Republished from National Nurses United’s Blog
By Rose Ann DeMoro
November 10, 2011

Amidst the scourge of inequality sweeping the world, marked by continued profits, pay-outs and record levels of cash hoarding — the spoils of the 1% — one group has come forward with a remedy, refusing to stand down. Nurses from four continents gathered at the G-20 Summit last week to tell world leaders that time is running out: revenue is needed now and the starting point is a global finance tax.

That call for remedy is resonating. It is loud and it is getting louder, and half measure legislation is not a substitute for a movement.

Just last week, in addition to the actions at the G-20, 2,000 people, including RN members of National Nurses United joined by the AFL-CIO and other unions, environmental and community groups, and participants from the Occupy Wall Street movement, marched on the White House and Treasury Department.

Like the nurses at the G-20, they were calling on the Obama administration to support a tax on Wall Street, the U.S. version of a financial transaction tax to raise desperately needed revenue to heal our economy. Similar marches occurred in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Nurses have been rallying for months, and putting pressure on the White House and members of Congress to support a meaningful tax on Wall Street to provide the funding necessary for such basic needs as health care for all, jobs with dignity, and quality public education.

An FTT, a sales tax on trading in stocks, bonds, derivatives and targeting speculative activity, is now on the world agenda. Read more…

Note: Registered Nurses Linda Hamilton, Bernadine Engeldorf and Jean Ross wrote this column for the “Labor Voices” featured in the October 2011 edition of The St. Paul Union Advocate. It also appears on the blog at www.nationalnursesunited.org.

From Madison to Wall Street, from St. Paul to Washington D.C., people are seeing nurses dressed in red scrubs, holding not a stethoscope but a megaphone. We are carrying signs. We are marching en masse. And we are raising our voices. This may seem unusual behavior for our profession, but in truth, our history is deeply rooted in social advocacy, as well as the bedside advocacy you’ve come to trust. We’re doing more because we must.

We are facing a crisis in our profession and in the realm in which it serves. Anger is building. We see it in the weary faces of our colleagues, hear it in the exasperated tone of our voices and feel it in the now-permanent clench of our jaws.

But we’ve recognized that if this is true for the majority of us, an insidious grand scheme is working. Wall Street power brokers are counting on us to assume the role of submissive, quiet caregivers who don’t question or protest.

Imagine their surprise to discover, instead, enraged and engaged nurses. We’ve connected the dots that directly link power and greed to inadequate staffing and unsafe conditions for the patients in our care. The deplorable conditions in which we work right now are fully intentional. Wall Street is literally getting away with murder. Read more…

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We visited with two of our friends from CNA/NNU (California Nurses Association, National Nurses United) RN/Communications Specialist Liz Jacobs, and Colette Washington, On-Line Communication Specialist. Colette shared about a new mobile app that NNU has created that makes it possible to be involved in shaping national and international policy and politics without leaving the comfort of your own home.

The app provides information about the day’s most vital issues such as the Main Street Contract and Occupy Wall Street. Plus tells you how to help support nurses fighting to keep their patients safe. You can make your voice heard to help pass a Wall Street transaction tax to support healthcare and more. You can get points for being an activist! Not like weight watchers but what you do makes a difference. Check it out by texting the word “payback” to 53000 from your mobile phone. You will receive instructions and a link to download. Read more…

Are you ready for Thursday? That’s when nurses and other community activists are going to press President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for a meaningful financial transaction tax. Nurses from four continents, including a delegation from NNU, will be at the opening of the G-20 summit in France to demonstrate how to “inject an FTT” to resuscitate the ailing global economy.

List of events:
G-20 Summit: 9:45 a.m., Salon Palm, Casino Palm Beach, Place Franklin Roosevelt – Pointe de la Croisette, Cannes, France

Washington, D.C.: Rally, Lafayette Square, 11:30 a.m., followed by march to U.S. Treasury Department. Nurses head to Capitol Hill to lobby Congress at 3 p.m.

Los Angeles: March from OccupyLA site, 11 a.m., First and Main, rally, plaza adjacent to U.S. Bank, W. 633 5th St.

San Francisco: March 11 a.m., from 101 Market, across from the Federal Reserve Bank, rally at 12 noon, Wells Fargo bank headquarters, 464 California St.

Read the full press release at nationalnursesunited.org. Read more…

This week on Nurse Talk Casey and Dan talk to RN Jill Furillo. Jill spent several days last week with Occupy Wall Street and will give us a firsthand account of her experience and what the Occupy movement is all about. To learn about how and why nurses are taking action listen to this show and go to www.nursetalksite.com/Nov3. In the carefully chosen words of Vice President Joe Biden, “In the minds of the vast majority of the American – the middle class is being screwed.”

And author and sex addiction therapist George N. Collins is with us. What we think we know about sex addiction is …well…not particularly helpful or accurate. Mr. Collins has written a book, Breaking the Cycle, Free Yourself from Sex Addiction, Porn Obsession, and Shame and developed some techniques to help turn the energy of negative compulsions into positive life changes.