outstanding bills

courtesy of voice of detroit

photographer:  Jataveyis Price

detroit demonstrator at 4.25.12 GE protest

a 26.5 billion dollar outstanding bill:  that's the amount thousands of Detroit demonstrators say GE owes the United States in a march composed of city residents and busloads of outraged citizens from around the midwest - and there at GE's annual shareholder meeting to collect! 

the bill is reportedly based on a 35% statutory rate.  GE spokespeople retorted, the company paid 2.9 billion globally. 

below, youtube excerpts from the demonstration:





voice of detroit reports marchers headed to the GE Annual Shareholder Meeting at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance, and heading on both east jefferson and the riverfront side.  a couple of dozen shareholders - including Pastors William Rideout, Homer Jamison and Walter Starghill of Detroit and Inkster - were led out of the company's meeting after they presented the outstanding bill and demanded GE pay their fair share of taxes.   the paper reports no one arrested, although police attempted to instigate the crowd with horses brought dangerously close to bear upon marchers.

detroit is just the beginning of numerous coordinated shareholder actions planned across the country, and as part of the dubbed "99% spring."  per the center for democracy and media's pr watch:

[..] retirees who lost their pensions, families whose homes are underwater, students with impossible debt, the unemployed and underemployed, family farmers, immigrants, vets and more will be knocking on the doors of corporate boardrooms, holding CEOs of major American firms responsible for crashing the economy then turning their backs on their fellow Americans. With hundreds of shareholders on the inside and thousands of folks on the outside, the largest shareholder demonstrations in U.S. history are underway and spreading across the land.

in san francisco, thousands also surrounded a wells fargo shareholder meeting with a giant inflatable rat; about 24 people were arrested inside and outside the building where police escorted shareholders in, while barring entry to other shareholders, including 100 clergy from around the country also there to voice discontent.

courtesy of reuters

photographer:  robert galbraith/reuters

protester arrested at 4.25.12

Wells Fargo shareholders meeting

courtesy of abc

SKY7-HD captured this shot of a giant inflatable rat

outside the protest at the annual Wells Fargo shareholders meeting

in San Francisco on April 24, 2012.

pr watch reports that "not even a single remaining shareholder squeeked as his [CEO John Stumpf] $20 million dollar bonus package was approved" - and - "The giant rat escaped the cuffs."

Ross Rhodes, 53, of San Francisco clutched his proxy shareholder letter with the hopes he could talk with Stumpf about his struggle to save his family's home of nearly 50 years from foreclosure, but hundreds were blocked from entering. Larry Ginter, who traveled all the way from Rhodes, Iowa, managed to get inside, but Stumpf would not yield.

from reuters, 

At the Wells meeting, more than 96 percent of shares cast were in favor of the bank's pay plan. Stumpf received $19.8 million in total compensation in 2011, an increase of about 5 percent from the previous year. Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit's pay rose to $14.8 million in 2011, up from a token $1 the year before.

a lot more outstanding bills to collect, for sure.

pr watch reports 32 shareholder actions planned including Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Sallie Mae (student loans focused), Verizon, Wal-Mart, WellPoint (health care focused), Occidental, and Peabody Coal. 

99% Spring trainings have been taking place "in church basements, community centers, big cities and small towns across America."

more blogging on spring training here and here.