Report Back from Noise Demo at Home of Manager of Bank Funding Israeli Arms Supplier

Report back on recent noise demo in solidarity with struggle to end war in occupied Palestine.

This report back consists of three elements. First, a description of the action, and the reasons it was taken. Second, a description of how this action was made to happen, to inspire comrades across the country to act. Third, lessons learned from the action for comrades.

I.

From Jinx Press:

In Chicagoland last night, an autonomous group gathered outside the home of Stacie Kuhlman, Midwest Regional President of Wealth Management for BNY Mellon bank.

Activists disrupted dinnertime in Kuhlman’s otherwise quiet, wealthy neighborhood. Under the frosty glow of Christmas lights, they banged on pots and pans, sang, and chanted, “Stacie K, you can’t hide! You are funding genocide!” Body bags representing the 15,000+ dead were tossed on Stacie Kuhlman’s lawn. Activists also distributed flyers to her neighbors. Some emerged from their homes to chat with LaGrange police officers. One neighbor remarked to protesters, “She’s just doing what she’s told!”  “So were the Nazis!” they fired back.

BNY Mellon’s investment portfolios have directly funded Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons supplier. The arms manufacturer’s stock prices have surged since October 7. As noted by activists, BNY Mellon increased their shares in Elbit by 22% less than three weeks after the Israeli invasion of Gaza—increasing the wealth of Kuhlman’s managed investments in parallel with the senseless slaughter of Palestinians.  Activists around the globe continue to pressure Elbit and its subsidiaries with direct actions and blockades in an effort to halt ongoing bombing and encourage disinvestment.

To add to this: Stacie seemed pretty disrupted. She seemed to call the police, but the small-town police didn’t arrive until about 10-15 minutes after the group of comrades arrived, and once the police got there, they didn’t seem to know what to do. At peak, there were 6 squad cars. After about half an hour, Stacie seemed to have left the house via the back driveway, and people continued making noise and chanting for another half hour, then chanted marching up and down the street for a little while to alert the neighbors of Stacie’s crimes.

II.

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 Chicagoland. BNYMellon’s actual offices are largely on anonymous floors of various skyscrapers, but their regional manager was listed on their website. 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 image containing the name and address of a nearby park, asking people to meet there at a given time for a noise demo in solidarity with P0alestine, 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.

This 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 park, quickly briefed, and then walked to the target’s home. Post action, all comrades dispersed. Some cars were followed by police to the edge of town.

III.

Things that went well:

— Even though it was a drizzly, cold night, and the location was out in the suburbs without good public transport access, with a little bit of ride-sharing, more than 20 people showed out, which exceeded expectations.

— Even though the action invitation was not publicly shared on any larger threads, there was good turnout, and several people said that they received the invite from several people, so it must have made it pretty far.

— Picking a Tuesday night for the action paid off because Stacie was at home for the action, and it seemed like the action caused her nontrivial distress, possibly interrupting a family gingerbread house decorating.

— A lot of neighbors were successfully engaged with.

Lessons:

— While folks were high energy, if more gimmicks were prepared ahead of time (rewritten Christmas carols? A drum set?) that could have been even higher energy.

— Fitting all of the messaging linking Kuhlman to BNY Mellon to Elbit to the genocide of Palestinian people onto one sign was hard/impossible, and so it was split across several signs, meaning that the messaging was not as clear as it could have been to outside observers.

— Failing to make sure that there were people outside of all entrances to the house enabled Kuhlman to make a getaway without being confronted by protestors.

— More serious decoration could have been done in the 10 minutes before the police showed up, and that opportunity was squandered.