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From: Portside Moderator [[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 5:13 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: In Chicago, Nurses Rally for "Robin Hood" Tax
In Chicago, Nurses Rally for "Robin Hood" Tax
National Nurses United calls for international
campaign for financial transaction tax
The Real New Network
May 19, 2012
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8335
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/v/eM84sPGV1K4?version=3&feature=player_embedded";
Transcript
VOICEOVER: On Friday, May 18th, several thousand nurses
belonging to the National Nurses United union rallied
in downtown Chicago's Daley plaza to host what they
have dubbed the people's G8. The action coincides with
a number of mobilizations planned over the weekend in
Chicago, which was set to host both the G8 and NATO
summits. The federal government decided to move the G8
Summit to Camp David in a remote part of Maryland,
citing security concerns over the large protests
planned against the economic and military conferences.
DAVID DOUGHERTY: The nurses are continuing their
demands for what they're calling a Robin Hood tax,
which would charge half of 1 percent for all financial
transactions on Wall Street over 100 dollars, which
they say could generate an estimated 350 billion
dollars per year.
VOICEOVER: RoseAnne DeMoro is the executive director of
National Nurses United, the largest registered nurse
union in the country. She says that rather than
spending public funds on the military and US
interventions abroad, the Robin Hood tax could be used
to pay for a variety of social services at home that
have been slashed in the wake of austerity measures.
ROSEANE DEMORO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL
NURSES UNITED: We would reorganize the priorities
and spend it on human beings, on healthcare, jobs,
libraries, teachers, things that actually part of
a society that build society and build hope, our
legislators, our electives are off track, the nurses
are here to get them on track.
VOICEOVER: Chicago's current Mayor and former White
House Chief of Staff under the Obama Administration
Rahm Emmanuel had threatened to cancel the rally and
move it to a new location further away from downtown
after it was announced that musician Tom Morello,
formerly of Rage Against the Machine, would be
performing at the event. The nurses fought back and
won, and the energized rally was carried out peacefully
and without any confrontations with the massive police
presence that has flooded downtown Chicago ahead of the
NATO summit. DeMoro says the nurses are at the
forefront of challenging traditional labor politics in
the US by jumping onboard a growing international
movement.
ROSEANNE DEMORO: I do think we have a more class
conscious line we don't act like we're not working
people we don't act like everyone's middle class and
we're in this together, it's the paradigm the labor
movement has bought into, making people think there are
no sides, there are sides: the 1 percent is taking it
away form the 99 percent and so we want a financial
transaction tax where we can get it back and restore
our communities and jumpstart a new strategic approach
to the economy invested in the people in this country
and worldwide we're joined in movement 40 countries are
already part of the Robin Hood movement and the Robin
Hood tax and we're bringing it to America.
VOICEOVER: DeMoro asserts that the upcoming elections
and the Democratic party's comfortable relationship
with organized labor are not as relevant to working
people's lives as the creation of popular movements
that elect officials into office who are held
accountable to the people that elect them rather than
corporate interests.
RoseAnne Demoro: We actually have to change the way we
do politics I could go on and on about how
disappointing Democrats are but the truth of the matter
is both parties have failed this country, we need a
people's movement that elects people, puts them in
office and holds them accountable, that's what we're
more interested in, grassroots populist nurses all the
other people represent a movement and magnitude that
this country hasn't seen in many many years.
VOICEOVER: Many more actions have been planned ahead of
the 2-day NATO Summit, which is expected to draw
thousands of protestors to downtown Chicago.
==============
More:
Nurses Unite at First Major Nato Protest
Columbia Chronicle
May 18, 2012
http://columbiachronicle.com/nurses-and-supporters-unite-at-first-major-nato-protest/
&
Tom Morello Gets Fired Up at Chicago Nurses Rally
'Our victory is that we're standing here today,' says
guitarist
Rolling Stone
May 18, 2012
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tom-morello-gets-fired-up-at-chicago-nurses-rally-20120518
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