protesters in the loop – Chicago showdown
posted on 11 November 2009
Images from the action in Chicago at the American Banking Association’s annual gala.
Community and union activists organized three days of protest. Workers were bused to the event from surrounding states to denounce the nation’s banks for their mismanagement and greed and the government’s big-bank favoring response to the economic crisis.
Over the course of the three day bankers conference protesters staged marches, rallies and prayer vigils and hung banners from bridges and viaducts in downtown Chicago. The protesters also crashed an ironically themed “roaring ’20s” gala ball held the first night of the ABA conference.
Protesters detailed the astounding facts that characterize the continuing economic crisis; every 13 seconds another family’s home goes into foreclosure and more than 6 millions jobs have been lost over the past few years. Banks have received cash and guarantees from the government of more than $13 trillion, but credit has dried up for consumers and small businesses.
These photographs were taken on the final day of the event where a crowd of 5000 heard speeches and words of encouragement from AFL-CIO President, Richard Trumpka, UE Local President, Armando Robles, Rev. Jessie Jackson and community activists, workers and homeowners.
Director of the group Action Now said the banker bailout is the “largest transfer of wealth the African American community has ever seen,” as she read a “roll call” of the numbers of foreclosures in Chicago’s neighborhoods. There have been over 44,000 foreclosures in Chicago since the crisis began.
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