“This isn’t the end, this is just
the beginning,” organizer Sally Johnston told a crowd of over 70
people that had gathered for a protest against cuts to health care at
the Federal Building in Syracuse, NY. The protest was in response to
Congressman Paul Ryan’s plan, which is supported by Syracuse
Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle.
Ryan’s plan is a bald-faced attack on
the working-class. It includes $750 billion in cuts to Medicaid over
the next ten years, replacing Medicare with a voucher program, and
cuts to social security, food stamps, and the Home Energy Assistance
Program (HEAP).
The action was organized primarily by
Disabled in Action of Greater Syracuse, and was endorsed by the
ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), the NAACP,
Defend CNY, SEIU 1199 United Healthcare Workers East, and others.
Some of the most popular chants at the rally were “Stop the attacks
on the working class!” and “Tax, tax, tax the rich! We can fix
the deficit!”
A diverse range of speakers took to the
podium to denounce attacks on working people. Bruce Peak,
representing the ANSWER Coalition, told the crowd “We must take
this war not to the ballot box but to the streets—it is in the
streets where battles are won. And we can win, but we have to get
organized.”
Maureen Curtin, an activist and
professor, echoed Peak’s sentiment, telling Liberation that
“Insofar as these attacks are coming from
both of our dominant political parties, we have little choice but to
get in the streets and make our voices heard.”
Curtin also placed the protest in a greater context: “The
best part was seeing so many of the people whom I’d first met at the
Syracuse China rally in March when we brought more than 400 people
together in 14 degree temperatures to show solidarity
with workers.”
