Utahns protest $700 billion bailout plan

Nearly two dozen Utahns protested the financial industry bailout at a Friday afternoon rally at the Federal Building downtown.

They carried signs saying, "Bush's $700B Blank Check," "Say Bye-Bye Social Security," "Congress Will Be Held Accountable," "Brother, Can You Spare 700 Billion Dimes?" and "Who Would Jesus Bail Out?"

"It's definitely going to affect workers. It's going to affect all of us," said Linda Parsons, director of Utah Jobs with Justice, a coalition that organized the event. "The propaganda that was put out was that this was going to help payrolls and pensions and keep everything going and flowing. But the bailout is just to bail out the rich, Wall Street, and it will cause another recession on Main Street, on working people. ... It's nothing but to bail out the rich."

Brett Windley, organizer and director of labor relations for Iron Workers Local 27, which has about 700 members in five states, said the bailout will not help America's poor and middle class.

"The bottom-line offering to the people who are losing their homes, losing their jobs, losing their health care, losing their education and pensions are bigger and bigger budget cuts to vital social services," Windley said.

Companies have failed because of their leaders' "gross neglect, their greed and quite possibly their incompetence," he said. "It's not your fault. It's not my fault. Why then is it that our tax dollars (will be used) to bail out these greedheads? ... This irresponsible legislation has to be reworked to benefit all Americans and not just a small percentage of our citizens."

He called for a reworking of the legislation passed Friday so that it would contain provisions including a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions; a freeze on job layoffs; an extension of unemployment benefits; rollbacks on prices for gasoline, food and utilities; protections for worker pensions and a moratorium on budget cuts for social programs.

"The $700 billion giveaway includes $100 billion in tax breaks for corporations, yet there is no relief for America's working people who are facing foreclosure. There is no relief for our citizens that don't have health care, and no relief for our jobless or any breaks for education," Windley said. "This is unacceptable."

E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com

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