Continued...

The New “Alignment”

Wall Street bankers crashed the economy, but none of them have been held accountable for their crimes. They have not paid to fix what they broke, and they continue to duck from paying their fair share of taxes. The result: a shrinking middle class, widening gaps in wealth inequality, and our most vulnerable populations spiraling into deeper debt, wealth loss, and joblessness.

Two years ago, at the height of the economic collapse, National People’s Action, the PICO National Network, IAF Southeast, and SEIU started to work together to do something about this.

What started as informal, ad hoc coordination has now grown into The New Bottom Line, an alignment that is operating with an unprecedented level of strategic collaboration in dozens of states, with hundreds of organizers on the ground, representing well over 1,000 organizations. In addition to the original organizations, the Alliance for a Just Society, the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and others joined the mix to guide the founding of The New Bottom Line. While SEIU is not an official member of The New Bottom Line, SEIU and other unions have been integral parts of local campaigns across the country, and nationally, SEIU has provided critical research support to the campaign.

Over the last two years these groups have coordinated hundreds of actions, big and small, ranging from the “Showdown in Chicago” demonstration during the annual American Bankers Association meeting in 2009 to occupying bank branches, passing blight ordinances, and carrying out home defender work that forces banks to modify mortgages and keep people in their homes.

In the last year, these groups have officially joined together under the banner of The New Bottom Line to hold Wall Street accountable for the ongoing economic crisis facing working families and communities in the United States and to forge a new economy that works for all.

United, these groups are working to:

• Restructure Wall Street in a way that helps families build wealth, closes growing income and wealth gaps, and addresses the structural wealth disparities that exist along racial lines.
• Reclaim and shift our nation’s politics toward a serious conversation about what it will take to restore economic opportunity for all.
• Energize and activate millions of people to advance a vision for a “new bottom line” that reinstills basic values of fairness and economic security as the basis for a new economy.