By Paisley Huang
Boston University News Service
In front of Bank of America, people hurrying along the street on the way to their Valentine’s Day dates were handed a pink flyer and an envelope filled with candy. This was not a promotion for romantic events or special sales, but rather a protest encouraging customers to “break up with toxic banks.”
Around 11:30 a.m. on Feb. 14, environmental activists joined a breakup party to protest BOA, Citizens Bank and Chase Bank. The Boston chapter of Extinction Rebellion, an environmental advocacy group known for nonviolent civil disobedience action, accused banks of investing in fossil fuels, ICE detention centers and Israeli war bonds. This protest was held simultaneously at Harvard Square and Jamaica Plain.
On the crosswalk in front of BOA’s Harvard Square branch, adapted pop songs were blasted, including “Toxic” by Britney Spears, a song that depicts an addictive relationship. “Don’t you fund fossil fuels? Don’t you know that they’re toxic? Choose a bank that is cool, not a bank that is toxic.”
Since the second Trump administration, banks have broken their commitment to address climate change and have been financing coal, oil and gas projects according to a New York Times article the group cited. In 2024, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America ranked the first and second largest fossil fuel funders in the world, respectively, according to a report by Banking on Climate Chaos.
Both were also among banks that acted as underwriters for services provided to the Israeli government to raise funds that enabled its assault on Gaza, according to research group Profundo. Meanwhile, dozens of demonstrations against Citizens Bank, which keeps financial relationships with immigration detention facility operators, took place at branches across Greater Boston, including in Brookline, Somerville and Medford.
The protest aimed to tell consumers to divest from banks that invest in fossil fuels, immigration detention centers and war bonds, pressuring banks to withdraw “dangerous investments,” said Jamie McGonagill, the media and messaging director of XR Boston.
“Just like any bad boyfriend or any bad girlfriend, when you start to realize that your life would be better without them, the best thing to do is to walk away,” said McGonagill.
On its website, XR Boston encourages consumers to check alternative banking options and includes a chart comparing “ethical credit cards & savings accounts.”
At the demonstration, activists read out their breakup letters addressed to the banks. Among them was Andy Platt, who announced that he had “stopped using and ripped up his two BOA credit cards.”
Platt, a member of the climate action organization 350 Mass, said he wrote to BOA 12 times in 2025 demanding the bank reconsider its energy investment policy but never heard back.
“We have the power to leave BOA, and we are quitting BOA,” Platt’s letter read.
About an hour into the event, two demonstrators were arrested after spray-painting slogans and signs on BOA’s windows. Both were charged with defacing property, according to a statement from McGonagill.
This wasn’t XR Boston’s first demonstration that resulted in arrests. In 2024, police arrested 20 protesters in Bedford, Massachusetts when they attempted to prevent private jets from taking off. In 2020, eight were arrested after hanging a banner on the Citgo sign near Fenway Park.
Dressed in a red festive outfit and carrying heart-shaped signs in the crowd, Eileen Ryan, an XR Boston member and founder of environment group Beyond Plastic, said she believes that arrestable actions are able to draw media attention and more coverage. But most of the time, the group uses dance, music, and visual arts to get people involved and build a larger impact.
“Extinction Rebellion uses the arts extensively,” Ryan said. “It really helps to bring people in. It’s a joyous rebellion.”
Miranda Dotson, one of the protesters at the Jamaica Plain location, said immigration is deeply connected to climate change, leading environmental activists to protest against immigration detention centers and banks funding them.
“When you make this planet unlivable, it’s going to become unlivable for people unequally,” Dotson said, stating that climate change drives involuntary migration as countries near the equator are experiencing more extreme temperatures.
“Climate change is also connected to democracy, because when resources are scarce, governments tend to be more severe and authoritarian and fascist,” she said. “Historians in 50 years from now might look back on these decades as critical decades of resource wars and increasing scarcity.”
