Anger At Bank Bailouts Hits DC Streets

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Chanting “Shame! Shame! Shame!” over 100 activists and angry taxpayers held a midday protest outside AIG’s K Street offices Thursday. The demonstration was one of dozens held across the country outside major banks to vent popular anger at the corporate bailout that crystallized this week around the payment of millions of dollars in bonuses for AIG employees. “We gotta pay our bills, pay our rent, ask CEOs where the money went” was another popular chant at the downtown DC action, as demonstrators angrily rattled soda-can noisemakers and media cameras flocked to capture the populist outpouring. Speakers - including a Maryland resident having trouble paying his mortgage, a healthcare activist and SEIU President Andy Stern - criticized the bank bailouts by American taxpayers at a time when millions of working Americans “are losing their homes and have no healthcare.” “It’s not enough to ask for half the bonuses back,” said Stern, referring to AIG CEO Edward Liddy’s request Wednesday to AIG bonus recipients. “Restitution is not enough; we want prosecution!” Click here for the AFL-CIO Now Blog’s take on the issue, “Contracts Can’t Be Broken—Unless They Involve Union Workers.” Thursday’s protests were sponsored by a range of organizations, including MoveOn.org, SEIU, Jobs With Justice, the Coalition of Labor Union Women and United Students Against Sweatshops.
- report by Chris Garlock, photo by Adam Wright