It seems we keep referencing Bill Daley’s recent post Has The Budget Crisis Du Jour Got You Down?. Maybe that’s because it gives you have a pretty good sense of the impending debt lid crisis that
is due to hit in July, and that we need to be ready to push back against efforts to cut Medicare and Medicaid as the debate over the budget deficit heats back up.
Frankly, we need to move austerity off the table.
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Wednesday, in his post “Has the Budget Crisis Du Jour Got You Down?” Bill Daley pointed out that if Congress were to close one tax loophole on offshore accounts, it could be enough to create a ‘job stimulus’ program the country has not seen since the beginning of the Great Recession. Continue reading
Many years ago I heard with bemusement that Mafia like organizations were springing up in Russia following the collapse of Communism. The reports suggested that these associations were emerging because their organizers thought that Capitalism actually sanctioned criminal behavior and they were only following the new rules. Continue reading
Melanie Collins, a small business owner and leader with the Maine Small Business Coalition, traveled to Washington, DC on October 19 to speak at a press conference outside the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Her message was simple: “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t speak for small business, and it doesn’t speak for me.” Continue reading
Cross-posted from Public Campaign website.
Analysis by Public Campaign and Alliance for a Just Society
The National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB), heralded as the “voice” of America’s small businesses, has received renewed scrutiny due to its role as the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit to throw out the Affordable Care Act, which awaits a decision from the Supreme Court on Thursday. Continue reading
Bill Daley is the Federal Issues Policy Director at The Alliance for a Just Society.
Anyone who still considers the Supreme Court to be a neutral arbiter of legal matters should take a peek at a decision that they rendered last Thursday. Continue reading
Mere days before National Small Business Week kicked off it was revealed that JP Morgan Chase and CEO wonder boy Jamie Dimon lost $2B (now $3B by some estimates) on derivative trades meant to mitigate risk. This was a stark reminder for small businesses that nearly 4 years after the economic collapse wreaked havoc on local economies and small business, there are still significant gaps in the regulatory fabric. Continue reading
The next step in our campaign to take on the big banks pay and win relief for homeowners is to disrupt business as usual at shareholder meetings across the country. The goal of these actions is to build off the fall mobilizations and the Occupations to keep up the street heat holding the 1% and bank executives accountable – in this case, accountable for the continued foreclosure on families across the country.
The Alliance played a leadership role in this action to shut down business as usual at Wells Fargo’s annual shareholder meeting on April 24.
The setup started in the weeks leading up to the meeting, when groups created a drumbeat with local actions. For example, Washington CAN and Colorado Progressive Coalition mobilized freshly trained activists out of the 99% spring trainings to confront Wells for paying zero federal taxes despite making record profits. Washington CAN foreclosed on the downtown Seattle headquarters, auctioning off all of Wells’ prized possessions, including their lobbyist, while singing a new version of this Land is Your Land. Meanwhile, Colorado Progressive Coalition joined with partners to deliver an overdue tax bill to their local Denver branch.
In preparation for the trip from New York to San Francisco Leni Juca, a small business leader from Make the Road NY, authored an op-ed published in the Nation demanding that Wells Fargo dump its stock in the private prison industry that is destroying immigrant communities.
Washington CAN, Idaho Community Action Network, and Make the Road NY sent leaders to San Francisco holding proxies to disrupt the circus. Each year, Wells Fargo executives take an annual ceremonious walk from their world headquarters across the street to the Mercantile Exchange, to the shareholders meeting. This year, the presence of 1,500 protesters stopped this self-congratulatory dog and pony show, which typically exhibits fancy suited businessmen patting each other on the back for another year of record profits.
Leni Juca (MRNY) & Diana Corcorran (ICAN) were selected to link arms with brothers and sisters from across the country to lead the crowd of 1,500 through the streets of San Francisco to the Mercantile Exchange Building.
AJS leaders stepped up to lead two affinity groups, one highlighting Wells’ investment in the payday lending industry and the other focused on Wells investment in the private prison industry. These groups of proxy holders were poised to raise issues inside the shareholders meeting.
All of AJS staff and leaders and another 200 protesters held proxy shares and were ready to attend the shareholder meeting and raise our demands from the inside. Not surprisingly, Wells CEO John Stumpf and his board of directors hid behind the SF police, who barricaded every entrance to the building. Wells played a cat-and-mouse game, shuffling shareholders from entrance to entrance – in the end, denying them their legal right to participate. Despite these tactic, 25 of our allies managed to make it upstairs and shut down the meeting.
AJS staff and leaders ended the day excited to kick off the season of shareholder meetings confronting corporate power raising issues including: CEO compensation, corporate money in the coming elections, investments in the prison industrial complex, fair mortgages and principal write-down. This action set a high standard for a season of our communities confronting corporate power.
Press coverage was strong across the country. AJS leaders convened after the activities and penned letters to the editor.
Press clips:
KTAR: http://ktar.com/509/1522967/SF-police-monitor-Wells-Fargo-shareholder-meeting
Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/24/us-wellsfargo-protests-idUSBRE83N10K20120424
Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/occupy-the-shareholder-meetings/2012/04/24/gIQA8e8reT_blog.html
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/04/24/470342/general-electric-tax-protest/
Mother Jones: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2012/04/wells-fargo-turns-away-its-own-shareholders-annual-meeting
The Main Street Alliance has a great new video highlighting the dominating role insurance companies are playing in state health insurance policy. “Foxes Guarding the Hen House” is part of MSA’s ongoing campaign to ensure that the health insurance exchanges that are created in each state work for small businesses. Continue reading
How, what, and where we eat everyday is strongly influenced by the federal government, in partnership with major food corporations, through a piece of legislation called the Farm Bill. Many of the social determinates of health that impact our communities find their roots in the Farm Bill a massive piece of legislation up for renewal in 2012.
We need to pay close attention to this legislation in the coming months. In particular, we need to focus on the ways in which the Farm Bill enables corporate practices that contribute to racial disparities in health, set us back in terms of racial equity, and promote greed over need. In a climate where Congress is looking to make cuts, corporate agribusiness will be working hard to protect their interests, leaving the rest of us with a huge tab that will cost not just in dollars but also in lives. Continue reading
