Mike & Friends Blog
Aaron Bartley
Aaron Bartley is Executive Director of People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH).
PUSH Buffalo Joins the Showdown on Wall Street
In the nearly two years since the biggest banks precipitated a devastating economic meltdown and then exploited the moment to win billions in taxpayer bailouts and billions more in free money from the Federal Reserve, not a single public demonstration of significance has darkened the doors of the Wall Street overlords or their lobbyist apologists in DC. That's about to change. Thanks to caravans of everyday working people numbering in the thousands from blue-collar cities like Wichita, Des Moines and Buffalo, both Wall Street and K Street will see major mobilizations of "Showdown" activists over the next month.
The Showdown on Wall Street will unfold on April 29th and is sponsored by the AFL-CIO and National People's Action (NPA). National People’s Action is a national network of independent community groups of which PUSH Buffalo, the community organization I direct in Buffalo, NY, is a member. The fifty community leaders making the trip from Buffalo to Wall Street will join a crowd that is expected to reach 10,000. The Showdown will provide an outlet for our anger and a voice for change in the wake of sensational allegations against Goldman Sachs, recently-announced record foreclosure rates and continuing unemployment.
Showdown demonstrations have a reputation for creative props and stealthy direct action. The first Showdown was held last fall at the American Bankers Association conference in Chicago and featured a temporary occupation of Wells Fargo offices as well as 200 uninvited community "guests" at a bankers’ awards dinner. The Showdown on Wall Street will not disappoint in the direct action department, but the mobilization will be more than noisemakers and chants. We will deliver a clear and coherent message to the five banks -- Goldman, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup -- who have collectively spent hundreds of millions of dollars to beat back even the most modest of reform measures to call for good jobs now, bank accountability and good investment in America.
Due to massive disinvestment by global corporations resulting in the loss of over 150,000 decent-paying manufacturing jobs in Buffalo, our neighborhoods have been in dire need of a bailout for more than thirty years, but none has been forthcoming. The crisis of joblessness, crumbling infrastructure and poverty in our neighborhoods is incomparably more severe than the stresses faced by investment bankers at the height of the financial meltdown they caused, but Buffalo’s crisis has never prompted emergency action by Congress.
With more than 15,000 vacant structures in need of rehabilitation or demolition and ongoing environmental degradation caused by our ancient sewer system, Buffalo needs a New Deal-style investment in our infrastructure so that we can fully access our many assets, including the greatest fresh water source in the world and our sensational architectural and city planning heritage. Our community leaders are coming to Wall Street next week to call for investment in Buffalo’s Main Street and others across the heartland. And we’re calling on the bankers who tanked our economy and who continue to receive outrageous compensation to pay for it through the implementation of a modest financial transaction tax.
Following the Wall Street action, we’ll be taking the Showdown to K Street in Washington DC -- the bastion of bought-and-sold corporate flaks -- on May 17th. The Showdown movement will release a target list of the most egregious big bank lobbyists and lobbying firms and call on them to abandon their campaigns to ruin our democracy and our country. Specifically, lobbyists and banks will be asked, for the good of the country, to abandon opposition to a unified consumer protection agency and to pay restitution for their part in causing the economic collapse by paying a financial speculation tax.
Showdown activists have a powerful message about the economic pain that everyday people in the heartland are feeling and will articulate reasonable policy responses to ameliorate this pain. We also have a laser-sharp focus on the perpetrators -- the big banks and their lobbyist lackeys -- who impoverished millions of Americans through their wild speculation and promotion of bubble economics.
Join us in working for an economy that works for all of us: www.showdowninamerica.org
Click here to suggest an article
Mike's Blog
-
March 23rd, 2013
This evening is going be a big moment in turning our country around on the issue of gun violence. That's why I desperately want you ...
-
March 21st, 2013
I am hosting a nationwide series of house parties this Saturday night where tens of thousands of people will gather together in living rooms to ...
-
March 15th, 2013
The response to my Newtown letter this week has been overwhelming. It is so very clear to everyone that the majority of Americans have had ...
-
March 13th, 2013
America, You Must Not Look Away (How to Finish Off the NRA)
The year was 1955. Emmett Till was a young African American boy from Chicago visiting relatives in Mississippi. One day Emmett was seen "flirting" with ...
-
February 26th, 2013
My Final Word on Buzzfeed and Emad Burnat's Detention at LAX
Thanks to everyone for bearing with me as I spend so much time on what happened to Emad Burnat. It's important to me because he's ...
-
February 26th, 2013
Michael Moore Responds to Buzzfeed Story on '5 Broken Cameras' Co-Director Emad Burnat
On Tuesday, February 19th, Emad Burnat, the Palestianian co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary '5 Broken Cameras,' was detained with his wife and son at Los ...
-
February 20th, 2013
Last night was the Motion Picture Academy-sponsored dinner in Beverly Hills honoring the directors and producers of this year's five nominated films for Best Documentary. ...
-
September 11th, 2010
If the 'Mosque' Isn't Built, This Is No Longer America
OpenMike 9/11/10 Michael Moore's daily blog I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on ...
-
December 14th, 2010
Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that ...
-
May 12th, 2011
Some Final Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden
"The Nazis killed tens of MILLIONS. They got a trial. Why? Because we're not like them. We're Americans. We roll different." – Michael Moore in ...
-
November 22nd, 2011
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and ...
-
September 22nd, 2011
A STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE ON THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS
I encourage everyone I know to never travel to Georgia, never buy anything made in Georgia, to never do business in Georgia. I will ask ...
-
December 16th, 2010
Dear Swedish Government: Hi there -- or as you all say, Hallå! You know, all of us here in the U.S. love your country. Your ...
-
November 2nd, 2010
This letter contains (almost) no criticisms of how the Democrats have brought this day of reckoning upon themselves. That -- and where to go from ...
Comments
3