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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 19, 2011)
10 street roots Aug. 19, 2011 WRAP steps out in San Francisco Members of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, including Street Roots, marched in defense of human rights in the face of corporate corruption and rampant rates of incarceration STAFF REPORTS n Friday, Aug. 5, Street Roots and Sisters of the Road joined representatives from social-justice groups from Los Angeles, New York and Chicago in San Francisco to demonstrate for the protection of poor and homeless people. The confluence protested big x american finances’ theft of billions of citizen dollars, nationwide home foreclosures, attacks on frontline workers’ unions, and record rates of criminalization and incarceration of poor and homeless.people. Approximately 400 people attended the demonstrations. Marchers on Friday declared it “The Great American TARP Tour,” and protested in front of what they called the biggest culprits: Hyatt Hotel, Charles Schwab, and Dianne Feinstein’-® Montgomery Street office, ending at Wells Fargo. This event, organized by WRAP, the Western Regional Advocacy Project’s San Francisco office, was part of a two-day “Community Congress” of workshops on the efforts of numerous organizations that participated in the event, and on how each can better collaborate. The goal was to broaden state, regional and national coalitions on issues of PHOTOS BY NICHOLAS DAHMANN OF LA CAN Above, Eliese Baker (center) with Street Roots joins the march through San Francisco calling for economic equality and relief from oppressive incarceration policies. At right, the march’s motto, “House keys not handcuffs. ” Below, young girls hold a sign for another theme: The catastrophic impact of ongoing foreclosures on homeowners and renters. immigration, unions, housing, poverty and homelessness. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a U.S. government program purchased assets and equity from the financial sector to bail out banks involved in the subprime mortgage collapse. “While Washington was engaged in a manufactured crisis over the debt ceiling, some 40 million people are living in a real crisis, facing a choice between buying groceries or paying the rent,” Paul Boden, executive director of The Western Regional Advocacy Project, told the crowd.
