Activists Stage "Main Street" Sit-In at Majority Leader Cantor's Office

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Hundreds of activists demanding a “Main Street Contract” staged a sit-in outside House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R., VA 7) Richmond district office Thursday. Another group was blocked from attending a "Citizen’s Advisory Council Meeting" Wednesday night by police and private security. 

Chanting “Hey hey ho ho, Cantor’s lies have got to go” and singing “This Land is Your Land,” the labor, community and religious activists on Thursday – including many from the metro DC area -- were initially barred from entering Cantor’s office by local police.

The event was one of over 60 held across the country demanding action on the economic crisis and organized by National Nurses United “to heal America.” The events ranged from soup kitchens to help feed the hungry to community speak outs, and from urban centers like Boston and Chicago to smaller towns like Corpus Christi, Texas, Marquette, Mich., and Dayton, Ohio. 

“Mr. Cantor talks a lot about shared sacrifice, but working families have already sacrificed,” Virginia State AFL-CIO President Doris Crouse-Mays told Cantor staff during a brief meeting with a delegation of activists. “Now it’s time for Wall Street to sacrifice a little.” The Richmond delegation urged Cantor to sign a pledge to support a Wall Street transaction tax. “As nurses, we see the broad declines in health and living standards that are a direct result of patients and families struggling with lack of jobs, un-payable medical bills, hunger and homelessness,” NNU Co-president Karen Higgins, RN added. “We know where to find the resources to bring them hope and real solutions.” 

But Cantor “is a symptom, not the disease,” warned legendary civil rights activist Dr. Ferguson Reed at a rally outside  Cantor’s office. Reed traced the attacks on working people and America’s middle class back to long-term support for regressive state laws by right-wing funders the Koch Brothers. “They’re stealing democracy and it’s up to us to stop this,” Reed told the crowd, who cheered Metro Council President Jos Williams’ impromptu sermon on Cantor’s need for redemption. “Tax Wall Street!” they chanted.

On Wednesday night, while more than 200 constituents, workers and community activists demanded "Good jobs, now!" outside a Richmond hotel,  Cantor hid behind a wall of police and private security at his "Citizen’s Advisory Council Meeting" inside. The job-slashing House majority leader was eager to avoid the protestors, who arrived for an afternoon meeting in the same hotel only to find themselves locked out of a ballroom they had rented for the gathering. Halted at the hotel's property line by squads of county police, the group staged a highly visible, impromptu rally across the street, their chants amplified by the honking horns of sympathetic passing drivers. "Cantor Owned By the U.S Corpratocracy" read the sign held by Lynn West of Glen Allen. "He has no clue about people who have no savings," she said. "He's owned by the big businesses."
- report/photos by Chris Garlock