G20 Pittsburgh summit

Unemployed take to the streets in anti-G20 protest

Article published on the 2009-09-22 Latest update 2009-09-23 06:17 TU

Protesters march during a rally in Pittsburgh
(Credit: M. Nichols/Reuters)

Ahead of this week's G20 summit of the world's biggest economies, which takes place in Pittsburgh in the United States on Thursday, unemployed people from all over the US are descending on the city. They are determined to revive Martin Luther King's dream of a movement for a right to a job, as the world's eyes are focused on the meeting.

"We don't think that a jobless recovery, that this concept is acceptable, especially to those who are unemployed or facing layoffs or who are already jobless," says Sharon Black, a union co-ordinator for the movement called Bail Out the People.

Black, who was out with jobless from all over the country on the streets of Pittsburgh, told RFI that US companies who have declared that the recession is over are misled.

"They may feel it is over for them, they may feel that the companies are profitable or what have you... but in terms of people not having jobs and people suffering? There has been no recovery for us," she said.

Black said that the march has received a lot of support from a number of unions, including United Steel Workers of America, United Electrical Workers, and the International Longshoreman's Union.

Some activists who had been arrested by police overnight complained of police harassment. Protesters are planning to march Thursday and Friday, and those arrested said that the police were detaining people in in an effort to discourage large groups turning out on those days.