SEIU Protest at Banker's Home Was Co-Sponsored By An Organization Receiving Money From Banker's Company

May 16, 2010, the day of the now infamous SEIU protest at the home of a Bank of America executive’s home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, also included a less publicized protest at the home of a J.P. Morgan bank executive. The protests were all about denouncing the “evil banks.”

As reported by the Washington Post:

The controversy surrounds a May 16 protest organized by liberal group National People’s Action and the Service Employees International Union.

According to the NPA’s website,

National People’s Action (NPA) is a Network of community power organizations from across the country that work to advance a national economic and racial justice agenda. NPA has over 200 organizers working to unite everyday people in cities, towns, and rural communities throughout the United States. For 38 years NPA has been a leader in the fight to hold banks accountable to the communities in which they serve and profit.

In the 1970s, National People’s Action spearheaded the fight to pass the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the Community Reinvestment Act, widely considered to be among the most transformative public policy to grow out of community organizing.

When you open the window to the organization’s Board of Directors, their names appear under the banner of the umbrella organization, Community Voices Heard, Inc. (CVH). Then, under the tab, “Strategic Alliances,” NPA appears.

In 2007, CVH reported receiving $772,474 in donations. Their website lists categories of “supporters.” Under contributing foundations and corporations, the list below is displayed following the statement that, “CVH Would Like To Thank the Following Institutional Organizations For Their Generous Support Of Our Work.”

Booth Ferris Foundation	New York Women’s Foundation
Butler Family Fund	North Star Fund
Center for Community Change	Oak Foundation
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation	Presbytery of NYC
Citibank Local Grants	Public Welfare Foundation
Daphne Foundation	Robert Sterling Clark Foundation
Dyson Foundation	Rockefeller Foundation
Elias Foundation	Scherman Foundation
Ford Foundation	Sociological Initiatives Foundation
Fund for the City of New York	Solidago Foundation
F.B. Heron Foundation	Taproot Foundation
Glickenhaus Foundation	Tides Valentine Fund
Hill-Snowdon Foundation	Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program at Shelter Rock
JPMorgan Chase	United Way of NYC
Mertz-Gilmore Foundation	Valentine Perry Snyder Foundation
New York Community Trust

So, the umbrella organization for the National People’s Action, whose anti-banking agenda drove the SEIU protestors to the home of two bank executives in Chevy Chase, ended up co-sponsoring the protest at the private residence of an executive from one of the “generous” institutional organizations that supports their cause.

How about that!

And CVH takes money from Citibank, too. Go figure.

Thanks for bringing that to our attention, Washington Post – not.