Bring the message of the G20 Protests to Wall Street April 3 & 4 'Bail Out the People, Not the Banks!'

Friday April 3 - While Wall Street is open
Rally 1:00 pm at Wall St .& Broadway, followed by a march to AIG

Saturday April 4 - Rally at 12:00 pm at Williams & Nassau (near Wall St.) Then march

APRIL 3: 1pm Rally on Wall Street & march to AIG
APRIL 4: 12 noon - Rally on Wall Street followed by march

Friday, April 3 Rally

Gather at 1pm on Wall Street at Broadway (map)
Rally on Broadway from Wall Street south to Exchange and block further South to the 'Bull'. There will be contingents of youth, women, worker and immigrant rights, and more. Check back for details over the next few days!

MARCH on AIG

• We will march through the narrow streets of the New York Financial District - Major financial institutions are all along Broadway and within one block of Rally - Chase, Fidelity, American Express, the New York Stock Exchange, the Federal Reserve, and more.
• We will march east on Pine to the AIG Buildings at 70 Pine and 80 Pine and then to the AIG Building on Water St.
• Then, we will march north on Water Street, which becomes Pearl Street, then becomes St James Place, turn west on Worth Street at Chatham Square in Chinatown to Centre Street, for an ending rally at 5:15 in Foley Square.
• March route is only 1.2 miles total through busy office and housing areas at rush hour.

Public Transportation to Wall St: (map)

• 2, 4, or 5 to Wall Street
• R or W to Rector Street
• J, M or Z to Broad Street
• M1, M6 or M15 to Broadway-Nassau/Fulton Street
• NJ PATH trains to World Trade Center and 5 minute walk.

Public Transportation from Foley Square after ending rally (map)

• J,M, Z, 4, 5, 6, at Foley Square
• 2, 3, at Park Place and Broadway
• A, C, at Chambers and Church St
• 1, 2, 3, at Chambers & West Broadway
• NJ PATH trains to World Trade Center- a 7 minute walk

Bus Drop Off:
on Broadway at Wall Street on west side of street

Bus Parking and Pick Up:
On Church Street between Worth and Leonard.
>From Foley Square go 2 blocks North on Worth Street to Church Street.

Saturday, April 4

RALLY
Gather with chanting, drumming and music: 12 Noon to 1:00pm on Nassau between Wall Street and Pine – over looking NY Stock Exchange and in front of the Federal Reserve and Chase Bank (map) Enter area at Pine and Broadway go East one SHORT block to Nassau This is just a block from the Friday Rally site.

We will join United for Peace and Justice as they come by at Pine and Broadway, about 1:00pm. One block further at Wall and Broadway the whole march will turn Left down Wall Street, turn Right at Broad Street and the NY Stock Exchange, then turn Right on Exchange and go back to Broadway. From there the march will proceed South to Battery Park.

Bail Out People will have a table, displays and literature at Battery Park, along Eisenhower Way, going West toward Castle Clinton. Be sure to come by our table.

SATURDAY Bus Drop-off:
Broadway, between Wall and Pine on the West Side of street (map)

SATURDAY Bus Parking and Pick-up
Water Street between Broad Street and Old Slip
This is about 3 blocks EAST of the ending site at Battery Park

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for FRIDAY and SATURDAY RALLIES

and for WORK SESSIONS on Wed and Thurs at 55 W. 17th St 2 to 9pm

On FRIDAY volunteers should be at Wall Street and Broadway by 11:30 to help set up sound, tables, banners etc.

At END Rally at Foley Square we need help in packing the truck for the next day’s March and Rally and picking up ALL trash, signs, papers in Foley Square.

We have to post and large clean-up bond and insurance with the NYC Parks Department. This bond is only returned if we leave the Foley Park area clean.

On SATURDAY volunteers should be at Pine and Broadway or a block down at Nassau between Pine and Wall Street by 11:00am.

Again we will need help on set-up and sound for the Rally

A few VOLUNTEERS will still be needed at Bail Out People site at Nassau between Pine and Wall to pack up materials and direct latecomers to the day's events at Battery Park.

Marching on Wall St. to Fulfill King’s Dream: A Jobs Program

By New York City Council Member Charles Barron and Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 808; past President of the Teamsters National Black Caucus

We will be amongst the many speakers at the “Bail Out People, Not Banks” rally on Wall St. on Friday, April 3.

On Friday morning, just a few hours before the Wall St. rally, the bureau of labor statistics is going to announce that another two-thirds of a million workers got laid off in March.

