Occupy DC & Labor Demand Infrastructure Investment

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Protestors massed on the Key Bridge last night to demand jobs and investment in rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. In a well-coordinated Infrastructure Investment Day of Action -- part of a national Day of Action -- CWA’s 2-day march by Verizon workers from Silver Spring met up with Occupy DC at McPherson Square where a WTU 6/AFT rally for rebuilding schools had just concluded, and several hundred then marched west on K Street and through Georgetown, chanting “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out” whenever they passed a bank. The father of a family of four marching hand-in-hand told Union City he was there because of “a general sense of outrage. Privatizing of profits and socializing of risks is ridiculous.” At the Key Bridge the marchers met up with Our DC demonstrators and drew approving honks of support from passing motorists as the sun set over the Potomac and an American flag with corporate logos in place of the 50 stars fluttered in the chilly breeze above the crowd stretching across the bridge. Congressional Republicans have twice blocked President Obama’s attempts to put America back to work repairing bridges, schools and other parts of the infrastructure–first when they filibustered the American Jobs Act and then when they blocked the Rebuild America Act. A 70-year-old member of Our DC said he was there “because my granddaughter has over one hundred thousand dollars of debt from her education.” Looking approvingly at the crowd lining the bridge he said “it’s good and it’s not gonna stop.” The “We are the 99 percent” chant at the march was echoed at a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill yesterday afternoon, as working and retired Americans joined together to tell lawmakers not to balance the budget on the backs of the 99 percent, as a joint congressional committee has threatened to do through proposed cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. - report/photos by Chris Garlock; photo: Ken Lerch (President, Letter Carriers 3825), Jos Williams (President, Metro Washington Council), and Carl Goldman (Executive Director, AFSCME Council 26) lead the march through Georgetown