A group called Act Now to Stop War and End Racism in Los Angeles (Answer L.A.) had many goals in when shutting down Hollywood Boulevard for a march against corporate greed on Saturday, and one they surely achieved was getting peoples’ attention.

Answer L.A.’s march to end corporate domination started at Vine Street and moved east on Hollywood Boulevard on Saturday. (Photo by Gregory Cornfield)

The group of approximately 80 marchers started at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. Dozens of Hollywood revelers stopped what they were doing and took out mobile devices to record the marchers advancing east while shouting one of many chants, such as, “Up, up, up with people. Down, down, down with Wall Street.”

The more specific goals stem from a long list of objections the group has with a deteriorating environment that they blame on greed and government treating corporations better than individuals.

Once the march made it past Highland Avenue to set up a rally in front of the TCL Chinese Theatre, a blow horn and speakers attracted even more attention.

Speakers addressed California’s drought, oil spills, climate change, fracking, drilling in arctic waters, polluted communities and more. They said climate change has put California and the entire planet’s ecosystem in crisis. The group is also upset, they said, because corporate dumping devastates poor and oppressed communities. They called for the punishment of polluters that caused the Santa Barbara oil spill, naming companies like Nestle, Monsanto, Shell, and other oil corporations.

The group called for the government to enforce lower emissions regulations that they say are being ignored because “the status quo is more profitable for big business.”

They also called for drought solutions that will help people, not big businesses, and they want an end to environmental racism.

“Sisters and brothers, we’re here in Los Angeles, but people are also in the streets all over the United States, and in fact all over the world,” said Brian Becker, a national coordinator for the Answer coalition from Washington, D.C. “What’s actually happening is that, as a consequence of the corporate domination, … all the most important decisions in society are made by a small tiny clique of ultra rich capitalists who dominate the corporations.”

Becker said it’s the ultra rich who decide what is produced, how much is produced and for whom it is produced in America.

“And what we’re here today to say is that unless there is a radical change, a systemic change, in the way things are organized, the way it’s produced, and for whom it’s produced, the planet is on a collision course with itself,” he said. “In the month of July, the temperatures rose greater than any other single month in the history of recorded climate. 2015 is on course to be the warmest year in the history of recorded time. Next year, it will get worse. And the year after, it will get worse again. The signs are very clear that unless there’s a radical reorganization of economy, sea levels will rise, temperatures will go up, huge parts of the planet will become uninhabitable, and eventually life as we know it will no longer exist.”

Becker said the problem is that billionaires are in charge of the world’s politics and economies, and they don’t necessarily think about the needs of the working class first.

“Every CEO, no matter if they’re Christian, Jewish, Muslim, no matter if they treat their children right when they go home, no matter what their philosophy is, each CEO makes decisions based on what will guarantee investors maximum profits every quarter, every three months,” he said. “It’s not about good CEOs, or bad CEOs, this is a question of who will run society.”

Becker, a proponent of socialism, called for a “genuine democracy” where working class people can make decisions about production.

“We have to have a new system where working class people are in power. And that’s what we mean when we say we are for getting rid of Wall Street rule and replacing it with a new system,” he said. “That new system has to be the only alternative to capitalism, and that’s the socialist system where that which is produced, is produced for the people.”

Becker said there are Answer branches in 25 cities throughout the United States. The national group is working to alert the public of the need for grassroots action against corporate domination.

Doug Hoffman, an organizer with Answer L.A., said in addition to environmental concerns, the group also organizes and rallies for issues surrounding racism, immigration rights and low-wage worker struggles.

“Different catastrophes – whether it’s the Animas River spill, the Refugio oil spill in Santa Barbara, the facts behind Exide’s pollution of Los Angeles, along with the studies about climate change – all that combined led us to decide that we needed to do something,” he said. “We decided the best course of action would be to have a mass march.”

Hoffman said the group’s goal is to continue coalition building in order to join different movements together to fight for a sustainable planet, where “people’s needs are met first, rather than profit’s.”

“These free speech fights throughout history are important because that’s how we won the ability to take out a permit to shut down a street and provide a safe space for people who may not be willing or ready to take on more brazen action, such as taking over the streets,” he said.

Michelle Martinez brought her two children from Orange County to the rally because she is concerned about the planet and she wants to get “corporate greed out of our lives.”

“We’re here to help bring an education and an awareness,” she said. “A lot of people are bystanders and they just sit by and become complacent – even myself, sometimes. But I talk and I talk, and I told the kids, ‘let’s be a part of it and let’s participate.’”

Martinez said children, ages 6 and 8, who held signs that read, “people’s planet, not Wall Street plunder.” They love animals and the idea of saving the planet, she said.

“You know what? When people come together we can make real change,” she said. “Without us, nothing will ever get done. And it affects [my children’s] world and my grandchildren’s world.”