MichaelMoore.com

March 23rd, 2009 1:28 AM

Protest erupts outside AIG headquarters

by Justin Reynolds / Wilton Bulletion

Saturday afternoon brought some of this year's best weather, but outside American International Group Financial Products' headquarters in Wilton, roughly 30 protesters gathered, creating a storm of anger against the company's decision to use government bailout money to give some of its employees bonuses.

The crowd, made up of members of the community organizing group ACORN and the Connecticut Working Familes Party, stood in front of the building at 50 Danbury Road, expressing their disgust at perceived corporate greed.

In a call and response, they chanted: "Who are we? ACORN! What do we want? JUSTICE! When do we want it? NOW!"

Another chant was, "AIG gets bailed out, the people get sold out!"

Earlier Saturday, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that the bonuses paid out by AIG totalled $218 million, $53 million more than was previously reported. So far, AIG has received $182.5 billion from the federal government, according to The Associated Press. 

The protesters chanted, "Pay it back! Right now!" 

Mr. Blumenthal said that 418 employees received bonuses, which ranged from $1,000 to $6.4 million, with at least 73 employees receiving at least $1 million bonuses. Seven employees received bonuses of $4 million or more, he said. 

Mark Dziubek, a Southington resident who was laid off as a steel worker seven weeks ago, said that in order to combat a gloomy economic environment, everyone from the top on down has to do their part and pull their weight.

"If they really want to do the right thing, they should give back the last five years of bonuses," Mr. Dziubek, who is affiliated with Working Families, said of AIG employees. "We came here just to give letters to AIG executives telling them some of them did the right thing giving back bonuses."

Mr. Dziubek described himself as a blue collar worker who has worked his whole life, and asked why working families were expected to pay taxes which ultimately went to corporate bonuses when they are being slammed by the recession.

"Who can live off that and raise a family?" he said. 

The community group Acorn joined with the Connecticut Working Families Party, which organized a protests at AIG offices and executive homes Saturday. —Justin Reynolds photo

Mr. Dziubek said that eight years ago, this sort of protest would have garnered a mere 20 seconds of air time on the news, but now, thanks to the media, he said this important issue is in the limelight.

Though many claim Congress signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act without reading the whole bill, Mr. Dziubek said the country was in a crunch and action needed to be taken.

"They needed to get it done, and get it done quickly," he said. "We're all human, we all make mistakes. We have to ask ourselves what we can do to fix" the economic climate.

Mr. Dziubek applauded President Barack Obama and his administration, saying that if President George W. Bush was still in office, "we never would have gotten this reaction from our leaders."

The crowd arrived at about 2:30, according to Lieutenant John Lynch. They left about 30 minutes later. 

Captain Michael Lombardo said there were no issues with the peaceful protest, and everything was orderly. 

Members of the news media turned out in comparable numbers to the protesters, seemingly in a one to one ratio. 

The protesters were on a chartered bus, and after leaving Wilton, were headed to Bridgeport and Hartford.