Photo / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
On October 27th, more than 400 JwJ activists came from Detroit, Buffalo, Columbus, Indiana, DC, Chicago, and across Illinois to join the 5,000+ protestors at the American Bankers Association meeting in Chicago. Our delegation included workers, union members, students, and working people who are tired of watching Wall Street get in the way of meaningful reform on issues like Healthcare and financial reform. (Our coalitions in several other cities, including Orlando, FL and South Bend, IN, held solidarity actions.)
In Chicago we joined allied organizations including National People’s Action, SEIU, AFL-CIO, and many more to send a message to the bankers that we will no longer will be idle bystanders in the fight for the direction and future of our country.
Our message was summarized by new AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, “Business as usual is over. We are shutting you down now!”
One of the noteworthy pieces to lift up from this mobilization is that regular people and grassroots organizations (not to be confused with Astroturf organizations like the Tea Party movement) are beginning to get in the streets and demand real change.
Meg White over at Buzzflash shared this moment yesterday as she compared the march on the banks to the angry mobilizations of the right that took place in August:
At that moment Leah Fried, an organizer with UE…warned me against passing judgment on the movement’s popularity until after Tuesday.
“This is just getting started,” she said of the public backlash to financial institutions. “People are really angry… They’re furious at the banks; they’re furious about the bonuses. They’re disgusted by the attitudes of these bankers lobbying against financial reforms.”
Our own SLAP coordinator, Maria Escobar, talking about how the banks were a problem for not only homeowners and working people but also young people rightly noted:
Students and workers have the same struggle with these banks… Instead of profiteering banks, she says, the government should run the Stafford program, making loans directly to students, saving taxpayers and students money.
While there was plenty of media coverage on the mobilization, it certainly wasn’t at the level it could have been had we had a news network behind us as the opposition has had.
But that is not where our strength, and the strength of working people, lies. Our strength comes from organized numbers and members. Organized people coming together for one another, and committing to “being there” for the long haul. That’s always been the JwJ way, and this mobilization certainly had that feel to it.
The “Showdown in Chicago” was an example of where the movement must continue to go. The financial and corporate bosses might own the airwaves and most media, but they can’t control what happens when we decide to take back our streets, jobs, and communities.
Join us in building this movement, you can start today by taking action and sending Congress a message to break up the Banks that are “Too Big to Fail” and making sure the economy works for everyone.
[...] participated in joint actions Wednesday Oct. 29th in solidarity with 400 other JwJ activists who were at the “Showdown in Chicago” taking on the American Bankers Association. In Portland and in Bend they joined up with ENLACE to [...]