NEWS

One year after the gove
ment bailed out Wall Street, activists plan to protest a meeting of the Financial Services Roundtable Thursday in Washington. DC Jobs with Justice, unions and consumer protection groups organized a demonstration outside the meeting of the Roundtable — a group of 90 finance and insurance companies — to demand accountability for the bailout money, a halt to anti-worker and anti-consumer lobbying, and to demand real economic recovery for working families.
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Calling Mayor Adrian Fenty a “rogue Mayor,” more than a hundred District workers, labor activists and community allies gathered outside the DC City Council September 22nd to demand an end to Fenty’s anti-worker and anti-family behavior.

DC cabbies will join child- and healthcare workers, parents and community members on September 22nd for a rally at the DC District Building. The Take Back DC rally, which coincides with the Council’s first legislative session, is part of a broader campaign to protect public services for all District residents, strengthen transparency in the way the City does business and hold elected officials accountable.
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This week DC Jobs with Justice Launched the Take Back DC Coalition, a broad-based campaign led by labor and community groups working to protect public services for all District residents, strengthen transparency in the way the City does business and hold elected officials accountable by demanding:
* an immediate halt to the privatization of public services and land
* an impact-assessment of recently privatized services
* honoring of union contracts and bargaining in good faithr

Over 150 workers, labor leaders and community activists demonstrated outside the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Northwest DC last night, filling the busy co
er block to capacity as they walked the picket line chanting “Fired workers, corruption too, Fenty don’t deserve any money from you!” Charging that DC Mayor Adrian Fenty has “tu
ed his back on the people who got him elected,” the demonstrators were angry that he has “used his time in office to promote privatization and private profit to the detriment of DC residents and workers.” A

When the Fenty administration closed 23 DC schools last year, housing advocates wa
ed that the public property would wind up in private developer’s hands. A year later — despite promises that he would not sell any of the schools – Fenty has solicited proposals from private developers to develop 11 of the schools into luxury condos. Meanwhile, the District gove
ment is spending almost $150 million a year in rent for gove
ment offices.