Several thousand demonstrators marched through the New York financial district on Thursday in a protest led by labor unions, saying Wall Street’s biggest banks must account for record profits while average Americans still suffer financially.
Spearheaded by the AFL-CIO, the march made its way through the downtown Manhattan financial district with signs saying “Wall Street overdrafted our economy” and “Reclaim America, hold banks accountable.”
The march featured a variety of organizations and labor unions with grievances about the economy and jobs.
Union member Kurt Hallman, an electrician who was marching in the rally, said the big banks “let everybody here sink to the bottom.”
“They tightened up all the loaning. Now there’s no money,” he said. “These guys who gave themselves billion dollar bonuses.”
The US Senate began debating an overhaul of the US financial system on Thursday after Republicans for three days threatened to ground proceedings to a halt.
Support for the Democrats’ push on Wall Street reform was boosted following a Senate hearing this week in which executives from giant investment bank Goldman Sachs faced questioning about the company’s ethics and treatment of clients.
“Big Banks tanked our economy and took our money when they needed a bailout,” AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka said in a column posted on the Huffington Post Web site. “The bottom line is Wall Street should pay to clean up the mess they made and Congress must enact strong Wall Street reform.”
Last week US President Barack Obama delivered a speech in New York in which he scolded Wall Street for fighting tighter regulation and said legislation was needed to avoid future crises.
One group at the rally dubbed itself “The Other 98 Percent” and called for policies that focus on “the rest of us” instead of the wealthy.
“We’re not here to say get rid of the markets,” said Marco Ceglie, a co-founder, “just that they need adult supervision.”
Before the rally, noisy protesters with signs took over two bank building lobbies.
Hours before the scheduled rally, more than 100 people entered a midtown Manhattan building housing JPMorgan Chase offices. They handed a bank executive a letter requesting a meeting with the CEO, and chanted “Bust up! Big banks!” and “People power!”
A half-hour later, they were calmly escorted outside by officers, who remained expressionless as the protesters chanted, “The police need a raise.” They then walked a few blocks up Park Avenue and crowded into the lobby of the Seagram Building, where Wells Fargo and the bank it merged with in 2008, Wachovia, have offices.
The protesters held up signs reading, “Save Our Jobs” and “Save Our Homes.” One included a Great Depression-era photograph. Police arrived on horseback as curious office workers watched the scene unfold from their windows.
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