To find out about the ordeal that Speak has had to go through with the banks over the past two years, please CLICK HERE. In summary, sadly a couple of years ago, during the Halifax-Lloyds merge, these banks threatened to close one of Speaks oldest bank accounts. The Speak Network had to fight for over a year to retain one third of it's standing orders it had gathered over a 15 year period. The banks withheld information which they were legally obligated to give us and it was only through our own campaigning and research that we managed to overcome the problem and keep our standing orders safe.
We secured a main victory six months ago by establishing a SOFA (Standing Order File Ammenment), which meant that we could transfer these standing orders to a new Coop account. However, due to the time, effort and stress which went into the process, we asked for compensation to be granted to us.
The Ombudsman has partially upheld our claim, but for a limited amount that only accounts for one month worth of work rather than the work it actually took. We believe the compensation needs to be significantly higher.
Its not only us who feel the power of the banks... many are in debt ... feeling the impact of what the bible would describe as Usury..(something taken very seriously indeed). Over a decade ago we campaigned for Jubilee 2000 for the debts of the poorest to be relieved... that still hasn't happened!!! Positive Money claims a substantial proportion of the money currently in circulation in the economy is created by debt. Banks create more than 97% of the money in the UK by making loans. How did we all end up where living in the power of the owed/ode to these people?
The 'Ode To' Campaign
We have made an ‘ode to’ or more accurately an ‘owed to’ poem to the Director of the Halifax António Horta-Osório. TAKE A LOOK AT THE VIDEO HERE
We want to ask him:
1. To reconsider what it means to be a more customer-centered bank - by compensating SPEAK properly for our time.
2. Expressing concerns about the sustainability of a debt-based money system where the banks create money out of debt, debt interest charges and other bank charges.
3. Asking for monetary reform and for banks to be regulated so that they can no longer create money from debt, but only publicly accountable bodies can create money.
4. Asking for public participation in the banks and a new system of public participation and economic democracy.
Money being created from debt the background can be seen from the Positive Money link below. Positive Money claims a substantial proportion of the money currently in circulation in the economy is created by debt. Banks create more than 97% of the money in the UK by making loans. The only way to get extra money into the economy is to borrow it from banks, leaving us all trapped under a mountain of personal debt and mortgages. https://www.positivemoney.org/issues/debt/
This video on SPEAK YouTube is the first in a series of videos on this or similar subjects… so watch out for more!!!
What are you needed for?
Your words:
We are doing an appeal; asking people to help create the world's longest poem communal poem by taking a stanza or a few stanzas to re-verse the economic trajectory.We are asking people to write a stanza on any one of these issues:
1. Expressing concerns about the sustainability of a debt-based money system where the banks create money out of debt, debt interest charges and other bank charges2. Asking for monetary reform and for banks to be regulated so that they can no longer create money from debt, but only publicly accountable bodies can create money3. Asking for public participation4. Or a specific issue that you face personally with a bank or a debt you are unhappy about.
Your attendance:
Please come back for 1 day to keep the bankers bogey man boogie away…February 14th:Expressing the Depth of Debt Ode/ Owed
We may take a few verses in to ask the banks reverse on a few things on Feb 14th at 1pm-ish in the form of an ode or an owed to poem. That is if they will receive us. We have sent them an email letting them know and MPs said they will also write asking for a meeting for us.. More info to follow..
Please keeps us informed if you intend to attend, (so we can be responsible if we need to inform anyone).. However our guess is… that this going to be an intimate unfair affair... It is a last minute spontaneous whirl wind. …which has swept us off our feet... or should we say.. knocked us off our feet. However we are getting up again and
The Banking game... we can offset,
We the bullied of the world, are now standing up for our self respect! SPEAK
For more information please email speak@speak.org.uk