March on Wall Street Puts Spotlight on Income Gap, Harmful Budget Cuts

Angry about budget cuts and growing income inequality, New York City CWA members and leaders joined 20,000 activists from a broad coalition of organizations for a May 12 march on Wall Street.

About 20,000 people from a broad coalition of unions and community groups, including scores of red-shirted CWA members, marched on Wall Street last Thursday to decry the vast and growing income inequality that is even worse in New York City than the country as a whole.

Deep budget cuts proposed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg will make the situation even more dire, demonstrators said, with funding for schools and social service programs on the chopping block.

CWA Local 1180 President Arthur Cheliotes, who marched with his members and other New York CWAers, said, “Wall Street is the belly of the beast, so that’s where we headed.”

In the United States, the richest 1 percent of Americans possesses 25 percent of
the country’s income. But in New York state, the top 1 percent controls 35 percent
of the income and the figure jumps to 45 percent in New York City. “That’s a third-world country,” Cheliotes said.

“It’s like Brandeis warned,” he said, citing the words of the early 20th century Supreme Court justice. “We can have a concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, or we can have a democracy, but we can’t have both.”