Marching for the People's Needs



NEW YORK ----- Thousands of protesters poured into the nation’s financial district last weekend to demand that the billions of dollars being spent to prop up Wall Street and fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would be better spent on people’s needs like health care, jobs and housing.

In two days of demonstrations on Friday and Saturday, protesters came from as far away as Detroit, Michigan and Providence, Rhode Island to send a message to President Barack Obama and Congress --- that they’ve had enough of their hard-earned money being used to bail out reckless bankers and fund mindless wars of intervention.

“The people need a bailout!” shouted New York City Councilman Charles Barron at a Friday rally which drew about 1,000 people despite driving rain. “You get $800 billion for some crooks that participate in greed. They shouldn’t be bailing out Wall Street, Wall Street should be looking for bail money to get out of jail!” Barron thundered.

“This is the largest welfare check for the richest people in the world. We say, take the money back!” he said.

On Saturday, in clearer but still windy weather, several thousand more people came to lower Manhattan to participate in a “March on Wall Street” held on the 42nd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech at the Riverside Church. In that speech, King said the nation could never address the problems of poverty, racism and and other social ills without first ending the Vietnam War and curbing excessive military spending.

The Rev. James Lawson, a long-time civil rights leader and co-worker with Dr. King told the marchers before the start of the march, “In the spirit of Dr. King and the movement for equality and justice of the fifties and sixties, I say if we want peace to blossom, we must eradicate poverty, racism, sexism, violence and greed in the U.S. Peace cannot come by crying peace. Peace can only emerge when justice does.”

In a lively march complete with a band playing New Orleans style jazz, protesters chanted, sang and waved signs. “End the War – Bring the Troops Home,” was one sign, while others said “Fund Human Needs – Not War.”

A number of marchers were demanding health care for all, and demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the current inadequate system in a most unusual way. A group of women dressed in hospital gowns and pants, had plastic caps on their back side, simulating bare buttocks. “Your ass is not covered,” a sign said.

While most of the focus of Saturday’s march was on ending the wars and funding social needs, anger at the big banks and their role in triggering the nation’s economic depression, was still very much in evidence. As the marchers headed to the financial district on a mile- and- a- half route, Marvin Knight of Brooklyn stood with a sign on his chest for all to see: “The American Dream is Over.”

“I drew this up eight years ago after 9-11. I thought it was over then, and now I really know it’s over,” Knight said. “The bailouts are a salvation for the rich,” added Knight, standing not far from a Bank of America branch sign. “The bankers are part of a criminal enterprise. It’s all about greed as far as I can see.”

The demonstrators marched past the Federal Reserve building and the New York Stock Exchange and ended in Battery Park for a “Peace and Justice Fair,” sponsoring tables with literature from various organizations.

Gina Leary was part of a group that came down from Providence to take part in the day’s event. Leary and her friends are part of DARE, or Direct Action for Rights and Equality, which has been fighting to stop foreclosures and evictions. Leary and Ayda Rivera said Providence has 300 homes in foreclosure now.

“We go out everyday into the streets and work with the people to help them. So many houses are boarded up,” said Leary. “It’s sad.”

Leary and Rivera said there needed to be a national freeze on foreclosures.

Henry Lowendorf, of the Greater New Haven Peace Council, came down by train with about 30 activists from Connecticut. The council is affiliated with the national group United for Peace and Justice, which sponsored the Saturday march. (The Friday event was sponsored by Bail Out The People, but the two organizations worked in concert on the events).

Lowendorf said the Saturday march went well, with a lot of spirit by marchers. He said the event was part of a drive by UFPJ to become more than just an anti-Iraq War group, and link up the goals of ending the two wars and freeing up funding for social needs --- “tying the real economy to the military budget.”

The $1.4 trillion earmarked this year for spending on the military, he said, makes no sense. “We have no adversaries,” he said.

The notion that heavy spending on the military will keep the economy strong is a misnomer, Lowendorf said.

“You can’t spend your way out of an economic disaster by spending on the military,” he said.