
III. LESSONS LEARNED
Things that went well:
– The call to action was disseminated only a few days before the planned action. Even so, more than a dozen people showed up, which is plenty to make some good noise.
– This house had a driveway in the front only, so the family had to drive through/past the crowd and confront them to get out.
– The crowd refused to engage with the cops, leading the cops to eventually just leave. This included a cop who insisted on “checking in” on the protesters by asking if they were cold, if they would like coffee, etc.
– Folks autonomously took advantage of the opportunity to decorate without any centralized organization.
Deltas:
– Meeting on a small bit of grass nearby instead of somewhere more out of the way like a park meant that comrades felt leery about standing around in one place long enough for much of a pre-action orientation or chit-chat. Despite a call for grey bloc, comrades present were mainly wearing all black, and looked a bit suspicious all huddled together outside in 20 degree weather.
– Miscommunication with the location scout who was not present at the action, as well as the absence of a formalized process to confirm target addresses, meant that comrades at the action weren’t 100% sure that they were actually at the right house, which made it hard to really go hard.
– It is unclear if Erica herself was at home at the time of the action, or just her family. While the latter being the case would not mean the action was for naught, it would have been nice if she was definitely there.
– It didn’t feel like everyone present understood the precise connection to Palestine. In the future, going more in depth about the target during the huddle, about who they are and how they’re participating in the genocide, would help everyone present feel more in-sync.
