Unions Members March, Demand Bankers ‘Fix The Mess’ (Update1)

[Jefferson23]

* This was well worth taking the time to attend! If you can, do paricipate, check out the AFL CIO website.
Find an event in your area, here: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/jobs/americaneedsjobsnow.cfm#jobinit



Unions Members March, Demand Bankers ‘Fix The Mess’ (Update1)


Adds quotes from Trumka, protesters in fourth paragraph.)

By Holly Rosenkrantz

April 29 (Bloomberg) -- AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka led thousands of labor-union protesters in a march on Wall Street, chanting that investment banks must “fix the mess that you made” by paying more taxes and lending more money.

“It’s time for special taxes for bank bonuses,” Trumka said today at a rally outside City Hall that began after floor trading ended at the New York Stock Exchange. “When you engage in rampant and risky speculation, you are going to pay your fair share in taxes.”

The rally caps a drive by the nation’s largest organization of labor unions called the “Make Wall Street Pay” campaign. Protestors, some dressed as pirates, today held signs saying “Break Up Megabanks” and “Hey Big Banks -- Less Bail, More Jail.” Rallies have targeted Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm, and the five biggest U.S. banks.

Trumka started the march yelling “Let’s let Wall Street hear us, all the way down to the bull” at Bowling Green, the scheduled end point for the protest.

Police estimated more than 7,500 people gathered in the park south of City Hall, before the crowd headed south past the stock exchange carrying signs reading “Reclaim Our Democracy” and “Hold Banks Accountable.”

“They are tax dodgers, they aren’t putting anything back into the community,” said Otis J. Loweryberg, 84, a former Chrysler Corp. worker in Delaware. “They only think about self -- self motivation, self-preservation. How do these guys go home at night when people have no food on their table.”

‘Fed Up’

in full: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-29/unions-members-march-demand-bankers-fix-the-mess-update1-.html

[senseandsensibility]

1. K and R

eom

[malaise]

2. Photos

More here
http://www.daylife.com/photo/00fn4kTc1R74V

[Jefferson23]

3. Thanks for that pic! I should find more, it was amazing. n/t

[Jefferson23]

4. 31,000 Deliver Message to Wall Street: Fix The Mess You Made

Some 15,000 union members and other progressives on the ground and another 16,000 virtual marchers got Main Street’s message to Wall Street today: Good Jobs Now! Wall Street Must Pay! Marchers in New York carried the names of virtual marchers on stickers as they marched toward the statue of the Wall Street bull.

Led by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, union members and activists from National People’s Action (NPA), NAACP, Move On and others took over Wall Street during the afternoon rush hour for a march and rally. When the marchers got to Wall Street, there were so many that they filled up two streets.

At the rally, Trumka told the cheering crowd:

We’re here today for the folks who were played for suckers in the casino economy and will be silent no more. And the message we bring is this: Wall Street, fix the mess you made.

America lost 8.5 million jobs because of the financial crisis created by Wall Street, Trumka said, and now is 11 million jobs in the hole.


in full: http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/04/29/31000-deliver-message-to-wall-street-fix-the-mess-you-made/