Local march suggests global activism will continue into new year

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —The New Years' Revolution March for Poor and Working People here Friday is another indication that the global groundswell of indignation against the privileged and corrupt elites of the world will continue into the new year.

The march through downtown Albuquerque was punctuated by symbolic stops and speeches that highlighted the diverse concerns of key importance to local activists. They included militarism, spiraling economic inequality, corporate greed, police brutality, particularly by the Albuquerque Police Department, homelessness, poverty and unemployment, human rights for immigrants and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons, the war on drugs, runaway incarceration rates, institutionalized racism, healthcare reform through a single-payer system, affordable housing and the crisis in home foreclosures, campaign finance reform, and the two-party stranglehold on electoral politics.

“They tell us we’re strange, right, because we want people to have jobs, food and houses. We want people to be healthy and have healthcare and that makes us crazy, right? Bullshit,” said Enrique Cardiel, a public health worker and organizer for La Raza Unida.



The march was organized by the Anti-Capitalist Working Group of Occupy/(un)Occupy Albuquerque and was endorsed by the Industrial Workers of the World, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Food Not Bombs, the Albuquerque Solidarity Network, La Raza Unida, Organizers in the Land of Enchantment, Southwest Organizing Project, Central N.M. Labor Council, Veterans for Peace, the Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, Stop the War Machine, Raging Grannies and the Gray Panthers of Greater Albuquerque.