October 30, 2009
Showdown In Chicago Link-a-rama: Press Coverage
Sunday October 25th–Sen. Durbin; Crashing Bankers Ball
The Nation: Anger At Last
In These Times: ‘Showdown’ Protests Envision ‘New Economy’
Huffington Post: Sen. Durbin Denounces Unfairness
Chicago Tribune: Durbin calls for bailed-out banks to help on foreclosures
Monday October 26th–Sheila Bair–FDIC; Hits On Goldman Sachs & Wells Fargo, Street Theatre at A.B.A. Hotel
Huffington Post: Sheila Bair Speaks To Protestors, Backs CFPA
In These Times: Protesters Deliver Letter to Goldman Sachs—And Await Response
Wall Street Journal: Protesters in Chicago March on Offices of Goldman, Wells Fargo
The Nation: Bankers And Their Victims
Tuesday October 27th–Worship Service, Large March & Rally
Chicago Breaking News.com: Bank protesters descend on downtown Chicago
Associated Press: Demonstrators Protest At Chicago Banker’s Meeting
Huffington Post: Thousands Of Protestors Gather At Banker’s Convention
In These Times: 5,000 Protest Bank Power, Abuses, as ‘Showdown’ Culminates
The Nation: Here Come The Unions
Summaries, Op-Ed’s, What’s Next?
Chicago Sun Times: Bankers Facing Chicago Firestorm–Jesse Jackson
Bloomberg News: Bankers group says it won’t be deterred by protesters
Huffington Post: Enough Is Enough–George Goehl
Huffington Post: Time For Congress To Investigate The Banks–Anna Burger
Huffington Post: A New Crossover Hit–Break Up The Big Banks–George Goehl
Huffington Post: Ed Yingling Banking Industry’s Top Defender
Huffington Post: Banks v. People, Where’s The White House?
In These Times: After Chicago: Forcing a Real Response to Foreclosure Crisis
In These Times: Fuel for Real Reform? Populist Anger Drives Big Bank Protests
Wall Street Journal: Coming Tea Parties Against JP Morgan
The Nation: Editorial–Break Up The Banks
SUN’s Trip To The Showdown In Chicago
Carolyn Stanley of SUN: "I’m tired of people losing their homes and threatening our whole neighborhoods,"she said. "This protest is the only way we have to tell the banks that enough is enough." (photo by Peter Holderness–In These Times)
15 SUN folks jumped on a train late Saturday night October 24th and began the 13 hour trek to Chicago. We were joining over 5,000
other folks from community groups, religious organizations and labor
unions for a three-day protest at the American Banker’s Association
annual conference.
Dubbed the Showdown In Chicagothe event was the brainchild of National People’s Action, the national community organizing network of which SUN is a proud member. The action was opened up to anyone willing to come to Chicago and support the basic principlesof bank reform: immediate relief to keep families in their homes, a stop to abusive lending practices and the creation of a solid foundation for homeownership.
Buoyed by supportive speeches from important allies such as U.S.
Senator Dick Durbin (IL) and the head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair, the
attendees marched out of our hotel to bring our message to folks a bit less supportive: A protest at the headquarters of Goldman Sachs. There we requested a meeting to discuss a suggestion that the huge financial
firm (that had received billions in taxpayer bailout support) use its projected 2009 bonus pool of $20 billion to start a fund to help families facing foreclosure. A demand for a meeting at the headquarters of Wells Fargo, so they could explain NPA’s recent report detailing their abusive lending policies, especially in neighborhoods of color.
We always came back–all three days–to the American Banker’s
Convention annual conference at a nearby hotel. The first night a
procession stretched several blocks long, where we met up with about
100 of our fellow protestors who had managed to go undercover,
dressed in suits and ties, get into the Banker’s opening cocktail
party and stage an impromptu rally with bullhorns and chants of
"Shame On You!" Ask SUN Board President Dick Breland about this experience–no one ever looked better in a 3 piece suit than out tall and suave Board chair!
The highlight was Tuesday’s massive march and rally–this time the
procession was over a mile long, featuring the heads of both the AFL-
CIO and the Change To Win labor federations, clergy from across the
country (including Rev. Jesse Jackson), union members from across the
midwest, and community groups like SUN from National People’s Action.
The speeches were impressive, the message was uplifting and the event
was inspirational. But perhaps the most impressive part of the trip
was the discussions held by the SUN members returning from Chicago.
15 SUN folks, all inspired to bring that enthusiasm and desire for
change back to the Salt City.
August 20, 2009
Fall 2009 Financial Justice Workshops
SUN’s Financial Justice Committee is pleased to announce:
Three Fall 2009 workshops designed to help neighborhood residents understand their credit, avoid the predatory loans designed to defraud families and become a first-time homebuyer.
These workshops are sponsored by SUN and run by our good friends at Cooperative Federal Credit Union. All workshops are to be held at the SUN office (1540 S. Salina St.) and run from 6 PM to 8 PM
Thursday September 24th: Understanding Your Credit
Learn the basics of credit–what’s a credit score, how your score is calculated, how you can improve your score. Also get a free credit report and personal consultation with a Cooperative Federal counselor.
Wednesday October 7th: Predatory Lending
Don’t get trapped by high-pressure salesman, pushing high interest rate, high fee loans. Protect yourself and your family’s budget.
Monday November 9th: Understanding Your Credit
Learn the basics of credit–what’s a credit score, how your score is calculated, how you can improve your score. Also get a free credit report and personal consultation with a Cooperative Federal counselor.
