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Get Set for March Actions to Make Wall Street Pay |
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The union movement and our allies are taking our fight for good jobs now to the biggest Wall Street banks whose reckless greed has gone a long way to wreck the U.S. economy and kill American jobs.
From March 15-26, working people will hold rallies and demonstrations at branches of the Big Six Wall Street banks—Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo—across the country. They will tell the banks “We Are Not Your ATMs” and “Make Wall Street Pay for Creating New Jobs.”
You also can tell Wall Street executives to pay to create good jobs by sending a letter urging them to do the right thing. Just click here.
Find out about events in your area here. If you take part in an event, be sure to send us your photo or video here.
The AFL-CIO Good Jobs Now site has all the tools you’ll need to let Wall Street know we mean business. There’s a Wall Street fact sheet, along with an explanation of our stand on making Wall Street pay to create good jobs, arguments for extending unemployment insurance benefits, creating good, green jobs with benefits and other issues.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said working Americans have three demands of the banks:
Stop refusing to pay your fair share to restore the jobs you destroyed, stop fighting financial reform and start lending to your communities, small businesses and others starved for credit.
While millions of Americans continue to lose their homes, their jobs and their retirement saving, it’s been business as usual for Wall Street doling out record pay and bonuses to their CEOs.
While working families lost jobs, homes and hope, Wall Street took $700 billion in taxpayer bailouts and went right back to business as usual—choking off credit, handing out about $145 billion in 2009 pay and bonuses to the executives who tanked our economy and hiring an army of lobbyists to fight financial reform.
The nation is more than 11 million jobs in the hole. We need good jobs now—and it’s time Wall Street helps pay to create them.
The AFL-CIO supports four proposals for banks to pay a fair share to restore the economy: fees on Wall Street banks to pay back the cost of the bank bailout; a special levy on Wall Street bonuses, as proposed in the United Kingdom; a tax on the income of hedge fund and private equity managers, the wealthiest people in the country, at ordinary income rates, by closing the carried interest loophole and a financial speculation.
In addition to these efforts, Working America, the 3 million-member community affiliate of the AFL-CIO, is launching a campaign called “I am not your ATM.” People across the country will be submitting photos of themselves in front of ATMs, asking “Where’s my bailout?” and delivering the message to Wall Street: ”I am not your ATM.” To see the photos already submitted, click here.
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Better yet, take your checking acount money out of the big banks and put them in a community bank.
Here’s a couple of articles to consider…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/30/move-your-money-tell-us-a_n_407297.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/Money/2009/0308/as-big-banks-falter-community-banks-do-fine
The only way for the working-class to “get the banks” is to nationalize them under workers government control. Of course we can’t do that by thinking about but must build a political vehicle with the leadership capable of directing the rightful anger of the working-class and oppressed in the struggle to topple the decaying and vicious capitalist system. It goes without saying that the present trade union leadership and the Democratic Party stand in the way of this necessary course and that we need to break from the Democrats, the Party of the Confederacy, build a fighting workers’ party and struggle for a workers government. Any hope of reform in this period is plan fantasy.
You could also point out that their actions created a global ripple effect that has discredited the entire world perception of US .
The US will only recover its reputation as a global leader if it:
1. It does more than pay lip service to distributing the residual corporate and public resources to get jobs and their own economy back on track
2. It at least acknowledges that many of its more successful major trading partners put universal employment, health and education as policy cornerstones for their relatively more successful economies
If the workers dont reign in the obscene wealth accumulation of the few in the US, at the expense of the many, America’s reputation globally will continue to suffer, with even more deleterious effects on the economy.
Great campaign guys – keep fighting for fairness and prosperity for all
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The Degradation of Workers in the 21st Century
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Degraded Work – No Way
Commie Taxi Drivers – You Talkin’ to Me?
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WELL, WELL , WHAT WAS THAT SONG NOW ? TO MUCH TO LITTLE TO LATE ?
