‘Hands off Social Security!’

Chanting “Social Security, yes! War profits, no!” about 30 demonstrators challenged Vice President Dick Cheney at an invitation-only town hall meeting on Social Security held at Campbell High School in Smyrna, Ga., May 2. The protest garnered media coverage on all the local television stations as well as in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The demonstrators, who ranged in age from high school students to retired seniors, made the connections between the campaign of lies of the Bush administration leading up to the Iraq War, the war profiteering of companies like Halli burton—Cheney’s former roost—off the blood of U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens, and the attacks on programs that benefit workers and the poor like Social Security.

The demonstration was organized on short notice by the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition and the International Action Center.

On May 3, Bill Lucy, secretary-treasurer of national AFSCME and leader of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, was the featured speaker at a community forum on Social Security held at First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta. He issued a call for all workers—employed, retired, unemployed, disabled or in school—to fight any attempts to privatize Social Security, which would send billions of dollars of workers’ money to Wall street brokers.

—Dianne Mathiowetz