Reportback on the Dirty Money Campign leading up the April 25th Wells Fargo AGM

Beginning on April 17th, we began over a week's worth of actions and campaigning against Wells Fargo. It started with a postering campaign that put up thousands of posters with an image of Wells CEO Dick Kovacevich and examples of dirty money investments around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Then on Earth Day, April 22nd, we had a good amount of hootin' and hollerin' outside of 6 different Wells Fargo branches in Texas and California. These locally organized actions, in Austin, Berkeley, Dallas-Ft Worth, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Walnut Creek, California, shared information with Wells Fargo customers, employees and folks just walking down the street and put Wells Fargo on notice that it's time to get on the wagon to environmental and social responsibility.

Amidst all this campaigning, Vanity Fair published their first ever "Green Issue" that included an article that profiled notorious coal company, and Wells Fargo client, Massey Energy. In rural Appalachia, our allies in the struggle for mountain justice also let their communities know about Wells Fargo's ties to Massey Energy.

Finally on Tuesday, April 25th, concerned citizens formed a moving picket line in front of Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco's Nob Hill District to protest the Wells Fargo annual shareholders meeting. It was a multi-racial multi-generational group organized by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now! (ACORN), the Gray Panthers, Rainforest Action Network and the Senior Action Network that incorporated colorful art, creative street theater and lots of noise.

Inside the shareholder's meeting, activists from RAN's Global Finance Campaign joined with representatives from ACORN, SEIU and other socially responsible investors in engaging with CEO Richard Kovacevich about his company's social and environmental policies.

Check out the press release, the video and the pictures from outside the shareholder's meeting.