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University students fight back against Wall Street foreclosures

A photo of activists participating in a Kick Wall Street Off Campus demonstration
Activists participating in civil disobedience outside of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Headquarters. Photo via United Students Against Sweatshops

By Sean Reilly Wood

Six years after housing prices began their perilous drop in January 2007, the negative equity of all underwater mortgages within the United States is still a whopping $689 billion. Neither Congress, President Obama, or the Federal Housing Finance Agency have sufficiently addressed this ongoing crisis.

Instead, students are stepping up.

On Wednesday, February 27, more than 200 students rallied at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, against Wells Fargo and home foreclosures. The previous day, four members of the student group “Kick Wall Street Off Campus” (KWOC) had met with representatives from Wells Fargo and the Macalester administration to demand that Wells Fargo implement a principal reduction policy. Under this policy, all underwater mortgages would be renegotiated to current market value. In a post-crisis market, homeowners would be given a fair value for their house and the banks – who caused the crisis – would take a slight hit to their assets in return for long term loan stability.

Unsurprisingly, Wells Fargo refused.  At the Wednesday rally, students asked Macalester to end financial dealings with Wells Fargo, objecting to their college’s affiliation with a firm which not only helped cause the housing crisis but has continued abusive policies in the wake of it, refusing to renegotiate loans for struggling homeowners. Afterwards, students went into Minneapolis proper and rallied a second time at the foreclosed home of Gayle Lindsey before marching to the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage Headquarters. More

Voter Suppression & Corporate Election Cash: Two Sides of the Same Coin

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By Dalvin Butler

Billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch are looking to call the shots in the 2012 elections.

The Koch brothers are using their vast financial resources to push policies and candidates that favor the one percent, at the expense of the rest of us. If left unchecked, these schemes would be disastrous for our democracy.

The Koch strategy?

Diminish the rights of ordinary people and maximize those of corporations and the super-wealthy.

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Is Citizens United toast? If we have something to say about it, yes!

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This post was authored by Mark Hays, the Campaign Coordinator for Public Citizen’s Democracy is for People campaign. Follow the campaign on Twitter @RuleByUs for the latest on the money and politics and the campaign for a constitutional amendment!

This has been a huge week for the Democracy is for People Campaign’s  movement-building efforts on behalf of a constitutional amendment overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s atrocious 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. And the coming weeks will only be even more momentous, as this growing popular backlash builds into a full-blown national movement!

Yesterday, the New York City Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution asking Congress to pass an amendment overturning the Citizens United decision. The resolution was introduced by Council Progressive Caucus Members Steve Levin, Brad Lander, and Melissa Mark-Viverito, and backed by Speaker Christine Quinn.

Author and Public Citizen member Daniela Gioseffi was one of the lead activists approaching the Councilmembers about proposing the resolution. Our Senior Organizer, Jonah Minkoff-Zern, joined representatives from Occupy Wall Street (which formally endorsed efforts to rein in corporate constitutional rights and political spending the night before the City Council Vote!) and Move to Amend at the Council vote.
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Bill Moyers remarks for Public Citizen’s 40th Anniversary Gala

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Peabody Award-winning journalist Bill Moyers’ keynote remarks for Public Citizen’s 40th Anniversary Gala are found below.

"Bill Moyers" "Public Citizen"

I am honored to share this occasion with you.   No one beyond your collegial inner appreciates more than I do what you have stood for over these 40 years, or is more aware of the battles you have fought, the victories you have won, and the passion for democracy that still courses through your veins.  The great progressive of a century ago, Robert LaFollette of Wisconsin – a Republican, by the way – believed that “Democracy is a life; and involves constant struggle.”  Democracy has been your life for four decades now, and would have been even more imperiled today if you had not stayed the course.

I began my public journalism the same year you began your public advocacy, in 1971. Our paths often paralleled and sometimes crossed. Over these 40 years  journalism for me has been a continuing course in adult education, and I came early on to consider the work you do as part of the curriculum – an open seminar on how government works – and for whom.   Your muckraking investigations – into money and politics, corporate behavior, lobbying, regulatory oversight, public health and safety, openness in government, and consumer protection, among others – are models of accuracy and integrity. They drive home to journalists that while it is important to cover the news, it is more important to uncover the news.  As one of my mentors said, “News is what people want to keep hidden; everything else is publicity.”  And when a student asked the journalist and historian Richard Reeves for his definition of “real news”, he answered: “The news you and I need to keep our freedoms.”  You keep reminding us how crucial that news is to democracy.  And when the watchdogs of the press have fallen silent, your vigilant growls have told us something’s up.

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Lobbying influence trumps science

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Campaign finance watchdogs criticized the Obama campaign today for hiring a former lobbyist for the Keystone XL pipeline while the administration is finalizing its decision on the project.

Statement from Common Cause,  Public Campaign Action Fund, Public Citizen and US PIRG:

“The Obama campaign’s decision to hire a former lobbyist for TransCanada highlights again the troubling connections between government officials and the company seeking to build the Keystone XL pipeline, currently under consideration at the State Department.

“The final decision on whether or not to allow the pipeline to move forward should be based on sound science and the impact it will have on the American people and free of undue influence from industry lobbyists or their campaign contributions.

“President Barack Obama should explain to the public how he will ensure that the decision making process on the pipeline is insulated from the undue influence of the parties that would benefit from it.”

In early October, emails between TransCanada lobbyists and various State Department lobbyists have showed “cozy” ties between the company and the department. On Monday, the Obama campaign announced it had hired Broderick Johnson to be a senior adviser to the campaign. Prior to the announcement, he served as a lobbyist for Bryan Cave LLP, representing TransCanada and working on the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Keystone Pipeline System would be a 1,700-mile pipeline sending tar sands crude oil across six U.S. states to the Gulf Coast.

 

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