After adjourning the UAW’s 35th Constitutional Convention on Thursday, union members took to the streets of downtown Detroit in a show of unity and a celebration of new beginnings.

Under the helm of President Bob King, the UAW joined with International Brotherhood of Teamsters President James P. Hoffa, NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous, and the Rev. Wendell Anthony, Detroit branch NAACP president, to march for economic justice.

The message of the rally was that working Americans will no longer stand by silent while Wall Street wrecks our economy. Photos by Rebecca Cook.

King and labor and community leaders gathered on a platform in front of the Comerica Bank building on Woodward Avenue.

“We’re standing together to fight together and we’re not going to quit – the fight for justice never stops!” he said.

UAW members marched with members of the Teamsters, ASFCME and SEIU, and other labor supporters.

The march was held to send a message to Wall Street that Main Street will no longer stand by silently while working people continue to suffer.

“We are tired of foreclosures, tired of stimulus money that does not stimulate us. There are not enough jobs … there’s too much greed, too much corruption,” said Anthony. “We’ve got to get to the root and cap the leak at the base and stop the waste at the top,” he said, drawing a parallel to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

King called for working America and the middle class to demand that Wall Street pay for the economic damage it caused by paying its fair share to create the 11 million jobs America needs and to make loans available to homeowners to stop foreclosures, and to small businesses  and communities reeling from the recession.

“We are going to rebuild America together,” said Hoffa. “It’s time to put America back to work. Enough’s enough!”

The rally also signaled the UAW's support for the AFL-CIO's 'Good Jobs Now' campaign.

The demonstration signals the UAW’s support for the AFL-CIO’s “Good Jobs Now” campaign aimed at Wall Street banks that wrecked the American economy and killed American jobs – then took $700 billion in taxpayer bailouts, choked off credit, handed out massive executive bonuses and hired an army of lobbyists to fight financial reform.

“If anybody is fighting for social and economic justice, we’re going to be there,” said King. “We are changing the world.”

King is setting the UAW’s public image on a different course by promoting the union’s social and economic justice agenda through rallies and other demonstrations to give voice to working people around the globe.

“We must learn from our history … today is a small first step,” said King.

Gwynne Marie Cobb
Jennifer John contributed to this story.