Bank Demo Shuts Down K Street

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Chanting "This is what democracy looks like," several thousand demonstrators shut down K Street Monday shortly after noon at the “K Street Showdown.” Fending off a persistent cold drizzle and impatient cops, the crowd rallied around a 40-foot bank lobbyist puppet and a huge banner reading “No Banker Too Big To Jail” at the intersection of K and 14th. “Whose street? Our street!” they chanted as Kia Alvarez from the Alliance to Develop Power said that “We are confronting the power of the big banks.” Banks were criticized by protesters for refusing to reinvest in local communities while taking government bailouts, reaping huge profits and paying millions to lobbyists. “If banks spent that $1.4 million a day on people, there would be no poor people, no homeless,” said another speaker. Ignoring police demands to clear K Street, the demonstrators held the intersection for nearly half an hour before heading to the Bank of America branch at 15th and Pennsylvania – led by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, SEIU President Mary Kay Henry, Metro Council President Jos Williams and Baltimore CLC President Ernie Grecco -- where again they shut down traffic while excoriating BofA as a leading example of corporate greed in a “Main Street v. Wall Street” showdown. The demo was organized by National People’s Action, the AFL-CIO, Move On, SEIU and others. Click here for a report by the Washington Post.
- report/photos by Chris Garlock; includes reporting by James Parks on the AFL-CIO blog