DC Occupy Movement Gains Strength Over Weekend

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)“Robin Hood was right! Tax the rich tonight!” Occupy DC activists braved rain, sleet, and the season’s first snow Saturday to take the message of the “Robin Hood Tax” – a ½ of 1% financial transaction tax designed to take small change from bankers to support those in need – through downtown DC. The march – part of a global day of action planned for the day before President Obama attends the G20 summit, a meeting of 20 world leaders – featured theatrical explanations of the current financial system. “Not only is our money inside” said Michael Kavanagh, an Occupy DC activist, in front of the Bank of America, “but the bankers are making millions off of us…that’s part of why there’s a global financial crisis.” In front of the Treasury, Emira Woods, co-founder of the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a progressive DC think tank, said “we are here today to raise our voices to say ‘enough is enough.’ We know that we cannot continue to give to the rich and expect that it will trickle down like this rain from the sky.” At the front of the rainy procession were nurses from National Nurses United who continued to show their support of the Occupy movement with a large red banner reading “Heal America – Tax Wall Street.” The march ended at the IPS office, where protesters took a welcome break from the cold to attend economist Dean Baker’s teach-in (at left) on the Robin Hood Tax. Click here to check out a video of Saturday's Robin Hood tax action. On Friday night, Howard University students, staff, faculty, and alumni took to the streets in a solidarity march with Occupy DC and Freedom Plaza. Protestors rallied at the Georgia Avenue Howard campus and then marched downtown – passing by occupations at both McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza in a show of solidarity – and ending at the Chamber of Commerce. For Howard University this was just the first step in a larger campaign for jobs with justice. “We’re going to organize job fairs, a business plan competition, and an incubator for small businesses” Talib Karim, one of the event organizers, told Union City. - Report by Julia Kann; photo by Sha Grogan-Brown.