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Poor families in MN confront Romney supporters

By staff

Prepare for trip to RNC protest in Tampa

Low income women protest at Romney fundraiser.

Minnetonka Beach, MN – On August 23, members of the Welfare Rights Committee (WRC) and others protested outside a fundraiser for presidential candidate Mitt Romney. In two days, WRC members will load up in a van for a drive to Tampa, Florida for the protest at the Republican National Convention, which takes place on Monday, August 27.

Romney’s rich friends paid $2,500 per person just to see him for a few hours. Some lucky people with $50,000 lying around had a private dinner with him. Outside the gates of the country club, WRC and a grouping of the 99% rallied and chanted, “Hey Romney, here’s the fix. Stop poor bashing! Tax the rich.”

The WRC’s Kim DeFranco said, “Families are still struggling during this continued economic crisis. The crisis might be over for the 1% but the 99% are still living on the edge between survival and total disaster. Romney continues to spread the lies on why we have to rely on public assistance. His comment about ‘putting work back in welfare,’ shows that he is out of touch with the reality that there simply are not enough jobs for everyone who needs one. It is clear that he will pander to the elite rich class in order to become president.”

A statement from WRC reads, “We are here to tell Romney and the 1% to bring our families out of poverty now. We don't need to be put in an endless hole of no jobs, no unemployment, no healthcare and no hope for us and our children ever escaping poverty.”

Several members of the Welfare Rights Committee will soon be climbing into a van for a 25-hour drive to Tampa, Florida, to participate in the protest against the RNC, which is happening August 27. The protest will begin at 10:00 a.m., at Perry Harvey Sr. Park, 1200 N. Orange Ave in Tampa.

The WRC’s Linden Gawboy says, “I am psyched to protest these crazy republicans in Tampa. We watched the cars drive into the county club today. Almost every one of them costs more than a house should cost. Meanwhile, people around the country are jobless and homeless. All of these politicians pretend that they’re clueless about what so many of us are going through. But they know, because they are getting rich off it. Tampa is where we can make our message heard loud and clear.”

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