Family, shout out to you & our collective power!
Wells Fargo just stated it will stop financing the prison industry!
For the past decade, Wells Fargo has been a major funder of corporations like GEO Group and CoreCivic, lending out million dollars of credit they used to build new prisons and detention centers.
Freedom to Thrive members and partners have been calling for an end to Wells Fargo’s support for the punishment industry for a decade. Our Prison Divestment Campaign began in 2010 as the state increased the criminalization of immigrants through threats and raids targeting our communities. We knew we had to tackle the root cause of the criminalization of Black and brown people. Freedom to Thrive (fka Enlace) worked with local organizations across the country to create divestment strategies targeting banks and corporations that fund the industries that keep our families locked up.
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Wells Fargo has long been complicit in the dehumanization of our communities. As members of the Million Shares Club, they made profits off of the caging of our communities, the destruction of indigenous lands, the gentrification of our communities, and also used predatory lending practices to exploit Black and brown families seeking housing stability for their families.
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While we celebrate this victory as testament to the power of our collective organizing we know that Wells Fargo’s decision to end their relationship with Geo and Core Civic is not an act of benevolence and we do not applaud their actions. This profit, sustainment and expansion of the prison industrial complex has ripple effects. These corporations recklessly lobby for policies that seek to continue the criminalization Black and brown communities.
We want to make it known that ABOLITION is about transforming all of the systems that threaten our livelihood.
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We applaud our community. This is what community power looks like!
We want to make sure we are holding these corporations accountable, who for years they have profited off of caging our people! Wells Fargo took the first step but we want them accountable! They have profited off our communities for too long – how are we going to move this work of divestment into reinvesting into our communities!
This major step forward would not be possible without you and the grassroots organizers across the country who worked to hold these corporations accountable for years. We will continue to fight for reinvestment in our people and our communities.
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We are envisioning a world without prison, without surveillance, without police
>>> we wish nothing but healing, safety & collective power for our communities <<<
Prison Industry Divestment Movement 