A militant march of
New Mexico activists Dec. 30 demanded a halt to government-imposed
budget cuts and addressed other pressing concerns. Chants such as
“Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!” and
“People’s needs not corporate greed!” burst out across downtown
Albuquerque for more than three hours.
The highly
organized action initiated by (Un)occupy Albuquerque’s
anti-capitalist working group brought out the labor, anti-war,
immigrant rights, anti-Wall Street, and anti-eviction working groups
along with others.
Daniel Rivera of
the New Mexico Central Labor Council said that the community action
was about upholding human rights. Dubbed “the New Year’s
Revolution” by the Coalition for Poor and Working People, the march
surpassed 200 demonstrators.
The action
originated at Robinson Park and stopped at various points throughout
downtown to chant against institutions that do the bidding of the
capitalists and to decry privatizations only benefiting the ruling
class.
“If you have any
doubt as to who the 99 percent is, turn to your right and left,”
said council member Rey Garduño at the opening. “We are the 99
percent. They have taken what is ours and squandered it [and] that is
criminal.”
La Raza Unida
organizer Enrique Cardiel said, outside Wells Fargo bank, “This
giant corporate monster here is kicking people out of their homes,
throwing people out of their work.”
Cardiel lauded the
socialist-led initiative, along with the broader coalition’s
organization, and council member Garduño the coalition’s diversity.
“It’s hard to organize in this corporate society,” Cardiel said.
“We should be able to find who represents us … that’s why we’re
here with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The only way to get
the wealth back is by working together.”
Bob Anderson of
Stop the War Machine called it a beautiful coalition of community
groups as he denounced war spending when the march stopped at
Lockheed Martin.
At another stop,
health care activist Bruce Trigg pointed out: “New Mexico is
getting sicker. America is getting sicker. People die younger because
of the capitalist health care system. Private health insurance
exemplifies unchecked human greed.”
Students and
educators along with youth and children marched to demand the
immediate funding of a massive jobs program and called for canceling
student debt and returning corporate bailout money to the community.
“We’re going
to show them that we’re not going away,” said ANSWER Coalition
(Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) activist Preston Wood,
energizing the crowd. He reminded them of historic labor gains:
“Ordinary people like us built the labor movement. A certain elite
is controlling the economy and is forcing millions of people out of
jobs into the streets. It takes sacrifice to build the movement, and
everyone must join in to fight against LGBT and immigrant
oppression,” he concluded.
ANSWER organizer
Lisa Santillanes called for a moment of silence for those killed in
cold blood by police outside the Albuquerque Police Department
headquarters. “This is happening all over the nation … this is
something we must struggle against,” she said. “We got political
prisoners Leonard Peltier, the Cuban Five, Troy Davis lynched legally
by the system. We’re gonna keep fighting, we’re gonna keep going on.”
