Rolling summer protests against devastating sequestration and austerity policies made their first stop in Chicago Thursday when hundreds flooded the downtown headquarters of General Electric then marched to the office of so-called progressive Illinois Senator Dick Durbin to demand corporations pay their fair share.
The boisterous protest was one of 10 sweeping U.S. cities this week, from Bangor, Maine to Los Angeles, California, organized by economic and racial justice group National People’s Action. Under the banner ‘Outing Corporate Evil,’ these actions go after tax-dodging mega-corporations like GE and Verizon and the politicians who back their interests, to demand a people’s budget based on preserving vital services, ahead of the September deadline for the federal budget.
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“Today, we let corporate power and its allies in government know that we see what they’re doing, and we are ready to stand up and call them out on it,” Toby Chow of Fair Illinois told Common Dreams. “We think the country needs to re-prioritize investing in the common good.”
Organized by NPA, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, Northside Power and One Southside, the mobilization brought out people from over a dozen churches and community groups, organizers told Common Dreams.
“We’ve served Bridgeport for more than 100 years,” said Kristina Tendilla of Benton House and a leader in SOUL. “We see the need firsthand and we see how the sequestration cuts and the evisceration of the social safety net affect our community. These policies prey on people like Alice, a grandmother, who lost her daughter 2 years ago and now is the sole provider for her grandchildren. She told me she often skips meals so they will have more to eat.”
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