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Reposted from Senator Bernie Sander’s new Report, “Meet the Wall Street and Corporate Tax Dodgers“:

On February 7, 2013, Senator Bernie Sanders is introducing legislation to crack down on Wall Street and corporate tax avoiders that are avoiding tens of billions in taxes every year by shifting profits to the Cayman Islands and other tax havens. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is introducing the companion bill in the House.

Chart: Jason Easley, PoliticsUSA

The Business Roundtable represents some of the largest Wall Street and corporate tax avoiders in the country. Recently, the Business Roundtable came out with a plan to raise the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security to 70, cut Social Security and veterans’ benefits, and increase taxes on working families.

Many of the corporations and Wall Street banks represented by the Business Roundtable have:

avoided more than $128 billion in taxes by setting up over 500 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other offshore tax havens since 2008;
received more than $6.5 billion in tax refunds from the IRS, after making billions in profits;
outsourced hundreds of thousands of American jobs to China and other low wage countries, forcing their workers to receive unemployment insurance and other federal benefits; and
received a total taxpayer bailout of more than $2.5 trillion from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department and nearly caused the economy to collapse over four years ago.

Instead of cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits, it is time for these corporate and Wall Street tax dodgers to pay their fair share in taxes and bring jobs back home to America.

Here are just a few examples of how the corporations and Wall Street banks these CEOs work for have significantly harmed our economy and the federal budget:

1. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan
Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? 371.

In 2010, Bank of America operated 371 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens. 204 of these subsidiaries are incorporated in the Cayman Islands, which has a corporate tax rate of 0%.
Amount of federal income taxes Bank of America would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.5 billion.
Bank of America has stashed $18.5 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Bank of America would owe an estimated $2.5 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $1.9 billion tax refund.
Bank of America received a $1.9 billion tax refund from the IRS in 2010, even though it made $4.4 billion in profits.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? Over $1.3 trillion.
During the financial crisis, Bank of America received a total of more than $1.3 trillion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $45 billion bailout from the Treasury Department.

2. JP Morgan Chase CEO James Dimon
Number of Offshore Tax Havens in 2010? 83.

In 2010, JP Morgan Chase operated 83 subsidiaries incorporated in offshore tax havens.
Amount of federal income taxes JP Morgan Chase would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.9 billion
JP Morgan Chase has stashed $21.8 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid payng income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $4.9 billion in federal income taxes.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $416 billion. During the financial crisis, JP Morgan Chase received a total of more than $391
billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $25 billion bailout from the Treasury Department, while Jamie DImon served as a director of the New York Federal Reserve.

3. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2008? Zero. $278 million tax refund.

In 2008, Goldman Sachs received a $278 million refund from the IRS, even though it earned a profit of $2.3 billion that year.
Number of offshore tax havens in 2010? 39.
In 2010, Goldman Sachs operated 39 subsidiaries in offshore tax haven countries.
Amount of federal income taxes Goldman Sachs would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $3.32 billion.
Goldman Sachs has stashed $20.63 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid payng income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $3.32 billion in federal income taxes.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department? $824 billion.
During the financial crisis, Goldman Sachs received a total of $814 billion in virtually zero interest loans from the Federal Reserve and a $10 billion bailout from the Treasury Department.

4. General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt
Number of offshore tax havens? At least 14.

GE has at least 14 tax haven subsidiaries in Bermuda, Singapore, and Luxembourg for the purpose of avoiding U.S. income taxes.
Amount of federal income taxes General Electric would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $35.7 billion.
GE has stashed $102 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $35.7 billion more in federal income taxes.
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $3.3 billion tax refund. In 2010, not only did General Electric pay no federal income taxes, it received a $3.3 billion tax refund from the IRS, even though it earned over $5 billion in U.S. profits.
Taxpayer Bailout from the Federal Reserve? $16 billion.
During the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve provided GE with $16 billion in financial assistance, at a time when Jeffrey Immelt was a director of the New York Federal Reserve.
Jobs Shipped Overseas? At least 25,000 since 2001.
Since 2001, General Electric has closed more than 30 manufacturing plants in the United States, cut 34,000 American jobs, and added 25,000 jobs overseas. General Electric now has more workers abroad than it does in the United States.
On December 6, 2002, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, said at an investor’s meeting: “When I am talking to GE managers, I talk China, China, China, China, China. You need to be there. You need to change the way people talk about it and how they get there. I am a nut on China. Outsourcing from China is going to grow to $5 billion. We are building a tech center in China. Every discussion today has to center on China. The cost basis is extremely attractive. You can take an 18 cubic foot refrigerator, make it in China, land it in the United States, and land it for less than we can make an 18 cubic foot refrigerator today, ourselves.” -Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman, CEO of General Electric, quoted at an investor meeting on December 6, 2002.

5. Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? Zero. $705 million tax refund.

In 2010, Verizon received a $705 million refund from the IRS despite earning $11.9 billion in pre-tax U.S. profits.
Amount of federal income taxes Verizon would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $525 million.
Verizon has stashed $1.5 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Verizon would owe an estimated $525 million in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.
American Jobs Cut in 2010? In 2010, Verizon announced 13,000 job cuts, the third highest corporate layoff total that year.

6. Honeywell International CEO David Cote
Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $34 million tax refund.

From 2008 through 2010, not only did Honeywell pay no federal income taxes, it received a $34 million tax refund from the IRS, even though it earned over $4.9 billion in U.S. profits during those years.
Amount of federal income taxes Honeywell would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.835 billion.
Honeywell has stashed $8.1 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Honeywell would owe an estimated $2.835 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

7. Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2009? Zero. $55 million tax refund.

In 2009, not only did Merck pay no federal income taxes, it received a $55 million tax refund from the IRS, even though it earned more than $5.7 billion in U.S. profits.
Amount of federal income taxes Merck would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $15.5 billion.
Merck has stashed $44.3 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $15.5 billion more in federal income taxes.

8. Corning CEO Wendell Weeks
Amount of federal income taxes paid from 2008-2010? Zero. $4 million tax refund.

From 2008 through 2010, not only did Corning pay no federal income taxes, it received a $4 million tax refund from the IRS, even though it earned nearly $2 billion in U.S. profits during those years.
Amount of federal income taxes Corning would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $3.78 billion.
Corning has stashed $10.8 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Corning would owe an estimated $3.78 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

9. Boeing CEO James McNerney, Jr.
Amount of federal income taxes paid in 2010? None. $124 million tax refund.

Boeing, which received a $30 billion contract from the Pentagon to build 179 airborne tankers, got a $124 million refund from the IRS in 2010.
Amount of federal income taxes Boeing would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $66 million.
Boeing would owe an estimated $66 million more in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.
American Jobs Shipped overseas? Over 57,000.
Since 1994, more than 57,000 Americans lost their jobs at Boeing as a result of overseas outsourcing or rising imports.
Amount of Corporate Welfare? At least $58 billion.
Boeing received over $58 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans and loan guarantees from the Export-Import since 1994.

10. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
Amount of federal income taxes Microsoft would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $19.4 billion.

Microsoft has stashed over $60 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid 19.4 billion more in federal income taxes.

11. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs
Amount of federal income taxes Qualcomm would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $5.8 billion.

Qualcomm has stashed $16.4 billion in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $5.8 billion more in federal income taxes.

12. Caterpillar CEO Douglas Oberhelman
Amount of federal income taxes Caterpillar would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $4.55 billion.

Caterpillar has stashed $13 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Caterpillar would owe an estimated $4.55 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

13. Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers
Amount of federal income taxes Cisco would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $14.455 billion.

Cisco has stashed $41.3 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Cisco would owe an estimated $14.455 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

14. Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris
Amount of federal income taxes Dow Chemical would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $3.5 billion.

Dow has stashed $10 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Dow would owe an estimated $3.5 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

15. Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld
Amount of federal income taxes Alcoa would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $2.9 billion.

Alcoa has stashed $8.3 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. Alcoa would owe an estimated $2.9 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

16. Stanley Black & Decker CEO John Lundgren
Amount of federal income taxes Stanley Black & Decker would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $1.26 billion.

Stanley Black & Decker has stashed $3.6 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. They would owe an estimated $1.26 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

17. Motorola Solutions CEO Greg Brown
Amount of federal income taxes Motorola Solutions would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $350 million.

Motorola Solutions has stashed $1 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. They would owe an estimated $350 million in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

18. Tenneco CEO Gregg Sherill
Amount of federal income taxes Tenneco would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $269 million.

Tenneco has stashed over $698 million in offshore tax haven countries to avoid payng income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $269 million in federal income taxes.

19. Express Scripts CEO George Paz
Amount of federal income taxes Express Scripts would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $19 million.

