Thousands Step Up Campaign With Massive S17 Action!
Below, you can watch and share the video recap, read details about S17, and view news coverage of the action.
Watch the You Tube S17 & RHT on Wall Street Video
Marking the opening of the U.N. General Assembly and the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street (#S17), all strands of the Robin Hood Tax campaign came together in a raucous, militant march last week through midtown Manhattan at rush hour. RNs, transit drivers, HIV/AIDS activists, occupiers, hotel workers, students, international human rights groups, climate change campaigners and building trades – over 2500 people in all – marched from the United Nations to Bryant Park. Led off by an appeal from the New York State Nurses Association to the UN to intervene in the closure of hospitals and the denial of care to US patients, followed by an invocation of the UN millennial development goal to eradicate poverty, and then jump started by the arrest of HIV/AIDS organization leaders, including a New York State Senator, the crowd surged into the congested commute time.
At JP Morgan Chase, Robin Hood Tax supporters took up an entire city block as Robin Hood read a criminal indictment of the Wall Street titan. A City College of New York student scheduled to speak on Wall Street profiting off of massive student debt did not make it in time to speak at Chase. She stuck at school battling her college over the processing of her expulsion for inability to pay tuition; because of her huge debt load! At the MTA, NYC’s transit agency, TWU and ATU leaders spoke of how high interest payments to Wall Street diverted funds from basic transit services and worker health benefits. The union’s answer: A Robin Hood Tax.
Then it was on to Bryant Park, where nurses who had carried the main march banner, recited the events of the Global Nurses United global day of solidarity action (nurses and allied healthcare workers in thirteen countries staged events in solidarity with the New York event). Jennifer Flynn of Health GAP brought it all together as giant boulders symbolizing the crushing burdens bourn by workers and students and people with HIV/AIDS were crushed by the Robin Hood Tax. The highlight came as dusk fell and the lights went up around the Park. Sweet Honey in the Rock sang about the “Robin Hood Tax on my mind.” The evening ended with the enduring ensemble’s stirring song of freedom as all in attendance clasped hands in celebration.
The event was a great success thanks to the cooperation and shared vision of so many organizations with a widely varied range of constituents and missions. It showed that we can all agree on the need to tax wall street to heal American and the world.
ENDORSERS of the S17 Robin Hood Tax March and Rally:
Vocal-NY, Health GAP, National Nurses United, Amalgamated Transit Union, Transport Workers Union Local 100, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), ACT UP New York, ACT UP Philadelphia, National People’s Action, UNITE HERE Local 100, Progressive Democrats of America, Left Labor Project, CREDO, African Services Committee, Student Global AIDS Campaign, Healthcare for the 99%, Occu-Evolve, Occupy Sandy, OWS Alternative Banking, S17 Planning Assembly, New York Professional Nurses Union, Healthcare-NOW!-NYC, PNHP-NY Metro, U.S. Labor Against the War-NYC Chapter, New Economy Project, UAW Region 9A New York, New York Harm Reduction Educators, NYCLCLAA, Communications Workers of America Local 1180, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1500, Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3, Food and Water Watch, AFSCME DC 1707, Greater NY Labor-Religion Coalition
Video, photos, domestic and international coverage of the NYC march, as well as more information on the Global Nurses United S17 solidarity actions around the world can be found below:
S17 and the Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street
Photos and Videos:
Video of the march and rally: http://youtu.be/...
Flickr 1: http://www.flickr.com/...
Flickr 2: http://www.flickr.com/...
U.S. News Clips:
http://www.kqed.org/...
http://www.ny1.com/...
OWS Celebrates 2nd Anniversary With Marches, Rallies In Manhattan
http://www.forbes.com/...
Workers Take Center Stage in Occupy’s Second Anniversary
Still Occupied: Protesters fill the streets for movement’s 2nd anniversary
http://www.gmanetwork.com/...
http://blogs.villagevoice.com/...
http://www.labornotes.org/...
http://www.iol.co.za/...
They're Ba-aack: Occupy Wall Streeters Call For Robin Hood
http://www.gay.com/...
http://thevillager.com/...
Occupy Wall Street marks second anniversary, seeks 'Robin Hood' tax
http://www.reuters.com/...
http://www.newsday.com/...
http://www.cftclaw.com/...
http://www.allvoices.com/...
International News Clips:
http://allafrica.com/...
http://noticias.terra.com.ar/...
http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/...
http://www.iol.co.za/...
http://www.begadistrictnews.com.au/...
http://www.newswire.ca/...
http://ahwph.blogspot.com/...
http://www.s21.com.gt/...
http://www.latribuna.hn/...
More Information on the Global Nurses United S17 Solidarity Actions Around the World:
http://www.nationalnursesunited.org/...
http://www.flickr.com/...