A Thousand Philly Marchers Tell BofA: It’s Time to Pay
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More than a 1,000 Pennsylvania union members, laid-off workers and community allies rallied outside a downtown Philadelphia Bank America office, hundreds streamed through the bank lobby along with a delegation carrying a $145 billion check. Shouting, “No jobs, no future,” they demanded BofA endorse the check and help finance creation of the 11 million jobs Wall Street gambled away.
After all: Wall Street’s Big Six-Bank of America, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Wachovia-Wells Fargo-received $145 billion taxpayer bailout funds.
Kelle Sallard, an unemployed Verizon worker and member of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) member from Verizon, told the crowd she lost her medical benefits but doesn’t qualify for free health care.
While the CEO of Verizon makes 18 million and gets lifetime free health care, I lost my job at Verizon, lost my benefits and make too much on unemployment to qualify for free health care. How is that fair?
JPMorgan Chase Greed Brings ‘Guilty’ Verdict
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was found guilty yesterday of conspiracy to wreck the economy, destroy jobs and the immoral use of taxpayer bank bailout money for millions in Wall Street bonuses.
The courtroom was on a Madison Wis., street in front a JPMorgan Chase bank branch and the jury included dozens of union and community activists. The street theater was part of the AFL-CIO union movement’s two weeks of action across the country to Make Wall Street pay to create jobs and fix they economy they ravaged.
Jim Cavanaugh, president of the South Central Federation of Labor, which organized the curbside drama, says:
We bailed out Wall Street now its time for Wall Street to bail out Main Street.
Cast Your Vote for ‘Scrooge of the Year’
It’s the holiday season and time once again to say “bah humbug” to the most cold-hearted and greedy CEOs, corporations and politicians who exemplify the spirit of Ebenezer Scrooge.
This is the 10th year that Jobs with Justice (JwJ) has “honored” the person or group that has done the most to “scrooge” workers. And given the current crop of nominees—Bank of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Hyatt Hotels, Publix Supermarkets and student loan providers—it looks like it will be a hard decision to pick just one.
You can cast your vote for any of these deserving nominees here. The winner will be announced Dec. 21.
First, there’s Bank of America, which had a hand in the worst of the subprime lending excesses, providing financing to four of the top five largest subprime lenders during the years prior to the crash. Among them, these four firms issued more than $320 billion in subprime loans from 2005-2007. As a result of these kinds of abuses, Bank of America helped crash the economy and then accepted bailouts and backstops totaling $199.2 billion.
The Truth About Taxes
Have you heard about the so-called “tea parties” happening today? Honchos of the extremist right are orchestrating top-down events to protest paying taxes for a proposed federal budget that’s designed to stimulate the nation’s flattened economy and support basic infrastructure and public services. Ironies abound in these protests: In some areas, protestors are urged to take public transportation to the events. Key word here is “public,” as in paid for by taxpayers.
The media talking heads pushing these events are spewing a lot of venom toward a presidential administration they can’t control, one not beholden to special corporate interests. In doing so, their rhetoric is bordering on the treasonous: Fox’s Glenn Beck, who’s holding a $500-plate fundraiser for the San Antonio tea party, has begun advocating secession. (Hat tip to Media Matters for this and all its great work.)
