Protesters to jam K Street Monday

Thousands of protesters are expected to march on K Street on Monday in support of financial regulatory reform legislation.

About 2,000 people from 20 states are expected to hold a series of demonstrations against lobbying firms in an area of Washington where many lobbyists have their offices, according to a release by several labor unions.

The unions, which recently gathered 10,000 members to march on Wall Street and at banks around the country, are marching in protest of Wall Street leaders “spending more than $1.4 million a day fighting Wall Street reform.” Union leaders say financial firms have hired more than 1,500 lobbyists to fight the legislation under consideration in the Senate.

Several Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, have said they support efforts to tighten regulations.

The march is set to begin Monday morning with a rally at McPherson Square and will target anti-immigration and corporate lobbyists. At noon, the protest will shift to the Bank of America headquarters and then move to the Treasury building. Officials anticipate that traffic and building entrances may be blocked, particularly between 15th and 17th streets.

The unions also are holding a weekend seminar to teach union members how to hold rallies in their cities and towns.

The AFL-CIO, National People’s Action, Service Employees International Union and Jobs with Justice are putting together the march through downtown Washington.

MoveOn.org also rallied supporters to show up at the march through an e-mail Saturday.

“For too long, these lobbyists have been allowed to operate in total obscurity, currying favor with backroom deals and big
campaign contributions,” the e-mail read. “And that’ll continue until we call them out and force Congress to rewrite the rules.”