Deutsche Bank | Be a Seed for Change

Richmond, CA 2 – Wall Street 0.

Richmond, CA struggling families 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), the City Council voted 4-3 to move forward with the Richmond CARES program despite the huge attacks from Wall Street bankers against it. 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.
For the first time since they destroyed our economy, Wall Street bankers have had a significant defeat and more cities are gearing up to join in. The Home Defenders League has set up a page to raise funds for these fights. Can you chip in $20 to help us take this fight to new cities around the country?

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 LPR and 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 Action for the Common Good and HDL partner the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (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 chip in $20 so we can work with other cities ready to stand up for their struggling families as well?
We’re really proud of how you, the Home Defenders League and ACCE 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 victories.
In Solidarity,

Brian Kettenring, Executive Director, Action for the Common Good

PS. Here’s a great description of the City Council vote and victory from Prof. Peter Drier writing in the Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/california-defies-wall-st_b_3909022.html
And here’s the Los Angeles Times on the court case: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-eminent-domain-20130912,0,5887953.story
http://www.campaignforfairsettlement.org/

With your help over the last year, six of the largest banks in the world have cut their financing of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR).

http://www.ran.org/mtr

Sadly, a RAN report released today shows that Citi, PNC, Deutsche Bank and UBS are still asleep as mountains across Appalachia are destroyed forever.

So we’re going BIG and we’re getting louder. We’ve partnered with actress Susan Sarandon to issue a major wake up call about the tragedy of mountaintop removal. Watch this incredible video and send it to bank CEOs today.

Our mountains, our forests and the health of Appalachian communities are being sacrificed. It’s time for banks to stop financing MTR completely.

Send this important video to bank CEOs and tell them to stop funding the destruction of America’s mountains. http://www.ran.org/mtr

As Ms. Sarandon says, “Families across Appalachia need our help. Mountaintop removal is an American tragedy…an unnecessary, outdated practice with no place in our clean energy future.”

Show these banks what’s really at stake when they choose to do business with MTR coal companies. http://www.ran.org/mtr

Thanks for taking action with us. We couldn’t do it without you.

For the mountains,

Amanda Starbuck

Energy Finance Campaign