Bail Out the People Movement and the Million Worker March Movement at the UN June 26

The Bail Out the People Movement (BOPM) and the Million Worker March Movement, along with labor and community activists will hold a news conference on June 26 at the United Nations to coincide with the final day of the U.N. Conference on the Economic Crisis. Organizers will announce plans for a protest at the next G20 summit scheduled in Pittsburgh on Sept. 24-25, and invite you to endorse this action.  

The themes of the June 26 press conference will be “Jobs for All the World’s Unemployed” and “Solidarity, Not Competition.” BOPM activists note that the International Labor Organization counts global unemployment at about 1.6 billion and growing. In the U.S. alone, 25 million people are either unemployed or underemployed. 

The U.N. Conference—also known as the G192—had earlier been scheduled for June 1-3. Non-cooperation from the world’s most powerful economic countries, especially the U.S., forced its postponement until June 24-26. This conference, called by the President of the General Assembly Miguel D’Escoto Brockman, is aimed at representing all U.N. members in confronting the worldwide economic crisis and not just the restricted elite powers of the G8 or G20. 

The G20 meeting had originally been set for New York in September, but in fear of major protests was later moved to Pittsburgh. The Bail Out the People Movement is making logistical arrangements for a major two-day protest in Pittsburgh Sept. 24-25 and has filed for permits. 

"The rescue plans put into effect by Washington and the other world powers are clearly aimed at boosting profits and encouraging global competition of workers," said Larry Holmes, a national organizer with the Bail Out the People Movement. "Permanently high unemployment is acceptable to the bankers and governments, but not to us. Our movements put people before profits. We break with the idea that we must be sacrificed on the altar of profits or that anyone can benefit from that strategy. Only the united struggle of the masses of people will win any improvement in our lives." 

"We're inviting representatives from U.S. unions, other worker, community and social organizations to attend and make one-minute presentations," Holmes continued. "We're also asking for statements of solidarity from labor organizations around the world to be read at the press conference.”