Pablo Fierro came to Washington from Philadelphia for a rally against the proposed 700-billion-dollar financial bailout, which the House of Representatives could vote on Friday. He held up an orange sign: "No to the bankers' coup d'etat." Thursday's rally within shouting distance of the US Capitol was organised by a hastily assembled group whose website had links to several far-left or anti-war groups.
Among the fewer than 100 demonstrators were some two dozen people including Fierro wearing yellow t-shirts from the Neighbourhood Assistance Corporation of America, which combines non-profit mortgage lending with political advocacy.
With a stiff breeze putting a chill into the air on a sunny autumn morning, Fierro wore a bulky jacket with a "Latinos for Obama" sticker. Yet, Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has strongly supported the legislation since it was first proposed late last month and voted Wednesday for a revised Senate version.
The opposition to the bailout has created odd bedfellows, with conservative Republicans opposing government intervention on free- market grounds, while smaller numbers of Democrats in Congress and left-leaning interest groups like NACA opposing what they consider a huge gift to moneyed interests on Wall Street.
The public response to the measure - which backers insist is a "rescue plan" for the entire economy - has been overwhelmingly negative. After the House voted down an initial bailout proposal on Monday, diverse groups desperate for government action also began to mobilise, including both the US Chamber of Commerce and groups of pensioners, who tend to rely on stock market investments to supplement their pension incomes.
The legislation would authorise a mountain of money to buy up mortgage-backed securities and other so-called "toxic" financial assets. Building up for more than a year as the US housing bubble burst, worries about the extent of bad debt are contributing to a credit slowdown in the United States and around the world.
Several anti-bailout rally speakers called for a moratorium on foreclosures and a halt to interest-rate hikes on mortgages with adjustable terms. The package has "nothing in it that protects home owners and their interests. That's why we're here," Fierro said. After the rally, he planned to join other demonstrators as they broke into groups to lobby House members and their staffs.
Seeming somewhat out of place, Jamie Sheffield, a self-described conservative from the tiny rural community of Ruther Glen, Virginia, held a hand-written sign declaring "Just say no to socialism" on one side and "Vote no bailout" on the reverse. His wife had a sign that read, "Obey the constitution."
Sheffield has "never really been active before" on a political issue, but the financial crisis has motivated him out of worry for his adult children and grandchildren. He blamed Congress for having "created this problem," lamented that his own Republican congressman already voted for the bailout on Monday and questioned whether it would work.
"It's not gonna stop this calamity. It's gonna prolong it, maybe," Sheffield said. "They're cramming it down our throats with all these scare tactics. That's no way to govern. That's the same way they got us into Iraq." Bemused tourists watched from a distance at the small but occasionally loud demonstration, punctuated by chants such as "Jail them, don't bail them." Passing cars frequently sounded their horns, but it was unclear if drivers were honking in support or annoyance.
In an attempt at political street theatre, members of another radical protest group, Code Pink, portrayed the arrest of US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who proposed the main planks of the bailout package and until two years ago was the high-paid chief of investment bank Goldman Sachs. A demonstrator in a dark suit wore a giant, paper-mache head with dollar bills stuffed into the mouth, flanked by two women wearing police hats and holding up yellow police-line tape.
Code Pink first organised in opposition to the Iraq War, and the paper-mache head looked suspiciously like former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, fired two years ago. Paulson is almost completely bald, while the mascot-like head had dark hair, which had been painted over.
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