By Mike Clifford

New York, NY—“Our voices must be heard not just here, but all the way to Washington DC…So---Good Jobs for All, Good Jobs for All…

Protestors lined the sidewalks from New York’s City Hall all the way to Wall Street sending a message that it’s time for Wall Street to stop playing casino games with the economy and time to start backing investments that will pay dividends and provide jobs for working people.

Rich Nebb (Public Employees Federation) “We are all hurting: people who have jobs are hurting because we’re going to bear a lot more brunt of the tax burden from all the people who don’t have jobs. People who don’t have jobs are hurting—they don’t got money to put food on the family table, they don’t got money to pay the mortgage—it’s not right, it’s not fair.”

Jim Fox (NY State Public Employees Federation) “Well we’re out here like everybody else is out here, to protest against Wall Street; it’s really affecting everybody. We have a larger group than we usually do, because it’s really now affecting state employees—Civil Servants. This week here because of Wall Street, we’re taking a 20% cut in our pay—not fair!”

Electrical worker Jim Brown is nearing retirement, but that’s in question now after a major corporation cashed-in the plant he had been working for, for most of his adult life.

Jim Brown: (Local 81359 IUE-CWA) “I’m 59, I had 35 years with General Electric and they sold me to a power management and then they cut my wages almost in half, so that means my pension with them will be cut in half—real nice..huh!”

Clifford: “So you don’t think you’re keeping up with the people on Wall Street?”

Brown: “I don’t think so, I think they’re a little bit ahead, a little bit younger too.”

Clifford: “How do fix that?”

Brown: “How do I fix it; right here, right now, tell ‘em how we feel and hopefully they’ll get a message.”

Also in the crowd were everyday New Yorkers with no union ties. People like Ed Cahill who believes Wall Street helped sour to the local economy to the point where he faces eviction from his apartment.

Ed Cahill (New Yorker who faces eviction from his Lower East Side Apartment): “There were people on Wall Street who knew that this collapse was going to happen. They could have the choice of notifying the proper authorities that a 1929 Stock Market Crash was on its way, or they could profit from it; and I think it’s disgusting that they didn’t report it to the authorities—that’s kind of disgusting to me.

Some New York Union Leaders decided to skip this event---Local 46 Business Manager Bob Ledwith says all this Wall Street Bashing could be counterproductive for the average worker.

Ledwith: “I think that right now, the way the economy is unsettled—Yes, they are nefarious in what they did, they were wrong, they should be prosecuted; but we depend in New York so much on Wall Street economy, that if we continue to press too hard on matters that are outside of our jurisdiction if you will, I think we’re going to hurt ourselves and the economy of New York City—consequently all working people I believe will suffer.

From the management side of the debate, Building Trades Association President Louis Coletti saw the protest as a chance to give Wall Street a reminder that some debt can be constructive if it is used to back real ventures and not just paper.

Colletti: “We’ve seen how creative Wall Street can be in coming up with new financial vehicles; we need them at the table to come up with some financial creativity to help us fund making this city and this country more competitive.”

Colletti say the financial sector’s response to World War II was the creation of Savings Bonds. Now, he says Wall Street could respond to today’s economic crisis by creating a National Infrastructure Bank which could raise capital for labor intensive much needed improvement projects and would allow New Yorkers and American’s participate in the payment.

Colletti: “Construction is the highest economic multiplier, we are falling behind the rest of the world in our transportation, and infrastructure, and school construction—and we need to create good union construction jobs to strengthen the middle class of this city.”

It’s little coincidence workers picked as their theme song before marching off…Little Respecting…reporting from New York, Mike Clifford Worker’s Independent News.