Public anger deepens against US Congress: Gloria La Riva

Press TV has conducted an interview with Gloria La Riva, ANSWER Coalition, about the issue of a Pew poll which reveals 73 percent of US citizens are unhappy with the performance of Congress and overall trust in government is 19 percent.

The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.

Press TV: How do you see this anger and frustration as presented by this Pew (research center) survey translating into action when it comes to the American average voter? Do you see more voter-apathy; do you see more protests taking place for the want of a third (political) party?

La Riva: I think that first of all in the immediate sense the Democrats are very happy because they came out ahead. They are feeling that they defeated the Republicans.

But I believe that the dissatisfaction by the American people as shown in the Pew study and even deeper than that is that people also see the enormous privilege that the Congress people lived in while the shutdown was taking place – That their health care was not cut off; that they were not going hungry like many people who were losing their food stamps.

And also I think that the effects of the Occupy struggle two years ago still are reverberating through society. People know that the wealth is increasing greatly at the top while the rest of the population is getting much poorer – they feel it in their daily lives.

And it’s more than the anger at the inability of Democrats and Republicans to get along, but that the deal that’s been worked out in order to end the government shutdown will need heavy cuts in social security and Medicare. People feel great insecurity, fear and anger.

Press TV: That brings me back to my questions again – How do you see this being translated into action?

La Riva: We are still in the early stage of responses. I believe that there are growing union struggles, strike.

We are seeing things more on the issues – separate issues, for example, across the country in the last few days there have been protests – very, very militant protests of undocumented workers and youth, again.

There were two remarkable surroundings of federal buses in San Francisco and Tucson Arizona just this week where the police were going to move to deport workers and hundreds of people surrounded the buses.

There has also been strikes – there was an enormous strike here in San Francisco that began today. I think it’s starting on certain issues, but I really believe that sooner than later there will be more massive uprisings.

The AFLCIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) is calling for a broader movement beyond just organized workers, to include community. People from I think the Labor Movement to community organizations – anti-racist; anti-police brutality, are feeling a need to take independent action independently of Congress and the other politicians.

I also I think that the Syria, the threatened US bombing of Syria, was stopped because the government knew of the overwhelming opposition to such a war.

Press TV: What about Washington? Do you think Washington has learned anything from the recent events or do you think we’re going to see more theatrics for the sake of gaining political leverage?

La Riva: There will be another showdown in January or February (2014), remember that the deal only is temporary and yet both parties from one to the other want to cut billions from social security and Medicare. That is unprecedented and we will have to fight that.