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Title: Bailing Ourselves Out Author: Zakk Flash Date: 21 June 2012 Language: en Topics: banks, Oklahoma, Occupy Wall Street, capitalism Source: Retrieved on 18 September 2012 from http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20120619055045376
Heartland
by Dr. Zakk Flash
Bank of America — via the gravelly voice of Kiefer Sutherland (best
known as the torture-happy government agent Jack Bauer on afternoon
television) — has referred to itself for the last few years as the “Bank
of Opportunity.” But in the midst of
, they’ve dropped their advertising company – the propagandists that had
shifted BoA’s previous slogan from the laughable “Higher Standards” –
and find themselves scrambling for a new market-friendly façade.
Regardless of whatever branding the new spin-doctors come up with, Bank
of America is proving itself to have zero standards – and the
opportunity a snowball faces in hell.
When Julian Assange announced that
was planning to release records of “unethical practices” prevalent in an
surrounding a major US financial institution, Bank of America was one of
the first to respond – by
refusing to service any donation
made to the whistleblower organization. And their master plan for
preparing for this massive leak of corporate wrongdoing?
Buying up more than 450 internet domain names
that might prove to be embarrassing to the bank or
. Sad to say, friends, but BrianMoynihanSucks.com is taken. Their
attempts to conceal the truth, however, only reveal the gravity of their
situation – and ours.
The attorney general of Arizona, a state not known recently as a bastion
of legislative tolerance, has criticized Bank of America’s attempts to
of their practices, noting that the bank has “repeatedly deceived”
customers looking to lower their loan amounts. They’ve promised to fix
the situation “by negotiating settlements with borrowers
who must agree to keep them secret
and not criticize the bank in exchange for cash payments and loan
relief.” Court documents show desperate demands from BoA that borrowers
“remove and delete any online statements regarding this dispute,
including, without limitation, postings on Facebook, Twitter and similar
websites.”
Bank of America, by demanding their customers keep their mouths shut in
exchange for ‘fixing the problem,’ seems to be taking a page out the
mafia’s protection-racket handbook.
This isn’t the first time that Bank of America has refused to cooperate
with investigations into their mortgage practices either. The U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development’s inspector general said in
a 2011 lawsuit that “
Our review was significantly hindered
by Bank of America’s reluctance to allow us to interview employees or
provide data and information in a timely manner.” That lawsuit was part
of a damning HUD investigation that found
all 5 of the nation’s largest mortgage companies
defrauding taxpayers.
These multinational casino-capitalist banks aren’t content with
exorbitant usury, with
destroying entire neighborhoods of foreclosed homes
, harassing the
families of deceased customers
– they’re trying to
foreclose on people who never even had a mortgage
,
sucking funds out of needy schools
and cities, and using your money to pay legislators to advance their
agenda. Those employees who
reveal the severity of the situation
are hunted down like witches in 17^(th) century Massachusetts. Matt
Taibbi of Rolling Stone had it right when wrote on Bank of America’s
excess, calling them an institution
He joined a recent Occupy Wall Street day-of-action to remind occupiers
how shady Bank of America really is.
“This bank has systematically defrauded almost everyone with whom it has
a significant business relationship, cheating investors, insurers,
homeowners, shareholders, depositors, and the state. It is a giant,
raging hurricane of theft and fraud
, spinning its way through America and leaving a massive trail of
wiped-out retirees and foreclosed-upon families in its wake.”
But Bank of America isn’t the only player in this high-stakes game of
Monopoly; a culture of greed and corruption has permeated – even driven
– each of the financial institutions that the government emphatically
calls “too big to fail.”
Since greedy financiers at the major banks initiated an economic race to
the bottom in 2008, they’ve been rewarded with massive bailouts,
lucrative tax breaks, and golden parachutes for fatcat executives, while
workers lose jobs, retirement, and homes. The toxic mix of political,
economic, and corporate interests has been the equivalent of financial
terrorism upon communities nationwide. Even before the crash, market
fundamentalists have allowed unchecked economic warfare to be waged,
ravaging neighborhoods across wide swaths of the country. But the people
– real people, not ‘corporate persons’ – are fighting back.
November 5^(th), 2011 was Bank Transfer Day, an Occupy-inspired
day-of-action in which thousands of people around the country moved
their money from the banking behemoths and into consumer-owned credit
unions. While it is difficult to pin numbers down to grassroots
initiatives like this, the month found credit unions adding 650,000 new
members (normally around 80,000 in a regular month), resulting in more
than
. The reaction from the corporate banking establishment was shocking,
even to those who hadn’t been paying attention: customers fed up with
bad business were
locked inside banks and faced arrest
when trying to close their accounts.
Individual actions are a necessary component of any meaningful change in
a broken financial system. But even more heartening is when entire
communities have come together to pull their money out of corporate
clutches. The city of Norman, Oklahoma, has done just that.
Not surprisingly, mainstream media outlets gave almost no coverage of
the move; the local papers only made the briefest of obligatory
mentions. But for members of Occupy Norman and concerned community
leaders, the change is a real difference in the third-largest city in
Oklahoma.
