Philadelphia constantly says the city has no money—but there are plenty of ways for Philadelphia to save money and pay for our city services. Every year, the City of Philadelphia gives Wall Street hundreds of millions of dollars, while underfunding our schools, gun violence prevention programs and more. We can no longer afford to do business with Wall Street. If we come together, we can Cancel Wall Street and demand the Federal Reserve give our city no-interest loans for the relief we need.  

On Thursday, March 11th at 4:30pm EST, Action Center on Race and the Economy and LILAC will be hosting a teach-in and digital action to Cancel Wall Street. Learn more about why community members and elected officials want Wall Street out of our city. We’ll take action together before the call ends!

The City of Philadelphia pays more than $245 million in interest on debt every year -- and across the country, cities and states pay $160 billion to Wall Street. Unions, community organizations and elected officials are saying enough is enough. We are demanding the Federal Reserve offer cities and states the ability to borrow from the Fed with no fees, no interest attached.

Even as our state and local governments stare down staggering revenue shortfalls due to the economic impact of COVID-19, we know we need to dramatically increase funding for public services and strengthen our social safety net to make our communities more resilient.  

We need moral budgets that

• Increase progressive revenue

• Cut regressive expenses and;  

• Renegotiate our payments to Wall Street.

By cutting out Wall Street, that money would go a long way toward preserving public sector jobs, funding our education system and protecting the public's health. We know our public benefits and services are crucial in supporting recovery for poor, Black and Brown Philadelphians.

We need our elected officials to band together and demand that both banks and the Federal Reserve provide long-term, zero-cost loans to state and local governments to drive down the cost of borrowing. This could save taxpayers throughout the country an estimated $160 billion a year!

**Zoom link will be sent out the day before the event.**