Activists vow: On to Wall Street March 24

At a meeting at New York City’s Hostos College on March 5, labor, student and community activists gave a ringing endorsement for a large-scale mobilization to rally at City Hall and march to Wall Street on March 24. The coalition includes numerous public sector unions, the CUNY (City University of New York) Mobilization Network, the South Bronx Community Congress, the Freedom Party, the Coalition for Public Education and the Bail Out the People Movement.

Brenda Stokely, a co-founder of the Million Worker March Movement and former president of AFSCME District Council 1707, called on organizers to “unite and concentrate forces, and take the action plan to all campuses, communities and unions across the city.”

Darnell Morris, an organizer for Service Employees Local 1199, said unionists “need to join with students to mobilize broad and deep” for the March 24 action at City Hall and Wall Street.

Larry Hales, of the CUNY Mobilization Network, told the audience, “Together we can force the mayor and governor not just to hear us, but to change their plans.”

Ramon Jimenez, a founder of the South Bronx Community Congress, made a call for “unity politics” to face “the storm that’s coming” with the proposed budget cuts at city and state levels.

Larry Holmes, of the Bail Out the People Movement, emphasized that the cuts are part of a large-scale, national assault on public sector unions, coming not just from one or two governors, but from Wall Street. “That’s why we need to march on Wall Street. We need to bring what’s happening in Wisconsin to New York,” Holmes declared