Marchers keep pressure on Con Ed

Photo: Western Queens Power for the People Campaign

On the evening of July 17, people who live and work in Western Queens, N.Y., gathered for a rally and “flashlight march” through the streets of Sunnyside and Woodside to mark the first anniversary of last summer’s 10-day-long Queens power outage. The event was organized by the Western Queens Power for the People Campaign.

Chanting “Con Ed, it’s payback time!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, the Con Ed rate hike’s got to go,” some 100 marchers carrying flashlights sent a message to Con Ed management to accept fault for last year’s outage and to pay what it still owes to residents and small businesses who suffered losses.

Protesters also said “No!” to the giant utility’s request for a rate increase of 17 percent for residents and 10.7 percent for businesses. They were greeted by smiles, waves and applause from residents, workers and small shop owners along the route, which passed through working class, immigrant neighborhoods affected by the 2006 outage. For more information on this struggle, go to www.powerforthepeople.info.

—Mary Owen