“Banks that are ‘too big to fail’ are too big to exist!” says Mary
Francis, a fiery 60-something activist from Norman. “Local banks and
credit unions make more loans to local businesses than big Wall Street
banks and they reinvest in the community. The obscene profits of huge
corporations such as Bank of America or Wal-Mart do not get circulated
in the local community. It’s only the local banks who have had a history
of participating and donating to community events and charities.”
What started as an investigation of how the City used funds entrusted to
it became a months-long campaign to get Norman to divest its money from
Wall Street and bring it home. Occupiers first approached the City
Council in December of 2011 with concerns about illegal and risky
gambling with community funds; by April, the Occupy Norman Direct Action
Committee’s “Move Our Money” campaign reached its apex after in-depth
editorials, research into local banks and credit unions, and discussion
with community leaders.
In a unanimous vote, the Norman City Council voted to terminate its
contract with Bank of America and move all financial services to Bank of
Oklahoma, a Tulsa-based institution. Grant DeLozier, a member of the
Norman group, reminded Bank of Oklahoma – and the Council – that
although the bank has thus far been free from the kinds of controversy
and malfeasance that have plagued the larger institutions, they would
not be getting a free pass. He pledged the group’s effort in keeping
them honest. More banks need that reminder.
Norman City Council member Tom Kovach posted to
after the vote, thanking local activists for using community pressure
and proactive research to get accomplished what couldn’t be done through
normal legislative channels.
“I first mentioned the Bank of America problem to the City in 2009 after
the financial meltdown and BoA was on the brink of insolvency. No one
wanted to make the move. It took the efforts of a dedicated group to
make the change happen. Last night alone, several Occupy members waited
five and a half hours to support this move. But it is the continuous
efforts and the professional and respectful manner the whole group
conveys that creates the impact necessary to make this advancement.
Great thanks to all of you.”
Occupy Norman’s actions are part of a groundswell of public outrage with
the big multinational banksters over their role in the country’s
financial and foreclosure crises. And although the approximately $250
million-dollar move represents only a small bite out of Bank of
America’s bottom line, it hits them in the only way that capitalists
understand. The withdrawals, like the
, are a visible sign of the seething anger in the working class; they
bring communities together, uniting disparate groups in common cause.
Councilman Kovach reminds:
“We can bridge gaps and must to achieve positive change. Preaching to
the converted only keeps things alive; to grow and make change, we must
go beyond our comfort zones and listen to and work with unusual allies.”
The movement to divest from seemingly-monolithic banking institutions
continues to progress as cities join individuals, unions, and churches
in demanding accountability from Wall Street.
The cities of Philadelphia and Cleveland have already instituted a
Community Reinvestment Act and dedicated activists
have stormed the New York City Banking Commission to demand one
. Other major metropolitan areas like Boston and Los Angeles have
considered or passed laws known as “
responsible banking ordinances
” that require banks who want to do business submit detailed plans that
outline how they’ll reach the needs of low-income and working-class
residents.
These are all important steps to take to safeguard against poverty pimps
seeking to bankrupt American dreamers. But isolated efforts at reform
like this are not enough; when contemporary political realities reveal
supranational financial institutions lording over governments – the
banker-technocrat coup d’état in Greece and Italy, the austerity
measures demanded in Spain and England, and so forth – only a revolution
of values will create any meaningful change.
The global uprising has to be more than just a demand on a worldwide
Ponzi scheme; we must demand an end to an entire system of oppression
and coercion.
Why do we allow an economic minority – those who fatten themselves on
capitalism’s largesse – to own the collective efforts of billions? Why
do we accept a media stranglehold by nine megacorporations,
genetically-bastardized pseudo-food from Monsanto and ConAgra, a
stripping of worker’s rights won over the last century? Why do we allow
politicians from both the Republican and Democratic wings of the
corporate party to turn womens’ bodies into political battlefields? A
continuous state of emergency,
eradication of fundamental principles of democracy
, privatization of the commons?
What to think – the questions we ask – isn’t nearly as important as how
we think. Capitalism is a pervasive ideology; to deny its recuperative
mechanisms requires interrupting the spectacle of the status quo – and
acting in those liberated spaces, both physical and mental. The answer
to some of these questions may already be well-known; getting to the
substance of the question and actualizing the answer requires more. It
requires a leap of faith.
Philosopher
in Adbusters that a “perfect storm” is brewing amongst disaffected
youth, something “at once exciting and frightening.”
“What is so inspiring about the various social movements that we all too
glibly call the Arab Spring, is their courageous determination to
reclaim autonomy and political self-determination. The demands of the
protesters in Tahrir Square and elsewhere are actually very classical:
they refuse to live in authoritarian dictatorships propped up to serve
interests of Western capital, megacorporations and corrupt local elites.
[…] The various movements in North Africa and the Middle East aim at one
thing, one ancient Greek concept: autonomy.”
It is up to us to determine if this storm will rage enough to sweep away
the accumulated dross of cancer-stage capitalism ... or if our actions
remain a tempest in a teapot.
_________________________________________________________
Dr. Zakk Flash is an anarchist political writer, radical community
activist, and editor of the Central Oklahoma Black/Red Alliance (COBRA).
He lives in Norman, Oklahoma.
Find more about the
Central Oklahoma Black/Red Alliance (COBRA)
at