SEIU 1021 members "Make Banks Pay" for trashing our communities

Published on September 30th 2011

If you only watched network TV, you'd hardly even know there's a nationwide movement that's fighting the powerful financial interests who trashed the economy and run our country. You'd see cops picturesquely arresting protesters on Wall Street and think that's all there was, that the movement is just a handful of radicals on the fringe. Maybe Gil Scott Heron was right after all: The revolution won't be televised.

We don't believe it. The campaign to "Make Banks Pay" for the damage they've caused to our lives and our communities is not just national, but international in scope, and more people are joining every day. Even saying it's "Main Street vs. Wall Street" doesn't capture the scope of this growing movement: It's on *every* street — and on websites, Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and everywhere the mainstream media is not. Watch your Droid or iPhone, not your TV.

This week, members of SEIU 1021 took to the streets of San Francisco's financial district and Oakland's impoverished neighborhoods to add their voices and literally lend a hand to this movement that more people are seeing even through the veil of the national media blackout.

To see photo albums of the Oakland and San Francisco actions, click the links in the Act! Here! Now! box on the top right of this page.

Cleaning up Oakland

The week of actions kicked off Monday with a "Move Our Money" action in downtown Oakland urging divestment from big banks. On Tuesday, Bank of America and Wells Fargo executives attending the Bay Area Council meeting at the Giants' AT&T Park were greeted by hundreds demanding an end to their ruinous foreclosure policies. On Monday and Wednesday, activists gathered at the Alameda County Courthouse to demand an end to banks auctioning off foreclosed homes.

Following the Wednesday vigil, active members, retirees and staff of SEIU 1021 joined forces with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) to clean up the front of a home in east Oakland left neglected since the bank foreclosed and the property was bought by speculators. It's a common sight in working class east Oakland, where communities have been devastated by the never-ending recession.

Putting on heavy work gloves under a hot East Bay sun, participants made quick work of stuffing whatever trash they could fit into black plastic bags stenciled with "Bank Foreclosures Trash Our Communities."

What to do with all that garbage? Make a deposit at the bank. The bags were strapped to car roofs and taken to a Citi branch at Macarthur and Fruitvale and left at the teller windows while the crowd -- now several times its original size as others joined the action -- had a branch employee fax a letter to corporate HQ demanding an end to the foreclosure rampage.

From Citi the group marched down the block to Chase and picketed outside the front doors; the Wells Fargo next door saw them and closed early. As one Chase customer exited the door, he smiled at SEIU 1021 retiree activist Al Haggett and said, "It's about time somebody did something about it."

Making a scene in San Francisco

In a cross-country echo of the occupiers of Wall Street, hundreds of unionists and community activists hit the streets of San Francisco’s financial district Thursday, Sept. 29 in the finale of a week of actions designed to place the blame for the economic crisis precisely where it belongs—the banks and stock market speculators.

The crowd assembled at what is often consider the heart of the financial district—the Bank of America headquarters—because of the large sculpture in its plaza, a huge black cold marble stone referred to as “The Banker’s Heart.”

There SEIU 1021 staffer and former member and co-chair of the local’s San Francisco COPE committee Bobbi Lopez rallied the troops before introducing SEIU 1021-endorsed mayoral candidate and District 11 Supervisor John Avalos. Avalos took the opportunity to point out that the City and County of San Francisco has some $3 billion of its money in B of A accounts and nearly the same in Wells Fargo. As part of his Mayoral campaign, Avalos proposed that the money be withdrawn from those accounts and be placed in a new San Francisco community bank that would invest in jobs and infrastructure in the city.

From the plaza the crowd marched noisily through the financial district with bright yellow banners exclaiming their demand: “Make Banks Pay.” They stopped at investment firm Charles Schwab to emphasize the role of speculators in the 2008 stock market crash. Then it was on to one of the major villains of the home foreclosure epidemic, Chase Bank.

As the march approached a Chase bank branch, a group of them rushed the front door and entered before the police had time to stop them. A couple of other marchers quickly set up a little dining table, complete with table cloth and a flower arrangement, and a couple sat and made themselves at home—literally.

“Since Chase has taken my home, I decided I would set up my home at their bank,” said Jose Vega.

The 52-year old father of two found himself unemployed and having a hard time making payments on his house in Pittsburg. He worked out a “trial modification” loan with Chase and kept paying his mortgage for six months until he received a foreclosure notice. Apparently Chase had filed for foreclosure just two days afer he made his loan modification deal and he was now homeless.

“When you have two young kids to support, can you imagine how that makes you feel?” he asked.

He fought the foreclosure and won a new loan modification. But it came with an increase in the mortgage of $66,000 even though the value of the house had fallen $280,000. And to salt on the wounds, Chase added the $8,000 in legal fees it spent fighting him to the mortgage. The bitterness drips from his voice.

“I have two bad quarters and I lose my life savings,” he said. “They have two bad quarters and they get a bailout.”

Back inside the bank several of the demonstrators who had gained entry declared they were occupying the bank and sat down. Six were arrested for trespassing and cited and released—among them SEIU 1021  Organizing Committee Chair Mary Sanders Tucker and San Francisco political coordinator Gabriel Haaland.

After having had their boisterous presence create a “bank holiday” at the normally busy downtown Chase branch for the rest of the afternoon, the crowd then marched down Market Street toward the Ferry Building. At Justin Herman Plaza they met up with a group of “occupiers” trying to mimic the New York City Wall Street protesters. They rallied briefly before breaking into a closing chant of “We’ll be back” and called it a day.