Newark Unemployment Protest in 6th Month is a Model for the Nation 28'
Newark Unemployment Protest in 6th Month is a Model for the Nation
with
Larry Hamm, Chairman, People's Organization for Progress, Newark, N.J.
The U.S. economy is struggling, but in many black communities
Americans are in the throes of a depression. With unemployment
exacting an outsize toll on African-American men and women, a
coalition initiated by the People’s Organization for Progress has
been demonstrating daily for over 6 months in a busy intersection
in Newark flanking a statue of Abraham Lincoln outside the Essex
County Courthouse. This persistent and visible protest in one
location has received widespread attention throughout the City
and support from labor, student, religious and other community
groups including Occupy Newark who see unemployment as a
crucial civil rights issue emerging from the country’s economic
woe. "We are more than a half-century away from the Montgomery
bus boycott, but we are dealing with issues just as pressing,"
said Larry Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for
Progress. Hamm and like-minded activists started the 381-day
protest modeled after one of the most famous battles of the
Civil Rights era — the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955-56.
They are calling on President Obama and Congress to institute
a jobs program akin to the Works Progress Administration of
the Great Depression, that employed millions of unskilled
Americans in public works jobs. Unemployment is 16 percent
among black Americans, a rate rivaling those of the 1930s.
Newark’s jobless rate hovers around 15%, while the national
rate is 8.6 percent.
http://www.archive.org/stream/BuildingBridgesNewarkUnemploymentProtestIn6thMonthIsAModelForThe
play stream
http://www.archive.org/download/BuildingBridgesNewarkUnemploymentProtestIn6thMonthIsAModelForThe/hammdecemberntl.mp3
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