As we celebrate the season of new beginnings, our hope for thriving communities living in
harmony with a healthy environment continues to be threatened.

We are losing what little forests we have left; chemicals choke our air, water, soil, and bodies;
millions work in sweatshops and dwell in shanty towns; traditional ways of life and subsistence
agriculture are disappearing; the US imprisons more people per capita than any other nation in the
world; and companies are genetically engineering fish genes into tomatoes.

Who makes it all possible?  The private finance industry, that small group of mega-banks and
investment houses that dominate the global financial system.  First and foremost among them is
Citigroup. With assets exceeding $700 Billion, it is the largest financial institution in North
America and the third largest in the world.

As The World’s Most Destructive Bank, Citigroup finances and profits from devastating activities
worldwide including:
 

• A 650-mile pipeline through pristine rainforests in sub-Sahara Africa. This Chad-Cameroon
• Pipeline has been strongly opposed by the local population who have suffered extreme human rights abuses for voicing their concerns.
• A mining project in Brazil that destroys the Amazon Rainforest driving untold species to extinction.
• The conversion of native rainforests into palm oil plantations in Indonesia in habitat critical for the world’s endangered orangutans.
• Loans to cash strapped third world nations, with Citigroup profiting from the interest and the trading of debt for natural resources.
• Unjust community lending practices throughout low income neighborhoods in the United States that allow Citigroup to profit from driving poor people deeper into poverty.
• The buying and selling of our American Democracy through millions in campaign contributions and lobbying for looser regulations on the banking industry.

In early December, despite a storm of public protest, the US government gave Citigroup the
ability to expand this devastating policies when it approved Citigroup's $31 billion merger with
Associates First Capital Corporation, a major sub-prime lender that consumer groups complain
has one of the worst records in the country for abusive lending practices.  Despite this record, the
US government allowed the merger based on the company’s promise to clean up its record.

Interestingly, on November 29, the General Accounting Office released a report documenting that
Citibank was engaged in money laundering in the cases reviewed by the GAO, up to at least April
2000.  The case has been referred to the Justice Department.

Citigroup includes these businesses: Citibank, Travelers Property Casualty Corporation, Travelers
Life & Annuity, Salomon Smith Barney, Primerica Financial Services, CitiFinancial, Global
Corporate & Investment Banking, SSB Citi Asset Management Group, Associates First Capital
Corporation.

For more information on the Citigroup campaign visit
http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/citigroup/homev3.html

ACTIONS
1.  Whether you are an investor, concerned citizen, or activist, please take a moment during this
season of hope to send Citigroup a strong message that financial investments must support
communities and the environment, not harm them.

Contact at least one of the following persons
(see Talking Points below)

Charles Prince
General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer
212-793-8854
FAX: 212-793-9700

Mr. Sanford Weill
Chief Executive Officer, Citigroup
800-285-3000
This number connects with Citigroup’s corporate directory.
Ask the operator to be connected with Mr. Weill’s office.
Leave a message for Mr Weill with the person who answers.

Talking Points

• Let them know you do not want your money used in this fashion.
• Demand to know why Citigroup is using your money to finance activities that destroy critical ecosystems and communities worldwide.
• Demand that they institute comprehensive social and environmental criteria in their lending and trading practices.
• Inform them that as the leader of the corporate financial industry, it is time for Citigroup to redefine the bottom line and move towards a sane, just, and democratic economy.

Rudolph the Redlined Reindeer
Rudolph the redlined reindeer,
Had a different color nose
And when Citibank saw it,
They made sure his account was closed.
All of the Citibank branches
Used to laugh and call him names
They never let poor Rudolph
Play their racist lending games.

Then one foggy December eve
The people came to say,
"Citigroup you're the world's blight,
We've come to stop you tonight!"
And all the people loved it,
And they shouted out in glee,
"Citigroup, you racist bankers,
You won't get a cent from me!”