Crash the Bankers' Party in Chicago

The financial section of the newspaper is starting to read like the script for a far-fetched crime movie. A group of villains hatch a plot to steal trillions of dollars from unsuspecting Americans. They drive the country into economic chaos, funnel money from families and small businesses into their own pockets, then leave all of us to clean up their mess. And not only do they get away with it, they pay themselves billion dollar bonuses and throw lavish parties to celebrate their conquest.

But this isn't a movie, it's really happening. Wall Street bankers have taken $17.8 trillion of our tax dollars through bailouts and turned them into massive pay and bonuses for themselves. Goldman Sachs alone is expected to pay more than $23 billion just in bonuses this year; that's more than $43,000 a minute, every minute.

So, my question to you is: if you could get all the architects of this scam together in one place, what would you say to them?

Hurry up and decide, because they're all getting together in Chicago this weekend -- and we're headed there to meet them.

The big bank execs are gathering in the Windy City for the American Bankers Association conference. It's a four day celebration of wealth and opulence; some of the items on the agenda include a roaring 1920s swing dancing party, a luxurious riverboat cruise, and celebrity appearances from Newt Gingrich and George Will. And it's all funded with our tax dollars.

Outside the conference, thousands of taxpayers will be gathering to remind the bankers that their scheme is not a victimless crime. People from more than 20 states will be there; people who have had their homes foreclosed, their jobs eliminated, and their live savings wiped away. We're going to demand that bankers stop using our money to lobby against reforms that would prevent another financial crisis.

On Sunday, we're literally putting the big banks on trial. The American public will make the case against the Wall Street greed that caused the economic collapse. On Monday, taxpayers will be holding demonstrations at big banks throughout the city. And, on Tuesday, more than 5,000 taxpayers will march on the ABA conference, demanding that they stop lobbying against financial reform with our tax dollars.

This is going to be the largest protest against big bank greed since the financial crisis first hit. Will you join us? Let's show the Wall Street bankers that Chicago is the beginning of the end for their unchecked greed.

 

 

Follow Anna Burger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/SEIU_AnnaBurger

Comments

[Cleo Creech]

Hmmm, another grass roots protest that FOX won't cover?

[luziannagirl]

Oh, yeah, and I'd also say, "And while you're in Chicago, maybe you will run into some real bankers and get a few useful tips from them".

[luziannagirl]

"Shame on you. Shame. I am ashamed of you, and I'm ashamed to call you my fellow Americans.­"

That's what I'd say.

[drumz]

Try posting this again.
Too far for me and can't afford it but would love to show off my tomato throwing arm.

[sillyrabbit]

Too far away from me but my heart will be with you all Thanks for standing up.

[Factonfact]

Good luck on convincing the media to cover this one.

Take ABC News. Tonight Charles Gibson anchored a segment whereby an ABC reporter highlighted an unemployed man who was traveling the nation soliciting stories from folks hurt by the Great Recession.

Good, you think?

Think again.

And ask youself why on earth ABC News was not doing the traveling itself and seeking stories itself from folks hurt by the Great Recession?

Go figure.

[jeanrenoir]

What I would say to these greedy jerks is that they have done more to undermine America's power and standing in the world--by bankrupting the government and the American middle class--than any American enemy ever has in war. We defeated Hitler, Tojo, and the Soviet Union. The Vietnam War was tragic, but a minor setback in terms of America's massive wealth and military power. But the attack on the foundations of American power in its economy which was carried out for the sake of their own greed by all the major banks of Wall St. was a second Pearl Harbor which will have much longer-lasting and more devastating effects on America's future than the first Pearl Harbor ever did. Never in all of American history have so many Americans been so cruelly harmed by so few others in our own country. All the banking executives who presided over this debacle knew exactly the risks their companies were running, and they planned all along on being bailed out by the pathetic American tax payers. This puts them all right up there with Madoff in the annals of American crime. It's unjust that they should be free while he is rightly in prison for life.

[joebhed]

Know there are ten for each of you there.
Ten thousand.
I wish you the best and support your objective of firing up the American people to the dastardly injustice of, ..........­.........w­hat?
The banking system?

Dear SEIU Friends:
If you want to change the banking system, then you need to change the money system.

The power of the banking system and the bankers and the rich and wealthy is out there for you to get - They CREATE the nation's money !
Get it?
A private cartelized privilege of the public purse.
They CREATE the nation's money!
As in:
"Permit me to create and control the nation's money and I care not who makes its laws".

So, here's my toast to my friends at the SEIU:
"May you go to Chicago and discover your true power, that of owning and controlling your own money system, and mine, and ours, just like it says in the Constiutio­n."

Then, and only then, shall we get on with this revolution.
The Money System Common

[kellymom042]

Why are there not more comments about this? I'm going to drive from Florida to be there! Put this in place of the blown up mortgage picture and promote it!

[unfoxworthy]

I would comment,
but I have to work late...the mortagage is due.
(give'em HELL for me!!)

[Entitlement]

"Power to the People"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CCDUXVD2d8

[Entitlement]

"Out of Our Heads"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMBnUuiLR7U

[paris15]

If I were George F. Will... I would call in sick!!!

[research]

CDS credit default swap investment insurance

Without reserves

Is Fraud.

Phil Gramm and the rest who pushed unregulated CDS are guilty of conspiracy as well.