Federal Reserve

It was clear from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen's first testimony to the House Financial Committee on February 11 that she will use the Fed to continue to bail out the big banks of Wall Street rather than unemployed workers, homeowners, students and the medically uninsured. We at FedUp aren’t expecting to hear anything new from her about changes to monetary policy that benefit the 99% when she speaks today before the Senate Banking Committee. We were, however, inspired by Yellen's positive response to invitations by members of Congress to participate in town hall meetings across the country. We encourage Yellen to follow through on that promise where her predecessors did not, and speak to the people about how the Fed can bail out Main Street and demand a more just system that serves the 99% as opposed to the 1%.

Fed Up Friday is a new monthly action to illuminate the Federal Reserve, its role in the issues that effect our communities the most, and to discuss the solutions we will propose/demand throughout this campaign. The messaging for this month will be Valentine's Day/love themed, and we will illuminate issues about unemployment/jobs. These events will be synchronized with all participating Fed Up cities across the country, providing networking opportunities for people from all corners of the political spectrum. The protests will shine a light on institutions that exercise power in complete darkness. The project was announced on Monday December 23, when FedUp100, a new nationwide coalition of activists from across the political spectrum “Illuminated The Fed” at the 12 Federal Reserve buildings accross the country. In their press release they said "Congress created the Federal Reserve one hundred years ago, and FedUp100 demands that Congress end the Federal Reserve as a private entity. We say a century is enough! The function of controlling the money supply in the United States should reside with the American people, as provided for us in the U.S. Constitution."

The Federal Reserve Act was passed in 1913 in response to a wave of bank crises, which had hit on average every six years over a period of 80 years. The resulting economic depressions triggered a populist movement for monetary reform in the 1890s. Mary Ellen Lease, an early populist leader, said in a fiery speech that could have been written today: Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street. The great common people of this country are slaves, and monopoly is the master. . . . Money rules . . . .Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags. The parties lie to us and the political speakers mislead us. . . . We want money, land and transportation. We want the abolition of the National Banks, and we want the power to make loans direct from the government. We want the foreclosure system wiped out. That was what they wanted, but the Federal Reserve Act that they got was not what the populists had fought for...What Bryan and the populists sought was a national currency issued debt-free and interest-free by the government, on the model of Lincoln’s Greenbacks. What the American people got was a money supply created by private banks as credit (or debt) lent to the government and the people at interest. Although the national money supply would be printed by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, it would be issued by the “bankers’ bank,” the Federal Reserve. The Fed is composed of twelve branches, all of which are 100 percent owned by the banks in their districts

A nationwide coalition called FedUp100 has announced plans to assemble at all 12 U.S. Federal Reserve Bank branches on December 23, the 100th anniversary of the Fed, to educate the public and "illuminate" an institution of private banks it says operates in unconstitutional secrecy and darkness. The group's message on the Fed's centennial: Reform or Retire. The #D23 event at Fed branches from New York to San Francisco will kick off what organizers say is a year-long campaign of education, media, mobilizations, publications – and demands – centering around the debt-creation and corrupt economic activities of the Federal Reserve. FedUp100's core demand is for the Fed to be brought under federal control, enabling the U.S. government to print dollars interest-free rather than to take on more staggering public debt for money it says a "private banking cartel" is mysteriously, and unconstitutionally, writing into existence out of thin air.