Foreclosed-on Families, Coal Mining Communities, Others Harmed by BofA Available at Trade & Tryon in Charlotte at 7:30 a.m. and throughout day
Charlotte, NC—(ENEWSPF)—May 9, 2012. 99% Power – A broad coalition of workers, seniors, families fighting foreclosure, students, the unemployed, environmentalists, and more – are at Bank of America’s shareholders’ meeting today to demand that the bank:
- stop foreclosures and work with underwater homeowners to reduce mortgage principal;
- stop harming the environment with investments in dirty coal and mountaintop removal; and
- stop draining the public sector and start paying its fair share of taxes.
Bank of America had $88 billion worth of foreclosed homes in its servicing portfolio — more than any other mortgage servicer in the country, as of June 2010. The bank also owned $18.7 billion worth of foreclosed homes, the second highest in the nation. Additionally Bank of America is the leading financier of U.S. coal and a notorious corporate tax dodger. In the past two years alone, the bank pumped over $6.74 billion into the dying coal industry.
The mass mobilization includes:
- Three Marches at 8:30 a.m.
Housing Justice Now march: Bank of America, N. Tryon & 9th St.
Stop Funding Coal march: The Green, Tryon & Levine Ave of the Arts
Worker’s Rights and Occupy: Old City Hall, Davidson & 4th St
- “Bank vs. America: We Will Win” boxing match at 9:00 a.m.: Trade & Tryon
- Shareholder meeting begins at 10:00 a.m. at 100 N. Tryon
- Press conference on outcomes of protest and shareholder meeting at 2PM: Trade & Tryon
Bank of America has hired off-duty Charlotte police officers and G4S private security to police the meeting. The City of Charlotte declared the shareholders’ meeting an “extraordinary event,” which would make a child carrying a sharpie subject to arrest and gives police wide latitude to search backpacks, briefcases, and other private items.
More than 1,000 people from Charlotte, across North Carolina and around the country have traveled to the shareholder meeting today to share their stories of how Bank of America has harmed them and their communities and to demand the company change its destructive practices.
A large number of 99 percenters are shareholders who have the right to enter the meeting and address CEO Brian Moynihan about the bank’s record of foreclosing on millions of families, investing in dirty coal, dodging its fair share of taxes, and other corporate abuses. 99%Power sent a letter to Moynihan last week demanding that the bank let all shareholders and proxy members into the meeting.
“People from all walks of life, representing the 99%, are traveling to Charlotte to march together for economic and environmental justice,” said Brigid Flaherty, executive director for the Pushback Network in Durham, NC. “We are uniting to challenge the bank for its corporate abuse of power that has devastated our communities, polluted our environment and undermined our democracy. As ordinary people, we will demonstrate our collective power in the streets this week to demand Bank of America and the 1% pay its fair share and finance a better future for everyone.”
“While my neighbors were fighting to keep their homes, Bank of America was allegedly forging thousands of documents a day to illegally force people out of their homes,” said Antonio Ennis, a father of six daughters who traveled to Charlotte from Boston and a community organizer with City Life/Vida Urbana. “And while their principal reduction program is a start, it’s just a drop in the bucket that would leave 11 million underwater homeowners still swimming without relief.”
“As the leading financier of coal, Bank of America funds birth defects, disease and death when it lends money to coal companies,” said Bob Kincaid, president of Appalachian Health Community Emergency. “I intend to see that Bank of America and its shareholders confront these brutal realities and demand that the bank stop financing this assault on our communities.”
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99% Power protests are targeting corporations including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, GE, Verizon, Sallie Mae, Wal-Mart, and Verizon — directly challenging the 1% board members and executives whose actions have expanded inequality, threatened democracy, destroyed the environment, and driven countless Americans from their homes. This spring represents the largest mobilization on shareholder meetings in U.S. history. For more information, please visit http://www.the99power.org/
