When I read about the Earth Quaker Action Team disrupting and ultimately shutting down the PNC Financial Services Group’s annual shareholders meeting earlier this week, it reminded me of myself as a young child.
When I wanted something and couldn’t have it, my unsophisticated, childish mind told me to throw a tantrum. Cry. Scream. Pout. I would often do it in public, causing quite a scene while embarrassing my parents.
It’s the only way I knew to try to get what I wanted.
The shared human experience is truly an amazing thing. Apparently Earth Quaker Executive Director Amy Ward Brimmer was and still is of the same mindset.
She had this to say of her group’s protest against PNC, which the Quakers accuse of financing companies that mine mountaintops for coal: “This is the only way we can think to get their attention.”
That’s some strategy.
Earth Quaker Action Team counts itself among millions of people around the world fighting for our threatened planet. It uses nonviolent action and civil disobedience to make its point. Perhaps rallying those millions of supporters it has in a more strategic way is an action the team should be considering.
I appreciate and respect the outdoors. I grew up and today spend a lot of time out of doors. In the early 1990s, I remember the years-long struggle to “Preserve Rager Mountain” in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, from strip mining. And though my recollection is foggy, I remember a strong grassroots effort that grew to become a comprehensive public relations strategy.
I don’t know everything that the Earth Quaker Action Team has done to try to stop mountaintop mining. I do know it’s up against a strong opponent. But it – and every activist group out there fighting what it believes is the good fight – does itself no favors by engaging in childish, disruptive strategies. In fact, it makes ridiculing and dismissing such groups much easier. What do you think PNC CEO Jim Rohr thought of Earth Quaker’s action? It’s a safe bet he didn’t pull the plug on any upcoming financing deals.
Public relations strategies can be effective and influential. But it cuts both ways. Be careful. You could effectively influence the court of public opinion to view you as no more than a jester.
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Jason Snyder is a senior vice president for WordWrite Communications.
Photo courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
