‘Don’t pick our pockets to line your own’: Nationwide Social Security actions hit Schwab i

On March 31, in 70 cities and towns across the country, thousands of Americans picketed in front of Charles Schwab offices demanding the brokerage firm drop its support for the privatization and destruction of Social Security. More than 45,000 e-mails and calls went into the Schwab offices with the message, “Don’t pick our pockets to line yours.” The demonstrations were the largest grassroots, single-day action ever against Social Security privatization.

Last year Charles Schwab Corp. ranked 25th on the “101 Dumbest Moments in Business,” a yearly list of corporate blunders published by Business 2.0 magazine. The investment firm earned that position when it axed 401(k) matching dollars for its own employees during a campaign to persuade investors to trust the company with their retirement savings.

This year the company may sail to the top of the list with its mulish support of the Bush administration’s plan to privatize the much-beloved and effective Social Security insurance system. The corporation is a key member of business-backed lobbying groups working with the White House to introduce private accounts as part of any Social Security “reform.”

William McNary, co-director of Citizen Action/Illinois, lit the Chicago crowd on fire when he called on Schwab to get its “greedy, grimy, greasy, gritty hands” off Social Security. “There’s a lot of talk about class warfare. Well, we didn’t ask for this fight. But if it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get,” he said.

McNary and Gannon led a delegation, which included Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), to deliver a letter to Schwab offices calling on the corporation to withdraw its support for privatization. Building security guards stopped Gannon at the revolving door. After a short standoff, a message came down from Schwab management: They didn’t want the letter.

“It’s a sad day in America when we can’t deliver a letter on behalf of working men and women,” Gannon told the press. Looking directly into television cameras, McNary said, “If Charles Schwab wants to make money that’s fine. But they can make it somewhere else. They will not make money on our Social Security system.”

One Schwab rival, Edward D. Jones & Co., withdrew its support from the pro-privatization lobbying group Alliance for Worker Retirement on Feb. 10 as a result of union and community pressure.

The White House has promised to pass privatization legislation this year. Democrats, backed by the unprecedented grassroots pressure, have rejected any private accounts using Social Security funds.

Numerous Republican lawmakers are feeling the grassroots pressure, too. House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley of Iowa are pessimistic about any Social Security overhaul for this year.

The battle to defend the country’s most basic and best-run social safety program reflects the deep opposition to the direction of the Bush administration. “There’s something more important than greed,” said Margaret Blackshere, Illinois AFL-CIO president. “It’s the welfare of our families, seniors and disabled. Caring for people is what our country is about.”


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