The Occupy Wall Street protests have brought America’s dirty little secret to the forefront, as Iona alum John Sweeney put it.

With the protests playing such a prominent role in social justice right now, this year’s theme for Week of the Peacemaker was “Got Jobs? Seeking Jobs With percent.”

“Ninety-nine percent of the people in our country are paying more than their fair share and it is killing the economy,” said Sweeney.

John Sweeney was born in Bronx to a family of Irish immigrants. His mother was a domestic worker and his father was a city bus driver.

After graduating from Iona College in 1955 he was torn between joining the seminary or the workforce, but he got involved in social action through labor movements and found his niche with a career in unions.

He started as a union representative for a local union but then worked his way up to President of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

Sweeney’s impressive career includes but is not limited to leading two citywide strikes of the apartment maintenance workers, authoring books on social justice issues and serving five terms as the President of the AFL-CIO (until 2009).

Sweeney joined Iona for Week of the Peacemaker to share his view on the crisis that the average American faces in the job market.  He brought up the recent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report that woke up the media and got people’s attention about the state of the American economy.

The CBO report showed that the top one percent in the country double their share in household income. The top one percent is not paying their fair share in taxes and currently there is a proposed millionaire tax to amend this issue. It would be the first step in closing the massive gap between the classes.

“Do members of Congress have the will to settle this in the most equitable way?” asked Sweeney. The proposed tax must find a way ro make it through Congress, and the 99 percent must start pressing their representatives.

Will the protests make a difference? “Definitely,” said Sweeney. “A powerful force for change has begun. It has kick started a movement for change, an America for the 99 percent and not the one