Hundreds rally in SF supporting Social Security & Medicare

Activists made a human chain stretching several city blocks as part of the biggest single-day grassroots mobilization to defeat President Bush's and Gov. Schwarzenegger's plans to create private accounts that would give a windfall to financial firms. Social Security's privatization would cause guaranteed benefits to be cut by nearly half and increase the federal debt by $5 trillion. Gov. Schwarzenegger is supporting an initiative in California for the November ballot that would eliminate secure pensions for millions of Californians and end death and disability benefits for the survivors of police and firefighters. It is a clear conflict of interest for firms that manage retirement accounts to promote privatization. The San Francisco demonstration coincided with similar demonstrations in seventy-five cities across the country.