Backers of "Robin Hood" Tax Help Kick Off Campaign

Local members of the Robin Hood Tax, a campaign to tax Wall Street trades, helped launched their effort today in front of the Chase Bank at Southwest Sixth Avenue and Yamhill Street. The campaign is calling on Congress to impose a .05 percent tax on every $100 of stocks, bonds, currency and derivatives traded in the U.S. Backers say such a tax would raise $350 billion a year.

“We are determined to make this happen,” said Barbara Williams, a member of the campaign, who with the 10 other demonstrators wore feathered caps and drew masks on George Washington on several $1 bills. “It’s not a tax on the people. It’s a tax for the people.”
 
Williams, a nurse, said the national campaign started with National Nurses United and has joined forces with other labor organizations. Supporters of the idea include Oxfam America, Greenpeace, Nobel prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and former Vice President Al Gore.