It was an overcast afternoon but people still turned out for a very spirited rally organized in a very short time by the New York City Central Labor Council. People came from a whole range of unions–Teamsters, Teachers, UAW, RWDSU, Laborers, AFSCME…John Sweeney was there. Gary Labarbera, the head of the CLC, lead off the rally. Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT and UFT, was in high form…outrage and demands all rolled into one.

   And people were extremely pissed off. The recurrent theme: some how the government is able to dig up $700 billion to bail out bankers who screwed up the economy because of their greed but no money is to be found for national health care, teachers’ salaries and decent wages for working people. When Hank Paulson’s buddies call, the printing press starts rolling. When workers call, the cupboard is bare. Jim Conigliaro (Jimmy, I may have butchered your last name there), from the Machinists, pointed out that after September 11, the government doled out a ton of money to rescue several airlines–who, then, turned around and demanded wage cuts from workers and dumped workers’ pensions.

   And I guess it takes an economy cratering for the pathetic press to care what labor has to say–the press turn-out was big; CNN carried a live feed of the start of the rally at noon. The press wakes up–finally–after standing with its collective thumb up its ass, crowing about housing prices going up and not seeing the inevitable disaster. Along with the CEOs, if we could clean house, I’d sweep out the press pundits and lame reporters who are clueless when it comes to the economy…except when they want to fawn over the great "free market".

   Anyway, this is what it looked like:

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And…

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Randi Weingarten…

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Gary LaBarbera…

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And the clueless, pathetic press…

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Kudos to the labor folks in NYC who acted as fast as possible–and to John Sweeney for coming to the streets of Wall Street.