Remarks of AFL-CIO President Richard L. Trumka at Wall Street Rally NYC NY
April 30, 2010
Sisters and brothers, thank you for coming here today.
Last week our President came to Wall Street. President Obama's message was simple: Wall Street must stop making up its rules as it goes along and start living by the same laws as the rest of us.
Wall Street must create, and not destroy. Create real products, real services, real jobs -- not destroy real lives, real hopes, real dreams. And the bankers, brokers, and bigshots on Wall Street must understand that, in this country, we're all in this together – we all rise up or fall down together.
Today we come here, sisters and brothers -- 10,000 strong -- to bring Main Street to Wall Street. We speak for millions more, and for 13 generations of American history and for every "people's president" – from Andrew Jackson to Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt – who spoke truth to financial power.
We're here today for the folks who were played for suckers in the casino economy and will be silent no more. And the message we bring is this: Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here today for the family in LA thrown out of their home and onto the street. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here for the factory workers in Indiana packing their tools away. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here for the electrician and the carpenter on the bench here in New York. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here for the teacher being told we can't afford to teach our children. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here for the cop and the firefighter being told we can't afford to protect our communities. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here for the community banker who can't raise capital and the entrepreneur who can't get a loan. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here for the young men and women who can't afford to graduate from college. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
We're here for the retiree whose pension promise was betrayed. Wall Street, fix the mess you made.
Sisters and brothers, our history and our heritage teach us that America is about more than making easy money and looking out for number one. Our lives and our livelihoods are all bound together. And we are all paying the price for those who knew no limits on their greed.
Eight and a half million lost jobs—that's the price of greed—that's the real cost of bankers' bonuses and private jets and cute tricks like the one that got Goldman Sachs in trouble last week.
My friends, because we are one country, because greed runs amok here on Wall Street means lost jobs and shuttered stores on Main Street, we must have a different kind of economy.
We need to go back to basics, where good jobs, not bad debts, drive our growth. An economy where Wall Street is the servant, and not the master, of Main Street. An economy where banks help create jobs, not destroy them. An economy where once again we do real things in America.
So we have three simple things to say to the big banks: First, stop fighting Wall Street reform. Stop acting like what happened to our economy was some kind of accident, like a meteor fell on us. Take some responsibility for what you did. Call off the lobbyists.
Second, stop speculating and start lending. We bailed you out, it's far past time you started lending to Main Street.
Third, take responsibility for the clean-up of the mess you made. Pay your fair share of the cost of creating the jobs you destroyed. Because what our country needs is good jobs now.
Tell me -- what do you want! Good Jobs Now!
And the labor movement has a plan for creating millions of good jobs now!
We need to extend unemployment benefits, invest in our crumbling infrastructure and green technologies, give aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services, and give leftover TARP funds to local banks so they can help small businesses.
Now some folks may be thinking – well, it's great that you have all these ideas to "create good jobs now" -- but how are you going to pay for them?
And so we have another message for Wall Street: When you engage in rampant and risky financial speculation, you're going to pay your fair share in taxes to create jobs!
When bank CEO's pay themselves tens of millions of dollars for successfully cashing government checks while we close schools and firehouses—it's time for special taxes for bank bonuses.
That means no more loopholes that let Wall Street billionaires in hedge funds and leveraged buyout funds pay lower tax rates than working Americans.
That means President Obama's simple idea that the banks that benefited from the TARP bailout should have to pay for the costs of the bailout.
And that means that we must tax speculation and support investment—a Wall Street Speculation Tax that would raise hundreds of billions of dollars we need to create the jobs Wall Street destroyed, to build a new economy on the energy technologies of the future.
Now by this point you can probably tell these issues get me fired up!
It's no secret that most Americans are angry. We're angry too. Angry at the big banks and Wall Street, and their lobbyists in DC who trashed our economy for eight years. Angry at the Republicans in the United States Senate who voted to oppose the American people and block debate on Wall Street reform – again and again and again.
But we are not hateful – we are hopeful. We believe in our great country.
We believe that in the end this is America— in our republic we the people will win over the forces of privilege and greed.
We're here today. We'll be here tomorrow. And we're not going to stop until we create the 11 million good jobs we need and rebuild the middle class!
And, I am convinced that together we will get it done. Not by laying back. Not by sitting back. Not by kicking back.
Brothers and sisters, by fighting back! By standing our ground together. Joining together. Working together. Building together. And by God, winning together.
Thank you brothers and sisters, God bless you, and God bless America.
