Ever since the bailout of Wall Street was first discussed in Congress, we realized it was the wrong way to try to address the economic crisis. At Global Exchange, we mobilized our members all over the country to call Congress with the message: "Bail Out Main Street, Not Wall Street." CODEPINK jumped into action, protesting at the Congressional hearings and the Treasury Department, leading marches on Wall Street.

Congressional offices were flooded with calls and emails from angry constituents, but representatives refused to listen. Senator Dianne Feinstein told us that she had received over 90,000 calls about the bailout—95% of them against it. Her response? "The people don't understand this—I do!"

She, along with her colleagues in the House and the Senate, then proceeded to give away $850 billion of our taxdollars in the largest ever transfer of wealth from working people to the super-rich. This bailout, as the people instinctively understood, did nothing to revitalize the economy. How could it, when it was based on rewarding the very companies that caused the crisis?

A week after Congress passed the bailout, we heard a heart-wrenching story about Joselyne Voltaire, from Queens Village, New York. Joselyne had lived in her home for 20 years, but had fallen behind on her mortgage payments. The video clip on the internet showed a tearful mother holding up a photo of her oldest son, a Marine who had died mysteriously after serving in the Gulf. "I lost my son," she cried, "and now I am about to lose my house. I can't eat, I can't sleep, I live in pain."

On the very day her home was on the auction block, we put out an emergency alert to our members and raised $30,000—enough to save Jocelyne's home and help her get back on her feet. Since then, we have been working with other families facing foreclosure, as well as with national housing groups. Clearly, the bailout has not "trickled down" to Main Street, where families are losing their homes at alarming rates. That's why we have been calling for a six-month moratorium on foreclosures and reforming the bankruptcy laws to make it easier for families to restructure their loans.

We took that urgent message to the annual meeting of the National Mortgage Bankers Association held in San Francisco on October 20. During a talk by the CEOs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we jumped on the stage to plead with them to call for a moratorium on foreclosures and emergency help for homeowners. Predictably, we were kicked off the stage and escorted out of the conference, but our message—carried through media—resonated with the public.

With the new Congress and Administration convening in January, this is precisely the time to push our newly elected officials to forge a new path—one that focuses on helping average Americans, not financiers. But it won't be easy.

The wealthy and corporate interests who dished out billions of dollars this election season will be swarming over Washington to get their agendas passed. Energy giants will demand "clean coal," nuclear power and offshore drilling. More big corporations facing bankruptcy because of their corruption and greed will demand bailouts. Military contractors will push the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The super-rich will cry poverty and demand more tax cuts. HMOs and insurance companies will promote bogus healthcare "reforms" so they can forestall universal healthcare. But this time, it CAN be different. We have the ideas and common sense on our side. We have the public in our corner. We have momentum. We need to band together and organize powerful new movements across this country. We need to organize in the workplace. We need to organize in the schools. We need to organize in the streets, in our neighborhoods, in our communities.

We must demand a New "New Deal." We need to stem the foreclosure epidemic. We need to pass an economic stimulus package that will create good-paying jobs, including green jobs that will pave the transition to a clean, green economy. We need to fix our healthcare system, lowering costs by getting insurance companies out of the healthcare "business" and creating a system of Medicare For All. And we need to cut our bloated military budget and stop spending money on wars so we can revive our communities, rebuild our infrastructure and invest in education.

As a beginning, we're calling for organizing committees to form in cities across the country to help draft plans and put pressure on the new administration and the new Congress. Global Exchange is helping pull together preliminary meetings in November in Washington DC and New York City. Just like the 1930s, this unprecedented crisis has given us the opportunity to fix the nation and create a productive, sustainable economy for all. Let's get to work!

Take action: If you are interested in working on this Bailout Main Street campaign, please contact medea@globalexchange.org.