Express Scripts has stashed over $54 million in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid $19 million in federal income taxes.

20. Caesars Entertainment CEO Gary Loveman
Amount of federal income taxes Caesars Entertainment would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $15 million.

Caesars Entertainment has stashed $42 million in offshore tax haven countries to avoid paying income taxes. If this practice was outlawed, it would have paid about $15 million more in federal income taxes.

21. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink
Amount of federal income taxes BlackRock would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $525 million.

BlackRock has stashed $1.5 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. BlackRock would owe an estimated $525 million in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

22. United Parcel Service (UPS) CEO D. Scott Davis
Amount of federal income taxes UPS would have owed if offshore tax havens were eliminated? $1.12 billion.

UPS has stashed $3.2 billion in offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. income taxes. UPS would owe an estimated $1.12 billion in federal income taxes if its use of offshore tax avoidance was eliminated.

NOTE:*All data in this blog is re-posted from Sen. Barney Frank’s report, “Meet the Top Wall Street and Corporate Tax Dodgers” released on Feb. 7, 2013. View the full report and full list of 31 corporations here.

TAKE ACTION:

Sign Global Exchange’s petition to Congress demanding an action to assert that corporations are not people and money is not speech. Corporations should have to pay taxes like all the rest of us! All of the above unethical avoidance of fair and legitimate corporate taxes are made possible and ‘legal’ through the undue influence of corporate lobbyists floating to off-shore tax havens on a sea of money in politics. Stand up with us to get Money OUT and Voters in!

2012 certainly hasn’t been boring! Thanks to you and the hundreds of other people who are part of the Elect Democracy campaign, we’ve taken action to free our democracy from the moneyed grip of corporate interests… Thank you.

Here are some Elect Democracy campaign highlights:

• “How Wall Street is Burning Democracy” Report and Legislative Scorecard: We made it easy to find out how much Wall Street gave to Congressional campaigns to check how often Congresspeople voted in line with Wall Street’s lobby position on free trade bills, Wall Street regulation, the bailout, and more. The Huffington Post, Yes! Magazine, Alternet, Nation of Change, Daily Kos, and dozens of other news outlets covering our shocking revelation that Wall Street spends over $1,331 per minute on political influence via lobbying and campaign money.

• RNC/DNC: We brought our legislative scorecard and report to Tampa and Charlotte where we marched on both conventions with our call to get corporate money out of our democracy.

• Stick It to Super PACs: Just days before the most expensive U.S. election of all time we used email, phone, and social media to clog the gears of the ominous Super PACs! GOOD magazine, Upworthy, and others helped us spread the message. Over 1,500 people Stuck It to Super PACs on October 25th! You can still take action here.

• Election Day: do you remember that exact moment when the election was called and we learned that Barack Obama would remain President? I do. What has this election meant to you? Leave a comment on our blog.

• #StopTPP: I joined social, labour and faith based groups on the US/Canada border earlier this month to stop the TransPacific Partnership. To learn more about this ominous, 13 country free trade deal (and our work to stop it), read my blog about the TPPxBorder rally we attended on the U.S.-Canada border.

All that and so much more! A great place to read all about it is our online Media Center which has a vast collection of articles about our work this year.

Next year, we have even more ways to take action. Elect Democracy is taking on the hired hands that call the shots in DC: big shot lobbyists. From challenging Super PAC millions to lobbyist billions, our work is going to be fun, tough, and more important than ever.

We’ll also need your help. Compared to the amount of money flowing from Wall Street to Washington, when you see all we have accomplished, we truly make the most of every penny.

Consider giving a Global Exchange membership to a friend this season and support Elect Democracy.

Again, thank you so much for your action. I look forward to starting 2013 with refreshed energy and refueled strategies.

Happy Holidays!

Over $629 million in Super PAC (Political Action Committee) spending didn’t sway U.S. voters as significantly as expected in this past election, but in the coming months will the billions spent in corporate lobbying sway Congress?

Lobbying is a multi-billion dollar industry. While it’s technically true that any constituent can go lobby or try to persuade their legislators, the vast majority of lobbying that is happening in our capitals is funded by -and promotes- corporate interests.

Tens of thousands of corporate lobbyists call the DC area home. Since 2008, Wall Street has spent over $2.2 billion on lobbying, largely in order to weaken and squirm out of financial regulations. Add in the pharmaceutical, HMO, agribusiness, business, oil & energy, and defense/militarism sectors and we’re talking nearly $4 billion since 2011 spent specifically to get corporations unprecedented (and undue) influence over all those folks we just elected into office.

