Thousands of workers and labor leaders marched on Wall Street for a massive protest of financial sector greed

On Thursday afternoon, thousands of workers and labor leaders marched on Wall Street for a massive protest of financial sector greed and lending practices by big banks.

About 10,000 AFL-CIO members gathered on the streets of downtown Manhattan forcefully calling out for major changes Wall Street's culture of greed.

The rally, one of the largest in recent memory to take place at the center of the financial world, was timed to begin at 4:00 p.m. the close of trading. Dozens of individual unions were in attendance, with a march down a six-block route to the iconic bull at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets, followed by a speech from AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka.

"Sisters and brothers, our history and our heritage teach us that America is about more than making easy money and looking out for number one. Our lives and our livelihoods are all bound together. And we are all paying the price for those who knew no limits on their greed," Trumka was prepared to say, according to advance remarks. "Eight and a half million lost jobs -- that's the price of greed -- that's the real cost of bankers' bonuses and private jets and cute tricks like the one that got Goldman Sachs in trouble last week."

Regulatory reform is now going to be debated in the US Senate after Democrats broke a three-day long Republican filibuster and brought legislation to the floor. The legislation comes up short of many of the AFL-CIO's goals, but Trumka has been supportive of the bill nonetheless and is likely to cheer progress in the Senate as a sign of where the political winds are blowing.

Many believe that Republicans finally dropped their opposition because they finally sensed they were on the wrong side of a divisive argument. According to national polls the conservative base is just as enraged as the unions with the favoritism Wall Street enjoys in Washington D.C.

As the AFL-CIO was out on Wall Street demanding tougher rules for the financial industry, the Tea Baggers were nowhere to be found. The progressive blog The Huffington Post is reported to have contacted to two official Tea Bagger organizations to see if they would send individuals to the Wall Street march. Neither Tea New York nor the Tea Party Express would be in attendance, said their representatives. What a surprise!