Protesters Rally Around Trading Tax
Known in Occupy movement parlance as the “Robin Hood tax,” taxes on trades of stocks, bonds and derivatives are getting a fresh look on Capitol Hill and may draw thousands of protesters to Washington, D.C., next week. Helping lead the charge are an unlikely breed of tax activist: registered nurses.
At least 1,000 nurses are expected to rally in front of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s office on Nov. 3, on the eve of the G-20 finance ministers meeting in Cannes, France, where a European transaction tax will be on the agenda. That group is led by the AFL-CIO affiliate National Nurses United, which already organized two rallies in Manhattan and D.C. in June around the slogan: “Tax Wall Street and heal Main Street.” The nurses are also helping organize protests in Europe.
Now the nurses are being joined by the Occupy Together movement, whose organizers are planning Robin Hood tax rallies internationally to promote the tax, including one in McPherson Square on Saturday by Occupy DC. Buoyed in part by anti-Wall Street sentiment, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) will introduce transaction tax legislation as early as next week.