In this year’s election, nearly $6 billion was spent to influence the 120 million votes of the American electorate. Compare that to the $2 billion spent lobbying by the top corporate sectors this year to influence a handful of decision-makers. No matter who gets into office, once the elections are over, corporations spend billions to influence the victor. While the corporate elite gave well-financed electioneering an old college try, now these interests will be lobbying harder than ever to influence the decisions of around 750 hundred key decision-makers (Congress, presidential administrators, and state and federal offices like the EPA, SEC and FDA) to get what they want directly from the people who can give it to them. If you were a greedy businessman, what would you do?

Sheldon Adelson may be lamenting, “I spent $60 million and all I got were these lousy House seats.” But now Adelson can just reroute money into lobbying, pay someone in a suit seven figures to put his feet up on the desk of a Congressperson, and still get a lot of what he wants, or at least less of what he doesn’t.

I don’t get to put my feet up on my Congressperson’s desk. I mean, I could try, but I would probably get in trouble. So why don’t lobbyists? They don’t deserve the proximity of influence and mental bandwidth of our elected leaders that their corporate-funded tactics afford them. Besides, these lobbyists usually aren’t even members of the constituencies that decision-makers were elected to represent!

Corporations are not people, and money is not speech. But the speech of people hired by corporations to do their bidding in Washington needs to be reined in. On the heels of an historical election and shifting political paradigm, we must be prepared in our civic activism to challenge corporate power plays beyond those unleashed by the Citizens United ruling. We must be vigilant in challenging the undue influence of corporate lobbyists. The voters and constituencies who just cleaned out DC expect integrity, and this means that legislators need to say NO to corporate lobbyists spoon-feeding them profit prioritizing policy and analysis… that’s not who they are elected to represent.

Voting truly does matter, but a healthy democracy requires ongoing participation.

If you want to take action to protect democracy now that the election has concluded, consider looking into Global Exchange’s Elect Democracy campaign and follow @ElectDemocracy and @GlobalExchange on Twitter.

See for yourself how much campaign money the last Congress received from Wall Street and their “Wall Street Loyalty Rate” based on how often their votes matched Wall Street’s lobby position. Most importantly, call your Congressperson and remind them that their job is to represent you, not lobbyists, in Congress.

Fact Sources:

SuperPACs spent $629 million: MapLight.org
Election cost $4.2 billion: Center for Responsive Politics: OpenSecrets.org
Lobbying costs: Center for Responsive Politics for a) $2.2 billion Wall Street in 2012, and b) $4 for top sector lobbying (opensecrets.org)

TAKE ACTION:

Make the Call! Call your Congressperson and remind them that their job is to represent you, not lobbyists, in Congress.
Leave a comment with your ideas about how to challenge the undue influence that corporate lobbyists have in DC.

“When the history is finally written, though, it’s likely all of this tumult – beginning with the Arab Spring – will be remembered as the opening salvo in a wave of negotiations over the dissolution of the American Empire.”
– David Graeber, the Guardian UK
“The White House is talking different because we are walking different.”
– Van Jones, Take Back the American Dream

We know the facts, but seeing them together is staggering: unemployment is firmly mired in the double digits and efforts to bring it down isn’t creating jobs; students leaving college, if they can even afford to go, have debts that would have seemed unimaginable just 15 years ago and when they don’t see any openings in their field they head straight for a McJob or the unemployment line; the climate crisis remains unaddressed by global leaders and the US Congress and President Obama contemplates whether or not to green-light the Keystone XL pipeline; we are heading into the 10th year of war spending (at $3 billion a week!); corporations fought hard to win Citizens United and the ‘right’ to spend unlimited funds to get candidates into office; wealthy men (sometimes brothers) encourage corrupt Governors to end worker protections; and banks and Wall Street continue getting huge bonuses and bail-outs. We know something isn’t working. Enough is enough.

We are 99% of the population and 1% is controlling the show! Enough is enough.

For years, solidarity was presumed to be a one-way street – North Americans supporting liberation struggles around the world — but this year support to those standing up is global and circular. In Cairo, young people, armed with the courage of their convictions, overthrew the Egyptian government and launched the Arab Spring in Tahrir Square, Egypt. The power of their non-violent resistance, their ability to stay when it seemed impossible, is the inspiration we must take forward to say enough is enough.

