Some of 15,000 protesters who marched on Wall Street banks and billionaires May 12
NYC Mayor Bloomberg plans disastrous budget cuts
LABOR NOTES
May 13, 2011
By Mark Brenner
Wall Street protest 2009
Sick of bankers and corporate honchos making out like bandits, 15,000 people marched through the caverns of Wall Street yesterday. Unions and community groups rallied together against staggering layoffs and budget cuts.They aimed much of their fury at Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He plans brutal cuts to education and services for the poor, while millionaires will pay even less tax next year and banks continue to rack up huge tax breaks.Wall Street protest 2009
If Bloomberg’s budget passes, teachers could see 4,100 layoffs. Meal services and housing assistance for low-income people living with HIV could be eliminated. Childcare and senior centers are on the chopping block.
Eight separate marches converged on Wall Street, as unions and community groups rallied together to demand the city end corporate property tax exemptions and renegotiate contracts with big banks that the city pays to manage payments.
Instead of gathering to listen to big-name speakers at a main stage, activists from a broad swath of groups traveled the crowd holding small-scale teach-ins and performing street theater, explaining the services at stake and how taxes really work to each other. Stilt-walkers, drum corps, and musical accompaniment turned interludes into impromptu dance breaks.
Wall Street bail-out protest 2010
“This budget crisis would be over if the banks had used the bailout money to help the people,” said Kevin Scrobola of Communications Workers Local 1103. “Now we’re being asked to pay the price for the rich? I don’t think so!”
Last year corporate profits exploded, jumping 29 percent to $1.65 trillion. CEO salaries saw a similar bounce, and Wall Street executives raked in $21 billion in bonuses, the fifth highest payout ever.
Recent reports from the GAO, the federal auditing agency, show that two out of every three corporations are paying zero federal income taxes, and most of the Fortune 500 pays a lower proportion of their earnings in federal taxes than working folks. Meanwhile, corporate giants like General Electric, Bank of America, and Boeing have gotten away with paying no taxes at all.
And after tossing some of that money to politicians, the wealthy have made sure the lion’s share stays in their pockets. Individual tax collections are lower than at any time since Eisenhower was president, and even the Obama administration is doing its part for the top 1 percent, extending the Bush tax cuts until 2012.
In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has refused to renew a millionaires’ tax worth $4.6 billion a year—which protesters Thursday demanded legislators reconsider.
But you wouldn’t know that Corporate America is rolling in it. Politicians from city hall to the White House point to their empty coffers and say the only place to find any loose money is in the pockets of firefighters, lunch ladies, and janitors.
That’s why thousands of people swarmed lower Manhattan Thursday.
“We’re here to bring the fight to the banks, and demand an end to the tax breaks for the rich,” said Brunilda Leow, a janitor with Service Employees 32BJ. “Union members or not, we all deserve dignity.”
Eduardo Soriano-Castillo contributed to this article.
http://labornotes.org/2011/05/payback-time-activists-shine-light-billionaires-and-bankers
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