Jobs with Justice Week of Action: Demanding Real Economic Recovery

by James Parks, Sep 24, 2009

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Wall Street bailout, and Jobs with Justice (JwJ) is launching a Week of Action to demand that the banks use our taxpayer dollars to finance the recovery and not their own corporate agenda. 

During the Sept. 24-Oct. 1 week of action, working people will join with students, activists, community leaders and others across the country to highlight Big Banks’ misuse of tax dollars. So far, few of the billions in taxpayer money that went to Big Banks have reached Main Street. Instead, executives of banks that were bailed out with taxpayer dollars have lined their pockets with stock options that guarantee them huge windfalls for years. While they get richer, they have laid off more than 160,000 employees since Jan. 1, 2008.

To top it all off, Bank of America, which received $45 billion in taxpayer-funded bailout support, has spent more than $1.5 million lobbying on Capitol Hill against the reforms that would protect consumers from a future financial crisis, such as restrictions on executive compensation, home mortgage lending and credit card fees. The bank also is lobbying on a consumer rights bill, on student lending issues, on a bill that would’ve allowed bankruptcy judges to alter mortgages and on a proposed federal regulatory oversight agency.

In a post at CommonDreams.org, JwJ Executive Director Sarita Gupta says the bank bailout legislation entrusted the banks “to put money back into the economy and help put the brakes on the recession.” But that’s not what happened. 

Instead, these corporate criminals stole our money. 

Although Big Banks say they needed the bailout money to continue lending and to keep the economy running, they refuse to extend credit to viable companies. As a result, they are forcing small businesses to close and costing thousands of workers their jobs, Gupta says.  

The banks must extend credit to companies facing short-term economic problems in order to stop unnecessary layoffs and plant closings. They must work with people at risk of foreclosure, and stop evicting them from their homes.

To learn more about JwJ’s week of action and to sign up to participate in actions, click here. 

The Week of Action will call for:

• Ending layoffs and developing a “jobs creation program” to create millions of good jobs in our communities.
• Passing the Employee Free Choice Act and other measures to ensure worker dignity.
• Extending and expanding unemployment benefits, including access to health care.
• Working to keep people in their homes and measures to stop the foreclosures and evictions.
• Funding affordable housing and community reinvestment.
• Enacting quality, public, affordable health care for all.
• Protecting retirement security and pensions.
• Fixing our broken trade and immigration laws.
• Supporting education and human needs.
• Making corporations and the wealthy pay a fair share of taxes.
• Breaking up the corporate giants and creating a financial system that works for all.

The demand for financial reform echo a call Tuesday by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka for tough new regulations on the financial industry and a new approach to making the U.S. economy work for working people.

As Gupta says:

Today, some pundits are starting to talk about the “end of the recession.” Wall Street seems to be back to business as usual, and some banks are even turning profits. But what about the rest of us? One year later, what do your finances look like?

We must not let the banks dictate an economic recovery for the top only. We need a people’s economic recovery for us all.

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