In Libya, Madrid, Athens, Wisconsin and beyond there is a democratic awakening and it is spreading! Three weeks into the protests at Liberty Plaza on Wall Street, New York and just days before thousands gather at Freedom Plaza in Washington DC, similar demonstrations are erupting in other cities across the United States with the same loosely organized structure. People who have not taken action before are now protesters camped out in Los Angeles near City Hall, near the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago, and at the Stock Exchange in San Francisco. They are marching and sitting-in against corporate greed, rampant unemployment, attacks on labor and the environment and the role of big banks in our bad economy.

In the US alone, other actions are planned for Memphis, Tenn.; Allentown, PA.; Hilo, Hawaii, Detroit; Portland, Ore.; Minneapolis; and Baltimore, as well as in Mason City, Iowa; Mobile, Ala.; Little Rock, Ark.; Santa Fe, N.M.; and McAllen, Tex., according to Occupy Together the unofficial hub for the protests. Thanks to inspiration from struggles around the globe, these days mark a turning point in the struggle for economic, social and environmental justice in the US.

We, the 99%, demand our voices be heard, we want an end to war and greed, we want to invest in human needs. It’s that simple. May the spirit of non-violence, the joy of democracy and the inclusion of many voices be our guiding light as we zig-zag forward, empowering protest as an agent to drive political reform. Take action now and go to Wall Street, go to Freedom Square or plan and join non violent occupations in your own town or join the virtual march.

PS. I want to organize with you in our community, please be in touch!

The following post was written by Melanie Butler for our sister organization, CODEPINK.

-Edited to add: Tuesday morning (September 20) seven more protesters were arrested — some violently. One is currently reported to be in hospital.

Day three of the encampment at Liberty Plaza, formerly known as Zuccotti park, is coming to a close. A lively group stands at the corner waving cardboard signs to passersby: JOIN US. WE ARE THE 99%. Helium balloons pop up throughout the park, boosting morale and providing helpful markers (“Where are you sleeping?” “Over by the red balloon”). From the other side of the park, where we sit eating some of the $6,000 worth of pizza donated to the protest thus far, we hear a loud stream of honking from Broadway. People jump to their feet, speculating it’s the Hell’s Angels. Rumor has it they are part of the 99%.

***

10 am: I arrive in the plaza to find five people have already been arrested during a march from Liberty Plaza to Wall Street for the opening bell of the Stock Exchange. At around 11:00 am a crowd rushes towards the sidewalk on Broadway chanting “shame!” – police arearresting two people for drawing on the sidewalk with colored chalk. Returning to the scene of the crime Andrea Osborne, one of the chalk offenders, tells me that before she was arrested, one of the NYPD officers told the demonstrators it was okay to draw on the sidewalk.

“I don’t know what they’re trying to do. I think they’re really afraid of us and they’re trying to instill the same fear into us.”

People converge for a General Assembly – one of many that will take place today – to give legal updates and advice. The General Assembly, or GA, is an open, participatory forum through which decisions and announcements for Occupy Wall Street are made and the various working groups responsible for organizing Occupy Wall Street were formed. There is a committee for everything from medical help to direct action; as of today there is also a dumpster-diving committee and a hygiene committee. The food committee, who on Saturday announced “no-one will go hungry on Wall Street” is concerned about the lack of vegan meal options. Every time I have been hungry, there has been food. Nobody can say we are not organized.

The media committee of the GA announces they’ve been fielding requests about how to respond to reporters asking “what is our one demand?” This question has pervaded the weekly GAs ever since Adbusters first issued the call to Occupy Wall Street back in July. The media committee reminds us that we are all here for our own reasons and no-one can speak for the group, but proposes that anyone interviewed include the following two words in their statement: “join us.” The proposal is passed through consensus demonstrated by raised hands, wiggling fingers, knocking fists.

Seeing my hot pink “Bring Our War Dollars Home” sign, a member of the media team says “hey, CODEPINK! Thanks for the oatmeal!” I’m as surprised by the recognition as I am by her revelation that she has evenseen food today; the only stationary presence in the park (with the exception of people sleeping), the media team never seem to stray from their intricately wired laptop hub, except maybe to light cigarettes. I ask her how she knew it was CODEPINK who brought the oatmeal: Twitter, naturally.

