Which Presidential Candidate Is In The Streets Of Charlotte?

September 3rd, 2012 | Posted by jclifford in Activism | Economy | Election 2012 | Greens - (0 Comments)

Tomorrow, the Democratic National Convention of 2012 will begin in Charlotte, North Carolina. One presidential candidate has arrived at Charlotte before the convention, however, not to join the convention, but to protest it.

occupy the dncGreen Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was out on the streets of Charlotte, with the people of Occupy Charlotte and Occupy The DNC. Instead of marching to the tune of the bank-friendly Democrats, hundreds of people marched to the headquarters of Bank of America yesterday, with a rallying cry to celebrate Labor Day as more than just an opportunity to stay home from work: “The Democratic Party has chosen this ‘Wall Street of the South’ as its rallying city despite North Carolina being one of the most anti-union states in the country and despite Charlotte being the home of several corporate criminals, most notably Bank of America, one of the mega-banks most responsible for the 2008 economic meltdown.”

Youth Radio has more information on the Occupy the DNC protests.

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NC Coalition Calls Protest at Bank of America Shareholders Meeting in Charlotte May 9

May 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Activism | Economy | State and Local - (0 Comments)

NC Coalition Against Corporate Power: Protest BofA May 9 2012 in Charlotte NC

The North Carolina Coalition Against Corporate Power has put out the call for Americans upset at the practices of Bank of America to mount a protest during its annual shareholders meeting, culminating in Charlotte NC on May 9:

Homeowners, students, immigrants, environmentalists, workers, women’s groups, peace activists and more will be in Charlotte, bringing their stories, hearts and communities to the fight against Bank of America and the economic inequality, racial injustice and environmental destruction they have wrought.

Bank of America is:

#1 forecloser of homes in the US,

#1 funder of the US coal industry,

Job killer by letting go of nearly 100,000 workers over the past several years,

Bonus Buster paying its top five executives over $500 million in bonuses,

Saddling students with a lifetime of debt, and

Financing the war machine.

Bank of America, and its profits-over-people-and-planet business model, is drowning our democracy through huge financial contributions to lobbyists that are serving the interests of the 1% and are participating in corporate-funded groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Financial Services Roundtable.

As a global community united for real economic and racial justice, it is time that BoA is held accountable, invest in public needs and services, or face being broken up to achieve the justice we need. Whether you are a community member, homeowner, worker or student, we need to come together to challenge corporate power and create an economy and democracy that works for all of us.

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Middletown, CT set to March on Bank of America 4/27/2012

April 26th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Activism | Economy | State and Local - (5 Comments)

For a movement that is supposed to be dead, Occupy is curiously active.

Take this word sent to Irregular Times by Daniel Pflaker of Wesleyan University today:

What: #Occupy march on Bank of America

Where: Wesleyan University’s Olin Library

When: Friday, April 27, 3pm

Middletown’s Main Street branch of Bank of America will be the target of a march and a “people’s foreclosure” on Friday, April 27th. Wesleyan students, local Middletown residents, and activists from across the state will meet at 3:00pm on the steps of Wesleyan University’s Olin Memorial Library (252 Church St.) before marching on the bank and symbolically “foreclosing” on it. The demonstration will be in protest against Bank of America’s support of environmentally destructive practices, predatory lending practices which target minorities, thousands of home foreclosures, and ability to shape US policy through unrestrained lobbying, among other unethical practices.

This action is part of a broader “Move Your Money” campaign on Wesleyan’s campus through which students are being encouraged to withdraw their funds from corporate banks and reinvest them with local credit unions, which are being brought to campus to facilitate the transfer. The campaign is being organized by students active in the Occupy movement.

Dead? Not so much. Occupy keeps right on trucking.

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Are you Moving your Money from Bank of America on 4/13?

April 9th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Activism | Economy - (3 Comments)

http://wapo.st/HBnYt5“>Occupy activists are asking people who hold Bank of America accounts to shut them down and move their funds to a credit union or community bank on April 13.

Do you have a Bank of America account?  If you do, are you planning to move your money?

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Bill McKibben On Barack Obama, Then And Now

October 26th, 2011 | Posted by The Green Man in Barack Obama | Election 2008 | Election 2012 | Environment - (3 Comments)

During the 2008 presidential campaign, environmental activist Bill McKibben signed his name to a letter of support for Barack Obama which stated, “We believe that Obama is telling it as it is when he says that it is not enough to elect a Democrat, but that we need to elect one who can govern by uniting people in a setting where Democrats don’t hold all the cards. Climate change is the challenge of our generation. We must have a President with the courage and resourcefulness to unite the nation and face up to this challenge. We invite all environmentalists and conservationists to join us in supporting Barack Obama, which may well decide the kind of country we leave to our children.”

obama turns against the environmentNow, during the 2012 presidential campaign, Bill McKibben has this to say about President Obama’s environmental policies: “It stinks. I don’t think you could conceive a more elaborate way to disrespect not just the environmental community but also Occupy Wall Street, because this is simply a reminder of the way that corporate lobbyists dominate our politics. Forget ‘Hope and Change’ — it’s like they want their new slogan to be ‘Business as Usual’.”

McKibben was specifically responding to the news that Obama has decided to hire Broderick Johnson, a lobbyist who worked trying to help TransCanada Corporation push through a special exemption from environmental regulations for the XL pipeline proposed to take fossil fuels from the Alberta tar sands, across the Ogllala Aquifer, all the way down to Texas. Johnson will become a major advisor on the Obama 2012 re-election campaign.

