Eleven arrested on 10th Ave bridge during march to "Bridge the Jobs Gap" (with video)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.workdayminnesota.org/index.php?news_6_5058

19 November 2011

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iaIp3l4UeqA

MINNEAPOLIS - Eleven activists including the Rev. Paul Slack, pastor of New Creation Church were arrested in an act of non-violent civil disobedience on Thursday as a crowd of about 400-500 marchers demanding good jobs shut down traffic on the 10th Avenue bridge during the evening rush hour.

After weeks of multiple votes by Congress to block the President’s jobs plan, a coalition of clergy, unemployed workers, and local residents marched to “Bridge the Jobs Gap” and demand government action to fix crumbling infrastructure, create good jobs and address Minnesota’s record racial disparity in employment. The marchers emphasized the need for Wall Street and the wealthy to pay their fair share to fund job creation and avoid devastating budget cuts.

“It is time for us as faith and community leaders to take a courageous stand for racial justice and bridge the jobs gap between whites and African Americans. Everyone deserves a path that leads out of poverty and into opportunity. Faith calls us to correct bad policies that favors the few and is destroying our democracy and co-create new policies that benefit all people,” said the Rev. Paul Slack of New Creation Church in Minneapolis, Chair of the Clergy and Religious Leaders Group of ISAIAH a major network of faith based organizations.

After eleven activists, all associated with the Minnesotans for a Fair Economy coalition (including Rev. Slack and Sunday Alabi, the President of the community group Neighborhoods Organizing for Change) were arrested, the group concluded its rally outside of the University of Minnesota Law School. More than 100 of the marched down Washington Ave to join an Occupy Minnesota rally in downtown Minneapolis.

FULL story at link.