On Saturday CODEPINK joined the mass demonstration at Bowling Green, marching with a Make Jobs Not War banner and encouraging people to demonstrate what they wanted to “make” instead of war with our mobile Make ____ Not War photo booth. In the week leading up to Saturday’s demonstration we joined with the Arts and Culture committee of the GA in creative, participatory actions aimed at demilitarizing Wall Street and building for the mass occupation.

Throughout the day I see various people – some familiar, some not – adopting the CODEPINK “Bring Our War Dollars Home” sign and its message. A young man asks if he can hold the sign for awhile. He is part of the 99% who are outraged that our tax dollars are spent killing people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Palestine, while record levels of Americans are living in poverty. I watch as reporters ask members of the Granny Peace Brigade what the sign is about and why they’re here, pointing out that most people demonstrating are a fraction of their age. A Granny throws her fists and face towards the sky shouting with glee: “YES! And thank GOD!”

***

Night falls and I reconvene with The Arts and Culture Committee, who are discussing how to keep momentum and spirits up – hula hoops, radical cheerleaders, music – and the criminality of sidewalk chalk (apparently it’s legal if we clean it up afterwards).

At 9:00 pm the first vegan pizzas arrive. The ever-expanding collection of recycled pizza-box signs covering the sidewalk by the park demand an end to wars, funding for healthcare, bail outs for student debt, jobs, environmental and economic justice, and freedom for Troy Davis and Bradley Manning.

At 9:30 the sound of hundreds of hands clapping from the other side of the park signals the GA is meeting. The message appears on a giant white sheet projected from a digital screen where anyone can send a message to people in the park and post to twitter and other social media.

I send a message to the digital screen:I see beauty all around me. I look around at my brothers and sisters in the A & C committee, weary but alert. For some it is their seventh day of action and the third night spent in the park.
We are tired. We are together. We are here.
JOIN US.

This article originally appeared on Huffington Post September 28, 2010 as a follow up to an earlier article.

Earlier today, MarketWatch ran a story about my and four others’ arrests at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting in Houston on May 25, 2010.

The article by John Letzing was entitled: “Chevron shareholder activist faces jail time.”

With the subtitle: “Are criminal charges the best way to deal with a meeting disruption?”

It questioned the decision by Chevron to use such extreme tactics in dealing with its critics.

A few hours later, The Wall Street Journal picked up the story, but applied a new headline, with a decidedly different twist on the story: “Activist Faces Charges in Chevron Meeting Outburst.”

Moreover, the much shortened article leaves out key portions of the journalist’s original story, including these:

“Four other protesters also were arrested outside of Chevron’s gathering and face trespassing charges, according to media reports at the time. But Juhasz was unique as a stockholder pulled from the meeting, the reports said… Each charge against her is punishable by up to 180 days in county jail, though the sentences in the case would run concurrently if she is convicted, according to the Harris County district attorney’s office.

Juhasz stands out as a particularly active critic, who has co-authored exhaustive “alternative annual reports” for Chevron, detailing the “lives lost, wars fought, communities destroyed, environments decimated, livelihoods ruined and political voices silences” because of the company. Until recently, her program was called the Chevron program at Global Exchange, though it was recently renamed. Juhasz said the name change of the program is not related to her arrest. However, she pointed out that her day-to-day duties have been constricted by her status as a defendant. “I’m definitely being limited in my actions,” she commented.

Boston University Prof. James Post said he can’t recall a similar case where a shareholder activist had criminal charges filed against them: “A company almost never wins in a case like that.”

Companies are better off, Post suggested, when they allow critics to vent and then move on. “Corporate democracy can be an ugly thing,” he added.”

The MarketWatch story has led to a very interesting discussion on corporate accountability, free speech, and the rights of shareholders. Some 200 comments have already been posted.

There are, of course, key parts of the story left out of even the MarketWatch piece. I cannot address the arrest here due to the charges against me, but you can read the original press release that The True Cost Chevron network released at the time of the events, “Chevron Denies Access to Shareholder Representatives in a Bid to Silence the Truth About Its Operations Global Community Leaders Barred, Ejected and Arrested from Chevron Annual Meeting,” to get a much fuller understanding.

Please feel encouraged to post a comment on this site, MarketWatch, and/or the Wall Street Journal!

Follow Antonia Juhasz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AntoniaJuhasz

Meet the Wall Street and Corporate Tax Dodgers that Ditched Over $128 Billion in Taxes