Tomorrow Walmart is hosting their giant annual meeting in Arkansas to plot the next moves for the world’s biggest retailer.

Chances are high Walmart will pledge higher salaries for top executives, keep paying their associates incredibly low wages, and set course for spreading more big box, scandal-ridden, community-destroying stores across the planet.

The 99% will be standing up to Walmart’s unbelievable greed in the streets of Fayetteville — but we also want to help paint a picture of the world we want. So we’re asking folks to use this Friday to shout-out your favorite local business on Twitter.

What stores give you delight, provide jobs, and strengthen your local economy? What coffee shops, book store, auto-mechanic, dance club, burrito-maker do you just love–and wish your friends would check out? 

Tomorrow: please take a moment to shout-out your favorite local businesses. Just add #FF as well as the hashtags #NotWalmart and #99Power. And if you can fit it: #WMTshares

For example: you might tweet:

Today is Walmart’s Shareholder Mtg, so I’m shouting out my fav local businesses. #FF: @_______ @_______ @______ #NotWalmart #99Power

What’s #FollowFriday? It’s a Twitter tradition of using Fridays to recommended your favorite accounts on Twitter — and encourage your other friends to follow them too.

Thanks so much for giving this a whirl! We saw this morning that 99% pressure is making a real difference — when Walmart withdrew from ALEC. SO let’s make tomorrow HUGE, as we build up our communities and keep the heat in the streets.

Send us your tweets to @the99power and we’ll try to retweet you!

Tomorrow (Thursday) — there’s going to be a awesome protest at Sallie Mae’s annual shareholder meeting in Newark, Deleware. Buses will be rolling in with fed up students from DC to Philly, from Florida to New Jersey.

For those of who can’t make the Sallie Mae protest–you can help us take a stand on Twitter.

It turns out there are lots of students who tweet about their personal grievances with SallieMae everyday. So, we’re launching a skunk Twitter account tomorrow to reach out to students, and invite them to join the campaign to fight back.

We’re looking for a few volunteers to take 2-hours shifts throughout the day to helm this account and keep it running. We will provide a guide, sample tweets, and a support network.

A few weeks ago, a volunteer #99Power team reached out to hundreds of Bank of America customers on Twitter, and gave them really good reasons to move their money, and get involved. It was an awesome success!

Why be mighty upset at Sallie Mae?

“As graduation approaches for many college students this spring, the outlook for post-graduation will be dire. Instead of, “What do you plan to do next?” the questions are: “How much student debt are you graduating with?” or “Do you think you’ll be able to find a job?” The situation has grown grim for recent graduates. On top of 1 out of every 2 graduates being jobless or unemployed, students will graduate with an average of $25,000 in debt this year. On April 25th, student debt even surpassed the one trillion dollar mark – making student debt larger than credit card debt and auto loans.

The largest profiteer off of student debt, Sallie Mae, has been leading the crusade to make a buck off of students suffering the worst economic recession since the 1920’s. Already spending over one million dollars on lobbying in 2012, Sallie Mae has been one of the most aggressive lobbyists on the Hill using money received from students, to allow private lenders to use predatory practices, including hidden fees that further bury students in debt.

Student debt has spiraled out of control and now students are demanding debt forgiveness! May 24th students, workers, and recent graduates will be gathering in Newark, Delaware to confront Sallie Mae CEO Albert Lord and demand student debt forgiveness and that they keep their corporate money out of our democracy.” -Student Labor Action Project

Join the Facebook event in solidarity: http://www.facebook.com/events/231740240270141/

We’re halfway through the 99% Spring! Let’s discuss how far we’ve come, where we’re at, and where we go from here.

Join us at 3pm EST for one-hour online chat on Facebook!

We want to use this chat as a moment to reflect on being midway through an incredibly momentous Spring of 99% actions, explore the momentum we’ve created, discuss challenges we face, and look ahead together. All are invited to participate in the conversation!

Technically, the way this will work will be rather simple. We’ll post an update on The 99 Power Facebook Page, and invite folks to participate in the chat in the comments of that update. Stay tuned–we’ll post the update at 3pm EST sharp:  http://www.facebook.com/the99power

Thank you featured guests:

Tracy Van Slyke, The New Bottom Line
Cathy Sherwin, AFLCIO
Austin Thompson, SEIU
Jeremy Brecher, Writer for The Nation
Jonathan Williams, Student Labor

Talk to you soon!

SUCCESS! – Check out the screengrabs of a full day of serving truth to Bank of America customers on Twitter!  

We have an idea for an experiment — and would love your help.

Everyday, dozens of people complain about Bank of America’s customer service on Twitter. What if we reached out to them and told them why they should be really upset?

Here’s what happens on an average day: The Bank of America team scans Twitter for people who have unhappy interactions with their bank. When they find someone who’s upset, they write to them on their special account, @BofA_Help, and try to make things better.

Here’s what we’d like to happen on Wednesday: What if the 99% scanned Twitter for mentions of Bank of America, and let people know that their little problem is part of something huge. What if we let them know why massive protests are happening outside BofA’s annual shareholder meeting in Charlotte? What if we maybe convinced a few customers to join our campaign?

What if we helped the Bank of America customer service & PR teams realize that they have real crises to deal with: like being the #1 bank behind illegal and immoral home foreclosures & being the #1 driver of climate change, by continuing to invest in dirty coal?

Together, we can use our tweets for the ultimate Bank vs. America online battle. And together, we’ll give some good solidarity to the thousands who will be in the streets on Wednesday.

If we’re going to make this happen, we’re going to need a few volunteers (to take short shifts during the day, etc.). We will train and support all the folks who sign up to help out with this.

If you’re interested in helping out, please fill out this quick form, and we’ll be in touch pronto!

This Wednesday the 99 Power campaign is hosting a Twitter Chat about the fight for economic justice & reclaiming our democracy.

What: Twitter Chat (just use the #99power hashtag to join the conversation — track the chat here)
When: 2-3pm EST
Where: Twitter.com (it’s never too late to create an account)

This morning, thousands of activists, homeowners shareholders, and everyday fed-up neighbors will descend on Wells Fargo’s mega annual shareholder meeting in San Francisco. This action will be the biggest demonstration of the “99% Spring” we’ve seen to date.

Wherever you are: you can help support this action — by tweeting @WellsFargo on Twitter. We’ve made it easy–just pick a message below, and click “Tweet This”.

• Hey @WellsFargo, How come you’re charging a new monthly checking fee–but still haven’t started paying your fair share of taxes? [Tweet this with one click]
  
• Hey @WellsFargo, I helped bail you out w/ $43.7 billion in US taxes — why are you kicking thousands of families out of their homes? [Tweet this with one click]
  
• Hey @WellsFargo, Is it true that you make millions off of people being sent to prison? Something doesn’t sound right about that! [Tweet this with one click]
  
• Hey @WellsFargo, is it true that you took a $43.7 billion taxpayer bailout and paid us back by cutting 6k jobs? [Tweet this with one click]
  
• Hey @WellsFargo, I pay taxes every year, and it’s time for you to pay your fair share too [Tweet this with one click]
  
• Hey @WellsFargo, how much did you make in profits by kicking people out of their homes last year? [Tweet this with one click]

Keep an eye on the action by following @The99Power, scanning “#99Power” & “#WFShareholders” or by visiting StopWellsFargo.com.

Thank you for your solidarity!