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.