Media release 28/10/2011, 2.00pm
Robin Hood March

World’s biggest bank job begins on Queen Street

The world’s biggest bank job begins on Auckland’s Queen Street on Saturday, as Occupy protesters take part in a global day of action for a Financial Transaction Tax.

A protest will depart the Occupy Auckland camp at Aotea Square at 3.00pm on Saturday 29 October before visiting Queen Street banks to demand a Robin Hood tax that they say would end unemployment, stop climate change and eradicate global poverty.

The call for a global march on the eve of the G20 summit came from Adbusters, the artists collective that put out the original invitation for an occupation of Wall Street. The protest for new forms of wealth redistribution comes as the global economic and environmental crisis deepens and the richest 1% of corporations and individuals use the 2008 crisis as an excuse to push through austerity measures and ecological deregulation.

“We want you to slow down some of that $1.3 trillion easy money that’s sloshing around the global casino each day – enough cash to fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world”, said Adbusters.

The Robin Hood tax has many backers around the world. In France a group known as ATTAC has campaigned for the tax, also known as a Tobin Tax. In New Zealand, the Mana Movement MP Hone Harawira refers to it as the Hone Heke Tax and wants to see it brought in to replace GST.

“If at first people thought that the Occupy movement had no concrete demands, this action clearly shows that this movement means business” said Dr Campbell Jones, spokesperson for Occupy Auckland.

“The proposal for a global Robin Hood tax goes well beyond what is proposed by the Mana party, and indeed makes the call for a Hone Heke tax in New Zealand look rather modest” he continued.

Jones said “This call for a Robin Hood tax shows how out of touch major parties in New Zealand are, when G20 leaders, the IMF and even the Pope are calling for a tax that promises to reduce financial speculation, reduce the risk and severity of financial crises, and gather tax income in a way that does not punish the poor”.

ENDS

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