Community activists crash CEO’s conclave

A coalition of community activists interrupted a Feb. 3 conference of New York’s corporate elite, demanding that the needs of poor and working-class New Yorkers come before the wishes of Wall Street’s power brokers.

The “Future of New York” conference was held at the posh Grand Hyatt Hotel and featured keynote speakers Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Robert Greifeld, CEO of the NASDAQ stock exchange. The themes of the conference concerned how the city could best meet the demands of the bankers and bosses during this time of economic crisis.

As New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered a speech promising to continue the mayoral tradition of catering to the wishes of Wall Street, community activists from the Right To The City alliance were able to breach conference security. Carrying placards, demonstrators interrupted Bloomberg’s platitudes to say that any discussion on the future of New York must include the voices of poor and working-class New Yorkers. They demanded inclusion in all decision-making processes that will impact their lives and communities.

A number of the demonstrators were unjustly arrested, detained and charged with “disorderly conduct.” (Reuters)

RTTC is a grassroots network of community activists from cities across the U.S. dedicated to resisting gentrification and other anti-people attacks in urban areas. In New York City, RTTC alliance members include such organizations as FIERCE, Community Voices Heard, Make the Road NY, Picture the Homeless and NYC AIDS Housing Network/VOCAL, among others.

In New York, as in other cities and towns across the U.S., jobs are being lost en masse, foreclosures and evictions continue unabated, the cost of public transportation is rising, while social services are being slashed and eliminated. Outraged New Yorkers are uniting to say that the continual handouts by the government to Wall Street at a time when millions of people are teetering on the edge of survival are a callous and criminal assault on the working class that will not be tolerated. It is time for the bankers and bosses to pay for the misery and suffering they have unleashed.

Activists are gearing up for two days of marching on Wall Street on April 3 and 4. The action will coincide with the anniversary of the day Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lost his life in 1968 struggling for social and economic justice. Marchers will demand that the needs of the masses of people who are suffering through this economic meltdown come before the wants of Wall Street and the superrich.

A planning meeting for the April 3-4 march on Wall Street will be held at the CUNY Graduate Center in Manhattan on Feb 18. For more information, visit www.bailoutpeople.org.