Inspired By Waves of Protests Across World, America’s Nurses Launch “Protests in the USA”

National Nurses United Aims to Draw Together Grassroots Protests From Across Country in Support of Democracy, Healthcare, Workers’ Rights, Human Rights
Activists and Advocacy Groups Invited to Contribute via @ProtestintheUSA

Inspired by the surge of popular protests around the world and in states like Wisconsin against out-of-touch corporate and political power, America’s union of registered nurses today launches a newsline designed to help coordinate and encourage grassroots protests in the United States.  

The newsline will live at www.Twitter.com/ProtestintheUSA and bring together notices, reports, and videos from protests concerning democracy, healthcare, workers’ rights, and human rights, among other issues, the 160,000-member National Nurses United (NNU) announces.  

All individuals and groups in favor of basic democratic values are invited to join and share protests.  â€¨â€¨Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of NNU explained, “Now that the people of Egypt have spoken, we can truly say denial is too often the face of the political and media elite in America. With so many families and working people in America in trouble, with the recession, healthcare crisis, staggering disparity in income, and the ongoing corporate chokehold of our economic and political structure, more and more people will be taking to the streets calling for real change.  If you’re not protesting, you’re not paying attention. It’s up to all of us to help spread the fire.”

“The time is not just right—the times are demanding this,” said Jean Ross, RN, a co-president of NNU.  “We have an ongoing healthcare crisis, we have Social Security and Medicare threatened by corporate lobbyists and their Congressional allies, we have widening disparity between rich and poor, and we have a concerted effort to strip nurses and other workers of our collective bargaining rights.  Now’s the time to stand up, speak out, and protest in the USA.”

“Some might ask, why are nurses taking this kind of initiative to empower and publicize protests across the USA, and the answer is simple: it is our professional and ethical obligation.  Our patients, and democracy, are under attack, working people are hurting, and the ability of the RN to provide appropriate levels of care for patients is weakened,” said Karen Higgins, RN, co-president of NNU.  “The Code of Ethics for Nursing tells us, ‘The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient… (and) is responsible for articulating nursing values…(and) for shaping social policy.’”

Deborah Burger, RN, also co-president of NNU added, “I’m inspired in this project by the words of Dr. King: ‘To cure injustices, you must expose them before the light of human conscience and the bar of public opinion.’  So true. What I’ve learned from Egypt—and from the brave workers up in Wisconsin—is that we everyday people have far more power than we might think, and it’s time to exercise it to cure injustices—and we can do that by pouring into the streets to protest, exercising our power as people, together in one voice, maintaining our commitment to lift up the least among us.”