Category Archives: Announcements

It is with great enthusiasm that we announce that the Coalition to Protest at the DNC is changing its name to the Coalition to March on Wall Street South — Building People’s Power during the DNC. This decision was made unanimously by the steering committee of the coalition, made up of representatives from more than 60 organizations.

The growth of the Occupy Wall Street movement shifted the national dialog and shone a spotlight on the power of the banks, corporations, and the 1% in controlling the political process in this country. The policies that come out of Washington and our state capitols show this as clear as day. Neither of the two corporate parties, not the Democrats nor the Republicans, have addressed the dire situation faced by so many working people and families in this country. That’s why we believe that we must build people’s power from below to place demands on the system and struggle for the things we need — good jobs, education, housing, health care, and food. It’s clear that an independent people’s movement is needed because both parties serve and protect the interests of the banks, corporations, and the 1%.  Read more...

National Organizing Conference of the Coalition to Protest at the DNC

Saturday, April 14 @ 9am
Charlotte School of Law
(2145 Suttle Avenue, Charotte, NC)

The Coalition to Protest at the DNC, a convergence of socio-economic justice activists as well as progressive labor forces, send greetings from Charlotte, NC and around the country.  We stand in solidarity with, and endorse, the Coalition to March on the RNC‘s demand for good jobs for all, especially from North Carolina, and other states, where denying public service workers the right to collective bargaining and union busting is a daily reality.

The Democrats and Republicans are ardently pushing austerity programs on the 99% with both parties pandering to banks and large corporations.  Democratic leadership has greatly increased deportations, augmented war spending, and ushered in huge budget cuts, while the Republicans have fomented racism, xenophobia, and attacks on both women and the LGBTQ communities to sow divisions.  We know that at the end of the day, both parties serve and protect the interests of the 1%.  Read more...

Charlotte, NC –  The Coalition to Protest at the DNC held its first press conference on January 18 in Charlotte outside of the Time Warner Cable Arena, where the Democratic National Convention will be held September 3-6. More than three dozen organizations, including labor, anti-war, civil rights, anti-foreclosure, immigrants rights, student and youth groups, and many prominent movement activists have joined together to initiate a coalition that, among other things, calls for:

• Good jobs for all! Economic justice now — Make the banks and corporations pay for their crisis!
• Money for education, health care, housing and all human needs, not for war and incarceration!
• Justice for immigrants and all oppressed peoples! Stop the raids and deportations!

Ayende Alcala, Occupy Charlotte

John Heuer, a board member of NC Peace Action and a member of the Eisenhower chapter of Veterans for Peace, opened the press conference by saying, “it is my pleasure that on this week, which honors one of our greatest US heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that I announce the launch of a coalition of more than 30 peace, justice, and community organizations who are coming together to raises their grievances and protest at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in September of this year.”

Ayende Alcala, with Occupy Charlotte, affirmed that they would be working to plan and build for actions during the DNC next September, and drew comparisons between the Occupy movement today and Dr. King’s organizing for a massive occupation of DC to demand jobs and justice at the time of his assassination.

“We’re here to demand an end to the war on Black people, here and in Africa—from police brutality and mass incarceration, to AFRICOM and proxy wars across the African continent,” said speaker Efia Nwangaza, founder and director of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination. Nwangaza continued, slamming the Democratic Party for their “silence on the depression level African American unemployment,” for taking no action to stop racist predatory lending and home foreclosures, and for the continued imprisonment of political prisoners.

Efia Nwangaza, Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination

Organizers with the Coalition call Charlotte, NC the “Wall Street of the South.” With the world headquarters of Bank of America and the eastern headquarters of Wells Fargo, it has the second largest concentration of finance capital in the U.S. behind New York City. Both banks are notorious for foreclosing homes, holding huge amounts of student loans, bankrolling the prison industrial complex, and funding environmental destruction, among many other crimes against our communities, as noted by Molly Shannon who spoke on behalf of MortgageFraud in North Carolina.

North Carolina is also the least unionized state in the country, with a Jim Crow-era law still on the books that bans public workers from collectively bargaining. Many southern states have right-to-work, anti-worker laws on the books. City workers in Charlotte have been fighting for years just to win the basic right of dues deduction.  Read more...