Please reserve your seats now–classes are limited to 10 people. Please call SUN at 476-7475 and we will reserve your place and get the information necessary to have your credit report available for your personal consultation after the workshop.
There is a $5 fee that is required before the workshop–it will be refunded when you attend.
July 20, 2009
SUN quoted in Buffalo News
Amanda Pascall, SUN member and head of our Financial Justice Committee, had part of her comments at the recent meeting with representatives from the Federal Reserve in Buffalo quoted in a 7/20/09 article in the Buffalo News:
We’ve been dealing with this crisis for the last six to eight years, said Amanda Pascall of Syracuse United Neighbors. This is nothing new for us. We’ve been seeing people kicked out of their houses. And don’t forget, they were targeted by those crooks.
July 17, 2009
Jimmie Jackson from SUN Meets The Fed
SUN Attends Meeting With Federal Reserve In Buffalo
Originally uploaded by Syracuse United Neighbors
SUN Member Jimmie Jackson meets Anna Alvarez Boyd, Associate Director
of the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
SUN Hits The Road: Buffalo, NY
SUN hit the road on July 16th and took 18 members to Buffalo, N.Y. We took part in one of nine meetings being held across the country this summer with representatives from the Federal Reserve. The Fed is the nation’s most powerful financial institution, helping to set the nation’s interest rates, controlling its money supply, overseeing compliance the Community Reinvestment Act and loaning money to help banks and other institutions remain solvent.
This series of community meetings arose as a demand of the
neighborhood groups making up National People’s Action: including
SUN. The meetings will afford community groups to discuss the
problems low income neighborhoods face with mortgage foreclosures
and vacant houses with representatives of the nation’s most powerful financial institution.
The Fed serves as the nation’s central bank, loaning money to banks
across the country, helping banks maintain enough money to function.
The Fed was the agency that authorized the massive bailouts of banks
and the insurance company AIG this past year. Community groups are concerned that this kind of effort and support to corporations is not
being extended to homeowners, tenants and other victims of the
meltdown of the nation’s housing market.
In the afternoon, SUN joined members of PUSH Buffalo for a tour
of Buffalo neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosures and vacant houses.
In the evening, Amanda Pascall from SUN’s Financial Justice committee
was on a panel at a public meeting with the representatives from the
Fed to talk about SUN’s efforts to protect our neighborhoods from foreclosures and vacant houses.
April 17, 2008
SUN Fights To Stop Mortgage Foreclosures
15 SUN members and staff attended the 36th annual National People’s
Action conference
in Washington, DC April 12-14th. The big issue for SUN, as well as
for over 500
grassroots neighborhood leaders from across the country was to stem
the tide of mortgage
foreclosures that are hitting our neighborhoods.
SUN and NPA were busy this weekend. Protests at the White House, the
Federal Reserve
and the home of Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke all demanded
the same thing:
work as hard to help the homeowners and neighborhoods, as you did
when you bailed
out Wall St. investment bankers and hedge fund managers.
The crowd pictured below is talking with a top aide to Federal
Reserve chair Bernanke
on the front steps of the Fed. As a result of our protests, the Fed
has agreed to schedule
a meeting representatives from NPA affiliated groups.
September 27, 2007
Save The American Dream
SUN Board Chair Maria Johnson and Amanda Pascall, co-chair of SUN’s Financial Justice Task Force, attended a rally in Cleveland, Ohio on Wednesday to help launch a new campaign by National People’s Action to help families avoid losing their homes to mortgage foreclosures.
Representatives from neighborhood groups in Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Wichita and statewide coalitions from Iowa and Central Illinois stood on a homeowner’s porch on E. 113th Street in Cleveland to announce the Save The American Dream campaign. Groups from across the country will be working to get subprime lenders such as Countrywide and Wells Fargo to voluntarily freeze all pending resets of adjustable rate mortgages for a period of two years. This simple action will allow struggling borrowers the time needed to refinance their loans, keeping mortgages affordable and families in their homes.
Why rally in Cleveland? The zip code 44105 has more foreclosures per capita than any zip code in America. Over 4,000 families have lost their homes in 2007 in Cleveland. The homeowner on E. 113th Street has a loan with Countrywide. Despite repeated assurances from the company that they will help, Countrywide continues to stall and does nothing to help this homeowner.
The campaign will include future Town Hall meetings and other activities in cities across the country, including here in Syracuse. If you have a mortgage that you are having trouble paying (especially if it is with Countrywide or Wells Fargo), call SUN at 476-7475.
September 19, 2007
Fall Financial Literacy Workshops
SUN and Cooperative Federal Credit Union are pleased to announce the schedule for our Fall 2007 Financial Literacy Workshops:
Buying A House
6 PM Wednesday, September 26th at Mundy Library, S. Geddes at Rowland Sts. (just 3 blocks south of Delaware St.)
Everything you need to know about buying a house for you and your family: cost, inspections, closings and more!
Repairing Your Credit
6 PM Thursday, October 25th at Brady Faith Center 404 South Ave. (across from SW Community Center)
How to get your credit report, how to read it, how to correct errors, how to improve your credit score.
The Best Mortgage For You
6 PM Tuesday, November 26th at the SUN Office, 1540 S. Salina St. at W. Kennedy St.
Buy a home without getting ripped off. What you need to know about bad loans, hidden fees and scams.
Call SUN at 476-7475 to reserve your seat at any (or all) of these workshops!
