Shut down the ABA: "Wall Street Is At War With America"
The SEIU is organizing protests at the American Bankers Association annual meeting in Chicago on October 25-27th to demand changes from the banks. This will be the largest demonstration against bank greed since the financial meltdown began. Anarchists need to be there! Following the success of Pittsburgh's recent G20 protests, where an often-photographed banner read "No Borders No Bailouts," anarchists need to stay involved and take an early role in the mounting anger around banks in order to deliver a critique of capitalism as a whole through the issue of the economic crisis and create a movement around fundamental change and not useless reforms.
Anarchist poster about the financial crisis:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/21140663
Massive, angry protests at the meeting of the ABA ( http://www.aba.com/ ) will help shift the dialogue in this country from one where corporations are using popular anger to organize tea parties for their own benefit, into directing that popular anger at those who are really responsible, the corporations themselves.
Continuing the G20 momentum and demonstrating anarchist organizing models and perspectives for transformative change is critical right now to laying the foundation for a radical social movement to blossom over the next few years. The Great Depression was the last recession this severe, and the anti-capitalist social movements it created kept growing for a decade after the crash of 1929. During that time "production for use," became a popular slogan, and was meant as a contrast to production for profit in the capitalist system.
Anarchists need to be on the streets, in the media, and organizing with one another to confront these meetings of business groups, where the plans are hatched for fighting against any actions that would hurt their bottom line and help struggling Americans. Just like the WTO, IMF, and World Bank, these meetings are cabals where policies that effect millions of people are decided in secret. And just like those other organizations, we should attempt to shut down meetings of the ABA and groups like them. The ABA is undemocratic, secretive, and a criminal conspiracy to enrich the few at the expense of the many.
Below is the SEIU call to action and protest schedule. Join them on the streets, and organize with anarchists to strategize how to have a larger impact than a mere symbolic march in both exposing the criminal nature of these meetings as well as confronting them and demanding they stop robbing us all blind.
The following is from the SEIU:
"Tell Big Banks: We Need to Talk."
"On October 25th, America's bailed out banks will be meeting at the ABA convention in Chicago. These are the very institutions that drove America to financial meltdown, and are now using our tax dollars to lobby against reform.
This is being billed as the most important meeting of the year for the financial industry. This is when banks will decide what direction they take for the next 12 months.
We're the ones funding these banks with our tax dollars, we should have a say in how they're spending our money. Tell the big banks of the ABA to meet with us, the taxpayers, while they're in Chicago.
For America's banks, the past year has been in exercise in corporate greed gone wild. They've done nothing to clean up the financial mess they created, but continue to pay out billions in bonuses for their top brass. They pile fee after fee on their customers, but offer no help when homeowners get caught up in the housing collapse.
Enough is enough. Thousands of Americans, from across the country, are coming to Chicago on October 25-27th to demand changes from our banks. This will be the largest demonstration against bank greed since the financial meltdown began. Will you tell the banks to listen to our demands?
The reforms we're asking for are simple:
* Stopping foreclosures to save Americans’ homes and state and local budgets;
* Providing the same affordable loans to state and local governments that the banks receive from the federal government;
* Restoring small business lending to save jobs and tax revenue;
* Lowering interest rates on consumer credit cards and stopping charging abusive overdraft fees that take billions out of consumers’ pockets; and
* Allowing employees to negotiate compensation practices so they are no longer directly tied to quotas and unreasonable sales goals, targeting consumers with unnecessary or harmful products, and amassing consumer debt."
SEIU's Protest Schedule:
October 25, 2009
* WHAT: Taxpayers put big banks and Wall Street on trial for breaking their commitments to the American taxpayers.
* WHO: Hundreds of taxpayers from across the country who’ve lost their jobs, homes, and retirement security because of the economic crisis, workers, community leaders and allies, and academics.
* WHERE: 4:15 PM CDT
Hyatt Regency Chicago
151 East Wacker Drive
October 26, 2009
* WHAT: Demonstrations around American Bankers Association conference highlighting continued bank greed at the expense of America’s economy.
* WHO: More than 1,000 retirees, family farmers, clergy, workers, students, homeowners, and community allies.
* WHERE: To be announced
October 27, 2009
* WHAT: Taxpayer march on American Bankers Association conference to demand banks stop lobbying against needed financial reform.
* WHO: More than 5,000 workers, clergy, and community allies and leaders from 20 cities.
* WHERE: March begins at 10:30 AM CDT at Intersection of Wacker and Stetson.
Rally at 11:00 AM CDT at the Sheraton Hotel, 301 E. North Water St.
SEIU information from:
http://www.seiu.org/2009/10/its-not-j...-lewis.php and http://action.seiu.org/page/s/abarsvp