(MintPress)— Occupy Wall Street is developing new tactics for getting its message across to big banks and corporations which it says aren’t paying their fair share after getting big bailouts from taxpayers.
Members of the movement have begun buying shares in various corporations, including Wells Fargo and General Electric, and then attending their annual shareholders meeting to publicly protest their policies and practices which the protesters say perpetuate economic disparities.
The new tactic is being undertaken after many of the Occupy encampments in cities across the U.S. were forced to disperse by officials during the fall and winter months.
The new efforts are part of a re-focused form of civil disobedience aimed at drawing attention to various social inequalities.
Protesters stepped up efforts in San Francisco on Tuesday, calling on Wells Fargo & Co. and objecting to skyrocketing home foreclosures and asking for the resignation of the company’s CEO. The chief exec is reported to have received $19.8 million in compensation last year, despite the fact that Wells Fargo has been the recipient of dozens of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts.
And on Wednesday, Occupy demonstrators gathered outside of the General Electric Co’s shareholder meeting in Detroit, demanding the company pay its “fair share” of taxes.
Occupy targets Wells Fargo in San Francisco
Demonstrators convened in the city from across the country earlier this week. Dozens of them who had purchased stock in Wells Fargo were barred from attending the company’s annual shareholders meeting.
Protesters gathered outside the Merchant’s Exchange Building in the city’s financial hub chanting, “We are the 99 percent! Let us in!”
At least 24 people were arrested, including 15 for disrupting the meeting of nearly 300 people. Protesters charge that the bank unfairly barred shareholders with ties to the movement from entering the meeting.
A press release on the event from Good Jobs USA, a California-based activist group with ties to the Occupy movement, said that “Wells Fargo restricted entry to the community shareholders with barricades, claiming they were filled to capacity while they continued to let in shareholders that were not part of the protest through a side door. Wells Fargo also packed the room with its own employees so as to allow no room for additional shareholders to access the meeting, making inaccurate claims about the meeting room’s capacity.”
Ruben Pulido a Wells Fargo spokesman, said the company respected the protesters’ right to gather, but was working to keep its customers, employees and shareholders safe.
“Wells Fargo is also a major player in the predatory payday lending industry and has dodged more taxes than any other company since the financial crisis began in 2008, holding back funds that could help put America back to work,” Good Jobs USA said. In addition to members from its group, Causa Justa, a multi-racial, grassroots organization building community leadership to achieve justice for low-income San Francisco residents and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment were represented at the protest.
“Groups working on disparate issues are finding common ground and a common culprit in Wells Fargo in response to corporate America’s continued profiteering and excess in the ongoing financial crisis it helped to create,” the organizations said.
Present at the protest were homeowners facing foreclosure, immigrant rights activists, faith organizations and labor groups from around the country.
Activist shareholders
Shareholder William Brittendall, executive director of the Peace and Social Justice Center in Wichita, Kan., told the Associated Press, “The 99 percent is tired of always getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop. They haven’t felt an impact like this before.”
Another shareholder, Ross Rhodes, 53, of San Francisco, hoped to persuade Wells Fargo to help save his family home from foreclosure, AP reported. The family has lived there for nearly half a century. Rhodes had fallen behind in payments since the recent economic downturn, but the home care provider said he’s back on his feet and wants to renegotiate with the bank modified loan and a mortgage he can afford.
“I don’t want to lose my home. I need them to come back to the table and work with me so I can make good,” Rhodes said. “All I’m asking for is a fair shake. That’s all we’re asking for.”
But Pulido defended the bank’s policies, stating, “We work to keep people in their homes where there is affordability. Unfortunately some people have seen their incomes drastically reduced due to unemployment or underemployment.”
Erik Crew, 30, a Cincinnati-based shareholder, said that demonstrators shouted that Wells Fargo should pay its fair share of corporate taxes. “This is a public statement that raises awareness to hold Wells Fargo more accountable,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot more intervention from other entities who will threaten to pull their money out of Wells Fargo in order to claim victory.”
Other issues the protestors took up include Wells Fargo’s investing in private prisons and calling for moratorium on home foreclosures.
Wells Fargo is the nation’s largest mortgage servicer, and the group called on the bank to provide major new homeowner relief with principal reduction on a scale that approaches the $300 billion in negative home equity that exists in the U.S. Nationwide.
There are currently an estimated 11 million homeowners who are “underwater” – and owe more on their mortgage than the value of their homes.
Crew was said he was arrested at the meeting, but believed that it was a success in that it drew attention to the aforementioned issues.
Targeting General Electric
Protesters also picketed outside of General Electric Co. in Detroit on Wednesday, demanding that the company pay its “fair share” of taxes.
Several dozen protesters who were allowed into the annual shareholder meeting were removed by security after shouting “pay your fair share” when GE CEO Jeff Immelt began speaking.
Members from the “99%” group, whose name is a nod to the contrast between the wealthiest 1 percent of the American population, expected to rally over 2,000 protesters at the event.
“It’s the 99 percent and we want to serve notice to the 1 percent that it’s time to start paying your fair share in taxes and being a little more responsible,” Christian Gary, an organizer with Good Jobs Now in Detroit, told the Huffington Post.
The group also charged, “The significant tax breaks received by GE, not enjoyed by the average American, could have gone to benefit the infrastructure and social services of our communities,” according to a statement posted on their’ website.
It also provided information detailing the stories of some of those who traveled to Michigan to protest from across the country, such as 22-year-old Shyquetta Mcelroy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She estimated that she is one of 300 protesters from the state. Mcelroy was unemployed for a year and a half, but recently found temporary employment doing data entry.
“I came to Detroit to face GE to let them know that I shouldn’t have to lose my health care, I shouldn’t have to pick which kids get kicked off health care, and shouldn’t have to go without good paying jobs AND have to pay a high tax rate all because they won’t pay their fair share,” Mcelroy said. “I was one of those taxpayers who gave GE a bailout so they could create jobs, and I’m still waiting.”
The group’s say that GE’s low 2010 and 2009 tax rates were unfair. The company recorded $14.15 billion in net earnings last year, a 22 percent increase from 2010. The company says its low tax rates were a result of heavy losses at its GE Capital arm during the financial crisis. However, a 2011 report by Citizens for Tax Justice claimed GE had an effective negative tax rate from 2008 through 2010. The company has disputed the findings of the report.
This isn’t the first time Occupy and affiliate groups has targeted big companies though. MintPress previously reported that in late January, Occupy protesters temporarily closed Wells Fargo’s headquarters branch in San Francisco, shutting down traffic in the city’s financial district.
Another group, 99 % Power, has said that the effort in San Francisco was part of a campaign to stage demonstrations at 36 shareholder meetings, beginning with the bank.
It will next target companies including Verizon, Bank of America, Sallie Mae and Wal-Mart.