As McKibben explained, it’s not just environmentalists who are outraged at Obama’s close new relationship with Broderick Johnson. Occupy Wall Street protesters may also be interested in the fact that Johnson served Bank of America as a lobbyist not long before before the Wall Street bailout.

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Cortland, Ithaca and Binghamton Erupt Into Protest

October 3rd, 2011 | Posted by jclifford in Activism | Economy | State and Local - (4 Comments)

This morning, Irregular reader Ralph told us about the protests going on in Ithaca, New York. “I’m a skeptic, but I’ve got to tell you I’m genuinely enthusiastic about this. Today was the third day in a row of demonstrations in Ithaca in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Each one has been bigger than the last. I’ve never seen anything like it. This thing is growing FAST.”

The protests have been outside of the Bank of America building in Ithaca. Another meeting will take place there today at Noon.

red star behind the handWhy target Bank of America? Bank of America has been earning anger by firing employees and resisting efforts to come to fair settlements to prevent home foreclosures. This week’s protests against the bank just as Bank of America announced that it is charging a five dollar per month fee for the privilege of having a debit card connected to a checking account.

The debit cards are a cost-cutting measure that saves the bank money, requiring less labor per purchase than a written check does, so customers are wondering why they should have to pay Bank of America money just in order to access their own money in a form that’s convenient to the bank.

In the nearby city of Cortland, a protester has taken it upon herself to organize a pamphleteering of the local Bank of America branch. She writes, “I will be at the Bank of America on Groton Ave. in Cortland every day this week at noon dispersing handouts outlining the extensive abuses BOA commits on it’s clients and employees. I will be trying to sway people entering the building to close their accounts with BOA. Please join me in standing up against corporate greed!”

About an hour away over the hills, along the border with Pennsylvania is the city of Binghamton, where yet more protest is taking form. A meeting of protesters planning to join the occupy movement from there is taking place this afternoon, “5:30 at the pavillion in Rec Park”.

These are not big cities. Binghamton has around 47,000 inhabitants. Cortland has about 48,000. Ithaca has about 29,000 people. Yet, these small Upstate New York cities are seeing large numbers of people at their protests, joining in spontaneously.

No corporate chartered buses are bringing paid picketers in. No billionaires like the Koch brothers are handing out pre-printed signs with lobbyist-approved slogans. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are dictating talking points to this movement. What we’re hearing is the genuine voice of the 99 percent.

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Occupy Boston Protest Feeding Homeless In The City

October 2nd, 2011 | Posted by jclifford in State and Local | Video - (0 Comments)

In Boston, Massachusetts, a protest inspired by the Occupy Wall Street demonstration endured have cold temperatures and hard rain for days now, changing the city’s political and physical landscape. This is what the financial district of Boston looks like now:

The Occupy Boston protesters aren’t just demanding to be heard. They’re also helping their neighbors in need. The demonstration’s General Assembly committed to providing excess food at the demonstration to the city’s homeless – people who have no place to stay because America’s corporations are sitting on two trillion dollars of liquid assets, and refusing to use it to create jobs.

This act of compassion from the protesters came as Bank of America announced that it will now charge its customers five dollars every month as a cost of using ATM machines. Some Americans still remember that ATM machines actually save banks money by allowing them to cut labor costs. So, Bank of America has slashed jobs, and then billed Americans, as if a cost was incurred. Bank of America is taking two loaves of bread from working Americans every month, just for the privilege of accessing their own money.

24 Occupy Boston protesters were arrested at a demonstration outside of a Bank of America office this weekend. The demonstrators were loud, but never resorted to violence. The Boston General Assembly today reiterated that, “We are a nonviolent movement and so we expect all occupiers to follow this rule. Respect everyone!”

Many young Bostonians are there, but grey hairs, bald heads, and wrinkled skins are there too. College students are there, but homeowners are protesting as well. The diversity of the 99% is well represented in the occupation protest.

“The top 1 percent has too much of the control, too much of the power, and the bottom 99 percent is not heard at all,” explains one Occupy Boston protester. For more voices from the demonstration, see the video below.

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Romney Expands As Working Families Struggle

August 22nd, 2011 | Posted by Peregrin Wood in Bumper Stickers | Economy | Election 2012 | Republicans - (2 Comments)

Bank of America got in a wee bit of trouble this weekend when it the corporation’s Director of Public Policy was caught on video promising presidential candidate Rick Perry, “We will help you out.” Bank of America had just announced that it would destroy 3,500 jobs.

Rick Perry isn’t the only presidential candidate who’s getting help from Bank of America, though. In just three months, the Mitt Romney for President campaign received over $59,000 in donations associated with Bank of America – and those are just the donations that are above the board. Bank of America can make unlimited financial contributions to benefit politicians in total secret, forming shell organizations to make “independent expenditures” authorized by the Citizens United Supreme Court decision.

In a time when working families are struggling, Mitt Romney is raking in the cash. He’s got so much money that, when he reports his wealth, he does so with a margin of 60 million dollars.

workers oppose romney 2012Mitt Romney has houses in Utah, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and California. But, according to Romney, that’s not enough.

The Romney 2012 campaign has acknowledged that Romney family is planning to quadruple the size of its California beach house because, at over 3,000 square feet, “it is inadequate for their needs.”

Would you find a house like that, inadequate for your needs? Are you planning to make your house four times larger than it already is any time soon?

As Mitt Romney’s campaign takes money from Bank of America, Bank of America is foreclosing on the homes of working Americans.

Do you think that Mitt Romney, if he becomes President, will represent the economic needs of people like you?

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