‘Take On Wall Street’ Campaign Pushes Glass-Steagall into Presidential and Congressional Campaigns

PRESS RELEASE

‘Take On Wall Street’ Campaign Pushes Glass-Steagall into Presidential and Congressional Campaigns

June 1, 2016 (EIRNS)—The formation of a new national campaign, "Take On Wall Street," was announced last week by more than 20 progressive organizations, to intersect the national Presidential and Congressional elections. The five-step agenda of "Take On Wall Street" is to enact Glass-Steagall; break up the banks; pass a "transaction tax on financial speculation; eliminate the "carried interest" tax loophole which benefits hedge fund operators, and crack down on "payday lenders" who charge usurious interest rates. The order of the five demands may vary; often Glass-Steagall is first, but it is always prominent.

Large progressive unions like the American Federation of Teachers, Communications Workers of America, and progressive Members of Congress, like Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Co-chair of Congress’s Progressive Caucus, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who introduced the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, are leaders of the movement.

This also intersects with efforts to stop Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership "free trade" deal from being voted up by Congress, TPP is the Wall Street counter to China’s win-win partnerships.

AFL-CIO National President Richard Trumka is active on the issues front "Take On Wall Street." Trumka and the AFL-CIO have not endorsed either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. A few unions have endorsed Clinton, and more individual unions have endorsed Sanders. Some have made no endorsement. Clearly, the concentration on Glass-Steagall is a far better form of organizing and support.

New York State Senator James Sanders, Jr., of Queens, a co-sponsor of Glass-Steagall in the New York Senate, with five Senator-colleagues wrote to the entire New York Congressional delegation urging the enactment of Glass-Stagall. The letter states:

"The proactive approach to ensure this [2008 collapse] does not happen is to restore Glass-Steagall. This is particularly crucial when one considers the top bank holding companies are getting even bigger... They now have over $247 trillion in derivatives—many times their own assets, and many times the $17 trillion of the United States GDP. If they were ‘Too Big to Fail before, what are they now?....’ ”