Activists protest bailouts near Wall Street

NEW YORK – Several hundred demonstrators protested near Wall Street on Friday against the handling of the US economic crisis, government bailouts of private banks and corporations and bonuses paid out at insurer AIG.

Members of worker rights, healthcare and anti-war groups gathered in the rain holding posters that read ‘Bail Out the Unemployed’ and ‘No More $ For Wall St & War.’
They also shouted demands for more jobs.
‘This crisis is growing more dire every day with so many people being kicked out of their home and jobs,’ said Dustin Langley, a spokesman for the ‘Bail Out The People Movement’, the main protest organiser that called for a moratorium on US home foreclosures and the creation of a national jobs programme.
Hundreds of protesters lined up on Broadway to march past the headquarters of American International Group and close to the New York Stock Exchange and financial giants Bank of America, Chase and American Express, but were not permitted on Wall Street.
The rally was held as the rate of unemployment in the United States soared to 8,5 per cent, the highest in 25 years, after employers cut 663 000 jobs in March.
Michael Feinberg, 51, a rabbi who runs a non-profit workers rights group, held a sign that read ‘Regulate The Profiteers,’ and argued that corporations who helped plunge the economy into recession should not have received bailout money.
That money should have been used to put people to work, to create jobs and healthcare, not to reward greedy financial speculators,’ he said. ‘This has to be a wake-up call that we have to change our national priorities about the way we do business in this country.’
– Nampa-Reuters