For Immediate Release: April 12, 2012
Contact: Raf Noboa y Rivera, raf@fitzgibbonmedia.com, (202) 455-4673M

99% Power To Target Shareholder Meetings
With Direct Action; Demand Economic Equality

This spring, more than 10,000 activists will target shareholder meetings across this country with direct action in the largest mobilization against corporate shareholder meetings ever. The effort, called 99% Power, will demand an economy and a democracy that works for all of us, not just for the 1%.

Starting this month, thousands of people will be inside and outside more than three-dozen corporate shareholder meetings across the country, including Wells Fargo, General Electric, Verizon, Bank of America, Sallie Mae, Wal-Mart and more.

99% Power is a coalition that includes workers and retirees, families fighting foreclosure and the unemployed, students, immigrants and environmentalists.

You can learn more about the coalition and the mobilizations here: www.the99power.org.

“This spring, Americans from all walks of life will come together around a shared vision of a new bottom line that includes the health and well-being of workers, communities and the environment,” said George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action and co-founder of The New Bottom Line. “Under the broad banner of 99% Power, thousands of people will engage in mobilizations and nonviolent direct action leading up to and at the shareholder meetings of dozens of corporations.”

“The task of our time is to reign in the unchecked corporate power undermining the health of our country and our environment,” said Rainforest Action Network’s executive director Rebecca Tarbotton. “What if our government worked not for the highest corporate bidder but for the highest interests of its people and the planet? That is the promise and potential 99% Power is fighting for. Our demands for economic and ecological sanity are not only reasonable, they are essential and they are popular.”

“More and more people are acknowledging that the change we need won’t come from Washington, abusive corporations, or bailed out banks. This spring, the 99% is uniting to learn the lessons of history, and confront the people responsible for standing in the way of change,” said Sarita Gupta, Executive Director of Jobs with Justice.

Among the many things 99% Power is fighting for this spring and summer are:

• Corporations funding their fair share in taxes;
• Corporations funding the future — not pillaging it;
• Corporations creating, instead of killing, good jobs in our communities;
• Rebuilding our communities by restoring our homes and resetting the economy;
• Getting corporate money out of our democracy.

In the lead up to shareholder meetings, thousands of people will participate in escalating mobilizations targeting corporate executives, board members, offices and more.

For more information, please contact Raf Noboa y Rivera, raf@fitzgibbonmedia.com, (202) 455-4673

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