I will not be attending this event due to health problems. However I would like to strongly encourage my readers to participate. If you bank with Wells Fargo in a city other than Atlanta you can still participate by closing your account and letting them know that you are doing so in opposition to there investment practices.
Contact: Everett Howe, ABLE, f22ev@yahoo.com, 404.290.9504
Roger Sikes, Jobs with Justice, Roger@atlantajwj.org, 404.782.0737
Priscilla Padron, Georgia Detention Watch, priscatran@gmail.com, 404.373.7325
Atlanta, Georgia - January 24th, 2012 - National Day of Action Against the Private Prison Industry
Georgia groups join with communities in thirteen other cities across the country at a rally urging Wells Fargo to divest from the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo stock and invest in humanity. The action is at Wells Fargo Downtown, 2 Peachtree Street at 11:30 a.m.
I am outraged that a bank invests in incarcerating fathers and mothers whose only crime is working to improve the lives of their families. That's why we are asking Wells Fargo to divest from CCA and GEO, says Everett Howe, a retired Air Force engineer, who is active in both Georgia Detention Watch and Atlantans Building Leadership for Empowerment (ABLE).
We urge Wells Fargo customers to move their accounts and deposit boxes from Wells Fargo, a major investor in Corrections Corporation of America CCA and GEO, said Priscilla Padron of Georgia Detention Watch. Both companies promote, build, manage, and profit from private prisons. Instead, community members should consider opening accounts with local credit unions.
CCA and the GEO Group are the two largest corporations profiting from imprisoning immigrants. By lobbying legislators and contributing to their campaigns, they are the power and brains behind the anti-immigrant laws that are incarcerating community members in states like Georgia, Alabama, and Arizona.
Sponsors of the action include:
Georgia Detention Watch*
Gamaliel organization (ABLE)*
Atlanta Jobs with Justice
Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR)
Occupy Atlanta
*Georgia Detention Watch will lead the rally on behalf of the Atlanta area. Georgia Detention Watch is a coalition of organizations and individuals that advocates alongside immigrants to end the inhumane and unjust detention and law enforcement policies and practices directed against immigrant communities in our state. Our coalition includes activists, community organizers, persons of faith, lawyers, and many more.
*ABLE is a local affiliate of Gamaliel, a grassroots network of non-partisan, faith-based organizations in 18 U.S. states, South Africa and the United Kingdom that organizes to empower ordinary people to effectively participate in the political, environmental, social and economic decisions affecting their lives.
