Coalition targets Chase banks

Members of the People Before Banks Coalition here simultaneously targeted dozens of Chase Bank branches on Dec. 3. Fanning out throughout metro Detroit, a diverse assemblage of union members, community people, students and other activists gathered at targeted Chase branches during lunchtime to leaflet and petition.

According to William Bryce, a staff organizer with Southeastern Michigan Jobs with Justice and a central organizer of the People Before Banks Coalition, those leafleting reported a tremendously supportive response from Chase Bank customers and the general community. Those leafleting and petitioning were encouraged to continue the Chase campaign.

People Before Banks is asking people to sign a pledge to remove all their money from Chase and/or cancel their Chase credit or debit cards.

The coalition is organizing a mass leafleting campaign demanding that Chase Bank impose a two-year moratorium on home foreclosures and that the financial institution stop bankrolling R.J. Reynolds Co., which is denying rights and decent working conditions to migrant farmworkers in North Carolina’s tobacco fields. The Dec. 3 actions were part of this campaign. The coalition grew out of the U.S. Social Forum held in June when more than 1,000 people marched on Chase Bank in Detroit.

For more information, phone 734-652-6382 or 402-689-8878; email [email protected]; or visit www.supportfloc.org or www.moratorium-mi.org.