WELL WALL STREET IS LIKE ALI BABA AND THE FORTY THIE, THE DIFFERENCE IS THAT ALI BABA ONLY HAD FORTY !
WHILE CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT 2 YEARS BEFORE HE LEFT OFFCE , HE HAD ALREADY DOUBLE DOWNED ON THE AMERICAN REINVESTMENT ACT , FORCING BANKS TO LOAN MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO COULD NOT PAY IT BACK , THE QUESTION AMERICANS SHOULD BE ASKING AND THINK ABOUT IS , WHERE WAS CONGRESS AND THE U S SENATE , THERE ALL HAVING PROBLEMS AND NOT RUNNING FOR OFFICE , DUE TO WHAT THEY DID , LOBBTIST MONEY AND SPECIAL SWEET HEART DEALL AND ALONG WITH BIG SPECIAL INTEREST DEALS , THAT MOST NEWS STATIONS DONT DARE TO TALK ABOUT ! THIS WAS ALL DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF CONGRESS AND THE U S SENATE THE LAST 3 YEARS , WE NEED TO MAKE DEMOCRATS ACCOUNTABIL , NOT REPUBLICANS HERE , WE SHOULD NOT LET THEM PASS THE BUCK , BUT STAND UP AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHY WERE OUR LIVING LIKE WE OUR WITH THE ECONOMY THEY CREATED , THEY LET WAQLL STREET COME INTO THE MARKET AND COMPETE AGAINTS BANKS , WITH NO REAL GUIDE LINES AND WHICH REALLT CAUSED THE FALL OF THE ECONOMY, 2 MONTHS BEFORE BUSH GOT OUT OF OFFICE , CONGRESS COULD NOT FIGUAR OUT WHAT TO DO AND THE U S SENATE WITH A PLAN , HE HAD 700 BILLION DOLLARS TO GIVE AND IT ONLY HAD 3 PAGES TO THE USE OF 700 BILLION DOLLARS , THEY COULD NOT COME UP WITH A PLAN HE USED 3500 BILLION HIS LAST DAYS AND PASSED ON THE OTHER 350 BILLION , QUESTION WHERE IS THAT TODAY , AND WHAT THE DEMOCRATS DID NOT USE THAT TO CREATE JOBS ?
WELL THERE OUR SO MANY QUESTION , BUT WE LIVE IN A WORLD OF FINGER POINTERS AND THATS WHAT AMERICANS GET THESE DAYS FORM CONGRESS AND THE U S SENATE , HIGER TAXES AND SPENDING BILLIONG OF FOREIGNERS AND ELLIGALS AND BILLIONS IN LOANS TO FOREIGNERS TO START BUISNESS , BUT FOR AMERICANS NOTHING AND USE OUR TAX DOLLARS LIKE ITS THERE OWN MONEY , WE LIVE IN A DEMOCRACY , LET VOTE THIS CANCER OUT OF OFFICE AND STATR WITH A NEW AMERICAN SPIRIT OF HONESTY , TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY FOR ALL AMERICANS NOT THE FEW AND THE SPECIAL ONES WHO GET IT ALL , WHILE AMERICAN PAY FPOR IT !
Sure, both parties are responsible, but for God’s sake, don’t vote Republican if you think the Democrats need to be punished. The GOP is so anti-worker it’s almost fascist.
Why are we only holding Wall Street accountable? Who has weakened, and deregulated their accountability for the past +30 years? Who bailed them out, only to be rewarded with a “slap in the face” by their lavish parties, bonuses, and golden parachutes? Who has taken their campaign contributions by the “boatload?”
The answer is Congress, in a very bi-partisan manner. And our Presidents from both of the two parties.
Follow the money.
Time to “get wise” to ourselves.
U.S. Labor Party.
Let the “blue chips” fall where they may.
could this be good news for the unions? AFL-CIO could force corporation how they donate if used the right way
QUOTE
The New York City Pension Funds hold more than 36 million shares in Bank of America. As of Friday’s market close, these shares have a collective value of roughly $608 million.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704131404575117931932163708.html