Protesters around the US fed up with banks

MichaelMoore.com : Protesters around the U.S. fed up with banks

April 12th, 2009 8:41 am
Protesters around the U.S. fed up with banks

By Amanda Vergel de Dios / Golden Gate X-Press

In front of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, a group of protesters gathered Saturday to voice anger towards the banks, believing their rampant greed destroyed the economy.

San Francisco and 46 other cities in the United States and Canada took part in mass protests to break up the power of the banks that caused the current financial crisis. The mass protests were organized by a group called A New Way Forward.

About a hundred people came to the Federal Reserve Bank to protest the collapse of the economy.

"The same people who got us into this mess are also in charge of getting us out," said Bob Niederman, protester outside the bank. "It's going to lead us into a depression. They should let the banks go bankrupt and start all over."

The campaign is focused on demanding structural change to the financial industry, advocating for a "nationalize-reorganize-decentralize" economic exit strategy and a call to "break up the banks," according to the press release by A New Way Forward group.

The economic exit strategy calls for no more taxpayer handouts, the removal of current CEO's and board members and the need for current banks to break up and new banks to be managed by new people.

"I'm fed up with taxes going to CEO bonuses instead of health care and education and help for people becoming homeless," said one organizer, Phoebe Sorgen. "What deregulation has meant is a nation of desperation," she said.

Students from SF State and City College of San Francisco also came to support opposition towards the banks.

"We see a connection between the crisis in our education and the national economic crisis," said Lacei Amodei, a history major at SF State. "We're angry at the way Sacramento and D.C. has chosen how to handle it."

Amodei believes the two capitals are handling the situation in a very undemocratic way.

"They are just taking money directly out of the hands of working people and students and giving it to the banks," said the 22-year-old.