Thousands march against ‘austerity’

WW photo: John Catalinotto

As New York state’s legislature and governor were meeting to plan a budget that will cut billions in social spending, thousands of New York’s students, workers and community activists participated in a “Day of Rage” on March 24. The rally, organized by a coalition of students, labor unions and community activists called New Yorkers Against the Budget Cuts, opened with a rally at City Hall that challenged billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his offensive against public education. It then marched to the city’s financial district — where billions of dollars are hoarded while the people of New York suffer.

In a press statement, Larry Hales of the CUNY Mobilization Network said that organizers planned a march to Wall Street “to highlight the source of the problem.” He noted, “The banks and Wall Street investors have looted the public treasury while giving nothing back. All the budget cuts could be avoided simply by making the banks and investors pay their share of taxes. We are organizing to stop layoffs and budget cuts and to reclaim the public funds to use them for the workers, communities and students.”

Brenda Stokely, former president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 1707 and a co-founder of the Million Worker March Movement, said, “The public is being misled to believe that they should be against workers’ right to organize and bargain for just wages, benefits and work conditions. Workers cannot allow ourselves to be scapegoated or divided by those who created this economic disaster.”

Large contingents included students from the Hunter College School of Social Work and AFSCME District Council 37. Members of the Professional Staff Congress at the City University of New York attended, as did students from Brooklyn College. Speakers at the rally included Chris Silvera, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 808; Lucy Pagoada of Honduras USA Resistencia and the May 1 Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights; and New York City Councilperson Charles Barron.

The rally’s demands included jobs, not layoffs; affordable housing; an end to cuts in social services; no union busting or privatization; an extension of the millionaire tax, which has a higher personal income tax rate for the wealthy that currently brings the city $1.5 billion in revenue; the closing of tax loopholes that allow corporations to avoid paying taxes; a return of the stock transfer tax, which would impose a tax on every purchase of a share of stock; and restoring community control of schools and an end to mayoral control.

A follow-up meeting will be held on March 30 to discuss future plans, including coalition building, an April 4 day of action in solidarity with Wisconsin workers, the April 9 anti-war protests called by the United National Antiwar Committee, and the annual May 1 protest for worker and immigrant rights. For more information visit march24ny.wordpress.com.