Ford: Holding America Hostage to Oil

Banner Hang on Transamerica Center in LA, 8 Jan 2004

by  Kate Berrigan

Because of my work as a climb trainer with the Ruckus Society, I got a call in December to participate in an action planned for the 6^th of January, sponsored by Global Exchange and the Rainforest Action Network. The action, targeting Ford during its centennial year, was intended to frame the week of the L.A. Auto Show with a message that Ford, rather than fueling America’s oil addiction, should be pursuing fuel efficiency. Most of the team arrived around New Year’s to put together the action for the following week. The schedule was tight and so was the budget; to make this action happen within a month, working around the holidays, the team’s availability, and the building’s hours, ended up being quite a feat.

Our first few days in L.A. were spent reviewing the information we had about the Transamerica Center, the proposed location for the banner hang, and beginning to get familiar with the systems we’d be using for climbing. We initially had a pool of four possible climbers, from which two would be chosen to hang the banner and two would be on the roof as direct support; in addition, there were several ground support and a roof point person. Our 40x60 banner didn’t arrive on schedule, so we were practicing with much smaller banners at nearby rock walls. The banner and the last bit of equipment we needed to rig and hang it didn’t arrive until Monday, the day before the action was supposed to happen, obliging us to move the hang back a couple of days.

As a team, in addition to practicing deployment, we spent a lot of time going through possible scenarios and problems; role-playing media interviews and interactions with police, security and fire department; talking with our lawyer; getting comfortable with each other, with our equipment, with radios; cooking good food; getting familiar with the issue and Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange’s campaign against Ford. On Tuesday we finally decided who would be hanging the banner; out of the three climbers whose schedules were still open, we picked two names out of a hat, since all of us were comfortable with the action and competent in both climbing and roof roles.

Thursday, the day of the action, five of us entered the Transamerica building, which faced the convention center where the auto show was being held, took the elevator to the 28^th floor, and walked the last couple of flights to the 30^th floor roof access. We set up our anchors and went over the edge around 11 am, well within the 3 ½ minute window of time we expected before security responded to the alarm we tripped. It took Hayden, the other climber, and I about an hour to get the banner all set up and deployed, after which time we had a while to hang out, enjoy the view, and do media interviews by cell phone before the police started really demanding we come down. In my interviews, I tried to highlight the following facts: that Ford’s vehicles account for about 9% of US oil consumption; that the typical Ford vehicle on the road today gets worse gas mileage than the Model T did 80 years ago (25 mpg); that Ford is the car company doing the least to pursue new and existing fuel-efficiency technology; that 8 out of 10 Americans report desiring greater fuel efficiency in the cars they buy; and in general that Ford is not living up to the reputation it puts forth of being an environmental car company. RAN and GX’s Jumpstart Ford campaign is highlighting the environmental, economic, and political drawbacks to Ford’s current course of action, and demanding that Ford double the fuel economy of its vehicles by 2010 and completely eliminate tailpipe emissions by 2020.

Hayden and I rappelled down to the ground, taking the banner with us, about 2:30, and were immediately taken into custody, along with our two friends on the roof and Jason Mark, Global Exchange’s Clean Car campaigner, who had been talking to media on the ground. The police were friendly and impressed with our action and our equipment; we were charged with trespass, booked, and released on $500 bail. Everyone was out by 10:30 that evening, with an order to appear in court the 29^th of January. We’re aware of the possibility of other charges; we might be able to waive our presence at this court appearance.

Throughout the auto show (January 2-11) Global Exchange and RAN worked hard, along with other groups, to put together other activities targeting the auto show and asking attendees to encourage Ford to turn in more environmentally friendly directions. People leafletted outside the show every day; people went in with bullhorns to share facts about Ford; portable tape players infiltrated the show and played similar facts from concealed locations inside. The auto show had a great view of our banner from two blocks away; crowds of bystanders got a ringside seat. All the local TV stations reported on the hang at some point during the day, and the LA Times ran several pictures with caption on the 3^rd page of the California section the next day. More information on Ford and the campaign is available at www.jumpstartford.com; or see www.globalexchange.org or www.ran.org.