[Hpn] KWRU Protests Bush Inauguration

[Tom Boland]

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Reply-To: "KENSINGTON WELFARE RIGHTS UNION" <kwru@libertynet.org>

KWRU PROTESTS BUSH INAUGURATION

    [01-21-2001] [pictures coming soon] Over 100 members of
KWRU and our supporters gathered at 6 am at the KWRU office
in North Philadelphia this morning. Filling two buses, we
spent our trip participating in an Economic Human Rights
School. We taught our newer members and supporters about the
rights guaranteed to us all by the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, including the rights to housing, jobs at
living wages, and health care. We traveled to DC to protest
the inauguration of George W Bush and his nomination of
Tommy Thompson to head the department of Health and Human
Services. We want the world to know that George W Bush and
Tommy Thompson are human rights violators. Their agenda is
to privatize what's left of welfare and put it in the hands
of companies like Lockheed Martin, so they can profit off
the backs of the poor.

    All of the roads around the Mall had been closed. The
buses took us as close as they could to our destination. We
then walked through 10 blocks of deserted streets in the
heart of the capital. The only people on the street were
military police in combat fatigues at each corner.
    The only sounds were distant sirens and the hum of
helicopters, hovering motionless nearby. We started our
march at the Organization of American States, where we have
filed a petition charging that the 1996 welfare reform law
is a violation of basic economic human rights.

    We marched through the streets, lifting our voices in
chants and songs in the freezing rain. We came upon the
throngs of Republican faithful, there to witness the
inauguration. We were greeted with jeers, taunts, and
shocked looks. We ended our march at the Department of
Health and Human Services, where we set up a tent city,
called Bushville 2001. We carried two large American flags
as well as our signs and banners. We sat down on the wet
ground that we covered with plastic sheets and sang our
freedom songs.

    What the media didn't report was that there were
literally tens of thousands of other protesters there. We
could hear their chants from many blocks away.

    With chants like "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Tommy Thompson has got
to go!," and "What do we want? Human Rights! When do we want
them? Now!," we attempted to enter the Health and Human
Services building to deliver our grievances in person. We
were literally pushed out the door by the police inside. We
stayed outside, blocking entrance to the building, and
announced that we will be back. That so long as children are
going without basic nutrition and mothers are forced to live
without homes in the richest country in the world, we will
continue to press our cause for economic human rights in
America.

    The KWRU dedicate today's actions to the memory of Bob
Kasen, on his birthday. The memory of this great leader of
the labor movement and friend of the poor lives on.

---
CONTACT INFO:

Kensington Welfare Rights Union
NUHHCE, ASFCME, AFL-CIO
PO Box 50678
Philadelphia, PA 19132-9720
Phone: 215/203-1945
Fax:   215/203-1950
email: kwru@libertynet.org
web:   http://www.kwru.org
To subscribe to KWRU list, send blank email to:
kwru-announce-subscribe@topica.com

END FORWARD

On NPR, CALL Cheri Hankala, Executive Director, Kensington Welfare Rights
Union:

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6 - 7am EST THURS 25 Jan / RIGHTS: DO HOMELESS PEOPLE HAVE ANY?
Co-Hosts: Laurel Weir, Policy Director National Law Center On Homelessness
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and ** Cheri Hankala, Executive Director, Kensington Welfare Rights Union

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