March On Wall Street

by Dollars and Sense

We received word of this upcoming action in New York City from Danny Schechter, director of the film "In Debt We Trust".

IT IS TIME TO ACT ON THE CREDIT CRISIS…..

Danny Schechter, here.

As the director of the film In Debt We Trust, I expose shady sub prime loan practices and report that Wall Street firms were unscrupulously underwriting predatory lending and ravaging poor communities. My film argues that action must be taken to prevent the continued transfer of hundred of Billions from struggling families to big banks and investment houses. When the film came out, one critic dismissed it as “alarmist.” Few of the national candidates spoke to it; most advocacy groups were preoccupied with other issues.

Now everyone in America is alarmed as our markets melt down, billions of dollars are lost, and the economy grinds to a halt because of greed and fraudulent practices. I have been urging action—but I was not well known enough to have any impact. Fortunately, someone did listen: The Reverend Jesse Jackson who has been leader in the fight for people’s rights for decades. He decided to launch a national campaign and asked me to help by inviting concerned people and organizations.

He is beginning boldly with a March On Wall Street on Monday December 10 at high noon.

I am a journalist but I can’t stand by and watch all this economic suffering and decline unfold without doing something.

I asked Reverend Jackson to draft a letter for me to circulate, inviting others to take part.

This is an issue that cuts across economic, ethnic, racial, generational, political and gender lines. It affects us all.

Please pass on this message and take part in this ongoing effort to force financial institutions to compensate victims, end foreclosures and practice fair lending. The economy we save may be our own.

Danny Schechter

News Dissector

AN APPEAL FROM REVEREND JESSIE JACKSON OF THE RAINBOW PUSH COALITION ...

Dear Friends,

I am writing to invite you to help organize and join a March On Wall Street on December l0th (International Human Rights Day) to protest against the subprime mortgage scandal that is threatening two and half million Americans with the foreclosure of their homes.

Millions more face evictions while their neighbors are experiencing a drop in property values. The housing market has imploded because of a white-collar crime wave in which almost every major bank and hedge fund was complicit. So far, no one has been prosecuted. Obscenely, the people responsible want the Federal Reserve to bail them out!

The National Association for Business Economics warns: “The combined threat of subprime loan defaults and excessive indebtedness has supplanted terrorism and the Middle East as the biggest short-term threat to the U.S. economy.”

Americans are being squeezed as never before while our President supports “free market” economics and no regulation. It is hard to understand why so few of our political leaders, movements and Mayors are NOT up in arms about the dangers of the “severe recession” (Goldman, Sachs) that is eating up our savings and stealing our money. This has been called “a 50 state Katrina.” This problem has to become an issue!

We have to fight back, and put economic justice on the agenda. We have to demand a full investigation, criminal prosecutions and a restructuring of mortgages so people can stay in their homes. We want Congress to act to protect homeowners and consumers, and not just protect Wall Street and bail-out the financial institutions. If we can win debt relief in Africa, we can win it in America. We have to work together.

I need your help. Can you participate on Wall Street or on your street in your city or town? We need to educate and mobilize grass roots homeowners and communities about the origins of this crisis, and demand an end to predatory practices and credit scams.

Our March On Wall Street in New York on December 10 is just a first step. I am appealing to organizations to endorse it, and am open to speakers from all backgrounds. If you can help in this fight to save our home and for economic survival, contact Reverend Greg Livingston, National Field Secretary for Rainbow PUSH Coalition, at 773-256-2709, gslivingston@gmail.com.

We are in an economic emergency. The home foreclosure crisis amounts to nothing less than an economic tsunami. We have to stand up and be heard. Peace and Keep Hope Alive,

Reverend Jesse Jackson, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, for the organizing group

PS If you are interested, you can reads the credit and debt newsletter I write weekly on the StopThe Sqeeze.org website and download my new e-book (PDF format) on the background. It is called SQUEEZED: America As The Bubble Bursts on coldtype.net.

Labels: Danny Schechter, Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH, subprime crisis, Wall Street

 

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12/04/2007 05:36:00 PM