Here’s the score. The people of Richmond 2, Wall Street criminals 0! With your help, we did it! We beat back the Wall Street-led campaign of threats, litigation, and a full-scale election-style campaign to end Richmond, CA’s program to help underwater homeowners in that city, using eminent domain if necessary. On Tuesday night (well, really Wednesday morning), in an auditorium packed with hundreds of community members, many of them in bright yellow ACCE t-shirts, the City Council voted 4-3 to move forward with the Richmond CARES local principal reduction program plan that has inspired hope nationwide. That was the first victory this week and it is a really big deal. The importance of this victory cannot be overstated. If the lies and fear mongering of Wall Street bankers had been allowed to intimidate Richmond’s City Council into backing down, the entire Local Principal Reduction idea would have collapsed. Instead, the movement is spreading. This week, San Francisco Supervisor Campos announced a resolution standing in solidarity with Richmond and exploring a similar program there. And in Seattle, more than 30 groups came together in the Reset Seattle Coalition and packed the Seattle City Council to launch an LPR campaign there, too. Please take a moment to send an email of thanks to the Mayor of Richmond, Gayle McLaughlin, and the three other City Councilors – Jovanka Beckles, Tom Butt, and Jael Myrick – for standing up to Wall Street criminals and standing with Richmond’s underwater homeowners. The second big victory from this week came on Thursday, when US District Court Judge Charles Breyer declined to grant an injunction – filed by Well Fargo and Deutsche Bank – to stop Richmond CARES before it even got started. Your help in this fight has been critical. Nearly 25,000 of you signed petitions supporting Richmond and over 250 of you called Wells Fargo’s CEO to tell him to drop his lawsuit against the city. 300 people showed up at the vote on Tuesday, including over 150 from ACCE, and the vast majority of them praised the Council for taking this bold step and urged them to move forward with the program. Can you thank the Mayor and three City Councilors who stood with the people of Richmond? We’re really proud of how ACCE and its allies were able to beat back the bankers’ attack and ensure that Richmond did the right thing. Thank you for standing up to Wall Street and being a part of this historic week of progress. salsa.wiredforchange/o/6267/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=8571 ~xan
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 08:04:25 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015