Providence, R.I., groups organize for change

WW photo: Bill Bateman

More than 50 people from many community groups gathered in the lobby rotunda of the Rhode Island State House on Jan. 19 for the Providence Martin Luther King Jr. 80th Birthday Mobilization for Progress. The rally called for an end to foreclosures, evictions, utility shutoffs and layoffs, and for funding human needs—not budget cuts. It promoted the slogans “Bail out the people, not the banks!” “Human needs, not capitalist greed!” “Tax the rich, not the poor!” and “Foreclose on the wars, not our homes!”

Speaker after speaker saluted the historic gain shown in the election of an African-American president but called for a people’s mobilization to fight for human needs and to bring about the meaningful change that people voted for in November. Grassroots organizing efforts that were highlighted included the struggle to remove the words “Providence Plantations” from the official name of the state of Rhode Island, fighting for environmental justice by opposing school construction on contaminated land, the George Wiley Center’s organizing for jobs in safe environments, and to repeal the flat tax in Rhode Island. All vowed to continue organizing. Said one speaker, “If we don’t change, there is no change.”