This is one of the reasons why we intend to use the time allotted us to speak, to call for the creation of a massive jobs program. We are going to call it the “Fulfill King’s Dream Jobs Program” in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

We have four reasons for associating King’s name with the jobs program. The first reason is that April 4 will mark the 41st anniversary of Dr. King’s martyrdom. The second reason is that King devoted the final months of his life to launching a movement for the right of all to either a job or an income.

King saw the struggle for the right to a job or an income as nothing less than the second phase of the civil rights movement. Securing a job at a living wage for all was the central demand of the poor people's campaign that King initiated in late 1967.

The third reason is that at no time in our lifetime has the need for the massive jobs program that King dreamed about been more urgently needed. Depression-level layoffs and home foreclosures are populating new tent cities from coast to coast. Whole families are living under bridges and in parks on the outskirts of cities.

The real unemployment rate, if you count those who want full-time jobs but can only find part-time or temporary work, is upwards of 15 percent. Everyone from the World Bank to the National Urban League says that the jobless rate is only going to get worse.

The latest “State of Black America” report, issued by the National Urban League, confirms what everyone already knows. While very few, regardless of race and gender, are not harmed or threatened by the biggest worldwide economic collapse since the 1930s, it is the Black and Latin@ communities that are the most devastated by the crisis--especially Black and Latin@ youth. Jail is not the jobs program for young people that King dreamed about; it is his and should be our worst nightmare.

The unemployment crisis demands a real jobs program, something equal to the size and scope of the Work Projects Administration created by Congress in 1935 to put millions of jobless people to work.

In its first year the WPA created more than 3.4 million jobs (the equivalent of about 10 million jobs today). Under the WPA, workers were paid the prevailing wage in the industry or vocation they worked in.

The stimulus legislation passed by Congress in February may help ease the suffering of some, but it’s not going to reverse or even halt the soaring jobless rate. There is no jobs program currently in effect or even under serious consideration by the government that comes even close to the seriousness and size of the WPA.

Where do we get the money for such a jobs program? When the government is prepared to pump trillions of dollars into the banking system, the question is not where will the money come from, but rather what need should it be devoted to. The $200 billion that the government has given AIG alone could have created anywhere between 3 to 4 million jobs that pay a living wage.

There is another important point that makes the WPA jobs program relevant to today’s crisis. The WPA should have started at an earlier stage of the U.S. and global depression 75 years ago. However, the government delayed putting a serious jobs program in place until it was painfully clear that waiting for the banks to be fixed before putting the jobless back to work was a huge mistake. We must not make the same mistake again.

We don’t think King believed that meeting the needs of the poor and the unemployed must be contingent upon the solvency of JP Morgan Chase, Citicorp, Bank Of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, etc.; or contingent on the power of these big banks to turn the economy on and off depending on what makes them richer.

The belief that until the banks are fixed, there can be no jobs, no economy and nothing but layoffs, evictions, cutbacks, fare hikes, tuition increases, etc., is not some commandment decreed by heaven; it’s a rule made down here on Earth to protect the interest of the few against that of the many.

We refuse to accept the rules that say that the only good way to do things is the way that makes rich capitalists happy and leaves the rest of us at their mercy. Such rules must be changed. The only certain thing is that nothing will change unless people demand it.

Here’s our fourth reason for naming the jobs program after Dr. King. The election of an African-American president is without a doubt the realization of a part of King’s dream. But a president is not a substitute for a mass movement for social justice.

King knew that the captains of industry were not going to suddenly wake up one morning believing that the cause of economic and social justice was superior to their profit motive and thus create good paying jobs for the poor. King knew that it would take a mass social movement to get the job done.

It is a mistake--and a dangerous one--for those of us who are still rejoicing over how we made history last November to simply sit on the sidelines and wait to see how things turn out, instead of raising hell. King served the interests of the downtrodden and oppressed. Obama must serve all sides. To the extent that Obama wants to do things that directly bail out poor and working people, don’t forget that there are powerful people in Washington and on Wall St. who are dedicated to stopping him. Those powerful people will prevail unless they see and hear the angry masses marching in the streets below their ivory towers.

The popular outrage over the bailout of the banks is a precious and powerful force. It should not--it must not--be wasted. Let’s focus that anger into the struggle for the things that we need.

We’ll be on Wall St. on Friday, April 3 demanding that the unemployed be bailed out with a real jobs program. We invite you to join us.