News Release

Charlotte: “Wall Street South”

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BEN CARROLL [email]
ZAINA ALSOUS [email]
Carroll and Alsous are media contacts with the Coalition to March on Wall Street South, which helped organize a march of over 2,500 over the weekend and is organizing other actions around the Democratic Convention. These activists are critical of both major political parties and their ties to major corporations. They can connect media to other activists, some local and some who have traveled to Charlotte for the convention to highlight a host of issues.

They noted particularly that “Charlotte, N.C. is the Wall Street of the South, home to the world headquarters of Bank of America and the eastern headquarters of Wells Fargo. These two represent the worst, most notorious, and racist banks — for their role in driving the economic crisis, mass unemployment, home foreclosures, the prison industrial complex, including privatized immigration detention centers, funding environmental destruction and climate change and many more attacks on our communities. Charlotte has the second highest concentration of finance capital behind New York City. In addition, North Carolina is one of only two states in the country where collective bargaining for public sector workers is illegal, it is the least unionized state in the country, and the South as a region is a bastion of ‘right-to-work’ and anti-union laws.”

They also protested in front of Duke Energy headquarters, which is a huge user and backer of coal. The activists “denounce the Democratic National Convention Committee for its blatant acceptance of corporate funds from Duke Energy. Duke has been linked with the infamous rightwing ‘bill mill’ group, the American Legislative Exchange Council. Holding banners that say ‘Duke Energy: Stop Polluting Our Democracy,’ residents from around Charlotte are outraged at the acceptance of these corporate dollars and how it undermines the DNC’s stated purpose of making this convention the People’s Convention, especially since ALEC is currently behind current voter suppression laws that President Obama has spoken out against.”

See: “Democrats Won’t Disclose Donors to Charlotte Convention Until After the Event”