STUDENT-LABOR-COMMUNITY ALLIANCE CALLS FOR MASSIVE CITY HALL-TO-WALL STREET MOBILIZATION MARCH 24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 7, 2011

CONTACT: RAMON JIMENEZ, 917-517-1320 Email: LaborCommunityForum@gmail.com

At a meeting at Hostos College on Saturday, March 5, some 200 labor, student and community activists gave a ringing endorsement for a large-scale mobilization to rally at City Hall and march to Wall Street on March 24. The coalition includes numerous public sector unions, the CUNY Mobilization Network, the South Bronx Community Congress, the Freedom Party, the Coalition for Public Education, and the Bail Out the People Movement.

Rally co-chair Brenda Stokely, a co-founder of the Million Worker March Movement and former President of AFSCME District Council 1707, called on organizers to “unite and concentrate forces, and take the action plan to all campuses, communities and unions across the city.”

Darnell Morris, a member and activist in District 1199/Service Employees International Union (SEIU), said unionists in New York City “need to join with students to mobilize broad and deep” for the March 24 action at City Hall and Wall Street.

Larry Hales, of the CUNY Mobilization Network, highlighted the close working relationship students at various CUNY campuses have forged in recent weeks with public sector unions, in particular AFSCME District Council 37 and Transport Workers Union Local 100. “Together we can force the mayor and governor not just to hear us, but to change their plans,” he said.

Ramon Jimenez, a founder of the South Bronx Community Congress and 2010 Freedom Party candidate for New York state Attorney General, made a call for “unity politics” to face the “storm that’s coming” with the proposed budget cuts at city and state levels.

Larry Holmes of the Bail Out the People Movement emphasized that the cuts are part of a large-scale national assault on public sector unions, coming not from one or two governors, but from Wall Street. “That’s why we need to march on Wall Street,” Holmes declared.

Labor groups represented at the March 5 meeting included DC37 Locals 371, 372, 374, 375, 1549; Teamsters Local 808, Transport Workers Union Local 100; Districts 1199 and 32BJ of the SEIU, and others.

A steering committee for the March 24 March on Wall Street was formed, including leaders of each of the sponsoring groups and representatives of several of the participating unions. The next planning meeting for the March 24 action will be Wednesday, March 9, at the DC37 office on Barclay Street in lower Manhattan. For more information contact Ramon Jimenez of the South Bronx Community Congress at 917-517-1320, Larry Hales of the CUNY Mobilization Network at 720-979-9491, or email LaborCommunityForum@gmail.com.