Robin Hood Tax Coalition Calls on Congress to Fulfill Dr. King’s Vision of Social and Economic Justice

With Americans marking the 47th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. just days earlier, a broad coalition of registered nurses, organized labor, anti-AIDS advocates, college students, clergy, and other community activists will converge on 25 U.S. cities Wednesday to amplify the call for a Wall Street financial transactions tax to reverse the country’s crippling inequality.

Economists estimate that a tiny surcharge of no more than a nickel on every $10 in trades of stocks, bond, and derivatives —a tax that is proportionally smaller than what most Americans pay for a pair of shoes – could increase revenues collected by the Treasury Department by as much as $350 billion annually.

That revenue, in turn, can be re-directed from wealthy investors, who have surplus income, to poor and working-class Americans who don’t have nearly enough. Guaranteeing healthcare for all, eradicating AIDS, student debt relief, funding jobs at living wages, infrastructure repair, and fighting climate change are among the programs that could be funded by a financial transactions levy, nicknamed the Robin Hood Tax.

The Robin Hood coalition will hold vigils in Dr. King’s memory outside Congressional offices in Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, and Vermont followed by visits to legislators asking them to support the Robin Hood Tax. 

See a full list of the sites and actions of the vigils at http://www.robinhoodtax.org/april-8th-day-action

Just last month, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) reintroduced HR 1464, or the Inclusive Prosperity Act. The bill embodies the Robin Hood Tax Campaign which is widely viewed as inspired by King’s poetic reimagining of the nation as a Beloved Community in which wealth is shared, material needs met, and finance is a tool of the people.

The campaign is endorsed by 172 national organizations, including National Nurses United, the largest U.S. organization of nurses, National People’s Action, a network of grassroots campaigns, the Moral Monday movement and Health GAP, and scores of economists and iconic figures, such as South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, and Microsoft magnate Bill Gates.

King was fatally shot April 4, 1968 outside a hotel in Memphis, where he’d traveled to support striking garbage handlers demanding better pay and a safer workplace.

“Our goal,” King wrote in the introduction of a 1957 Southern Christian Leadership Conference pamphlet, “is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”

“Inequality in health, still rampant hunger, homelessness and poverty, all critical causes of Dr. King’s life, continue to devastate far too many families. We need the Robin Hood Tax to protect our health, our families, our communities, and our nation,” said National Nurses United Co-President Deborah Burger, RN.

“Rev. Dr. King boldly proclaimed that we as a nation must undergo a ‘radical revolution of values’ to become a society that puts people ahead of profits. With the gap between the rich and everyone else rising to new heights, we must heed Dr. King’s words now more than ever,” says George Goehl, executive director of National People’s Action. “The Robin Hood Tax would be a step towards a society that puts people and the planet first, taking a small percentage of profits from the few to benefit the many.”

“We are at a historic moment where science shows we can actually end the AIDS pandemic, if we invest in the resources to scale up treatment. The Robin Hood Tax is a tool that will allow us to reprioritize the strengthening of healthcare systems while financing access to lifesaving medications for those in need,” said Michael A. Tikili, national field organizer for Health GAP (Global Action Project).

List of vigils outside Congressional offices:

Alabama

Rep Brooks      11:30 am         2101 West Clinton Ave           Huntsville       

California

Rep Becerra    11 am  350 South Bixel Street, Suite 120           Los Angeles

Rep Bera         11 am  8950 Cal Center Drive, Building 3, Suite 10         Sacramento   

Rep Brownley      11 am  300 E. Esplanade Drive, Suite 470          Oxnard           

Rep Davis        11 am  2700 Adams Avenue, Suite 102          San Diego       

Rep Eshoo       11 am  698 Emerson Street                             Palo Alto        

Sen De Saulnier     11 am 101 Ygnacio Valley Road, Suite #210         Walnut Creek          

Florida

Rep Brown      11 am             455 North Garland Ave., Suite 414      Orlando          

Rep Murphy    1:30 pm           2000 PGA Blvd., Suite A3220          Palm Beach Garden    

Rep Frankel     12:30 pm         2500 N. Military Trail, Suite 490        Boca Raton     

Rep Deutch     11:30 pm         7900 Glades Road, Ste. 250        Boca Raton     

Georgia

Rep Lewis        11 am             100 Peachtree St., N.W. # 1920          Atlanta           

Maine

Rep Pingree    11 am            1 Silver Street              Waterville      

Maryland

Rep Van Hollen  11 am        51 Monroe St., Suite 507         Rockville         

Massachusetts

Rep Neal         11 am  300 State Street, Suite 200     Springfield      

Rep Capuano   12:30 pm         110 First St                 Cambridge    

Michigan

Rep Dingell     11 am  301 West Michigan Ave, Suite 400     Ypsilanti         

Minnesota

Rep McCollum  12 pm 165 Western Avenue North, Suite #17      St. Paul        

Nevada

Rep Titus         11 am  550 East Charleston Blvd. Ste B          Las Vegas       

New York 

Rep Rangel      11 am  163 West 125th Street, Suite 737       NYC (Harlem) 

Rep Nadler      2 pm    201 Varick Street, Suite 669       NYC (Washington Sq. Park)   

North Carolina

Rep Pittenger  11 am 2701 Coltsgate Road, Suite 105          Charlotte    

Ohio

Rep Boehner   11 am  7969 Cincinnati-Dayton Road, Suite B               West Chester

Texas

Rep Doggett    11 am  217 W. Travis St.         Austin 

Rep O'Rourke  11 am  303 N Oregon St Suite 210          El Paso

Vermont

Rep Welch       3:00 pm           128 Lakeside Avenue, Suite 235         Burlington