If Gandhi’s chronology of “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win” is anything to go by, the Robin Hood Tax campaign is getting close to its goal.  

When the campaign launched two years ago, the idea of taxing the banks was unimaginable; now it’s taken giant leaps towards reality.  Hardly a day goes by when the Robin Hood tax or Financial Transaction Tax is not in the news. It’s been an amazing two years – and 2012 is full of opportunity.

This week supporters from around the world are doing all they can to push Governments to introduce this no brainer of an idea. Put first, and update on where we are.

Following the significant progress seen under the French Presidency of the G8 and G20 last year, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Ethiopia and the Africa Union all pledged their support for a Robin Hood tax. The conversation on a Robin Hood tax have moved from if to when – make no mistake, this is a campaign that is on its way to victory.

The campaign has won support from all arenas: Nobel Prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs and 1,000 other economists from around the world. Prominent advocates have declared support including Microsoft founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates; religious leaders Desmond Tutu, Rowan Williams, the Vatican and Jesse Jackson; prominent public figures such as Ban Ki Moon, Kofi Annan, Al Gore and Gordon Brown, alongside 1000 parliamentarians from 30 countries, as well as key financial voices, such as Adair Turner, George Soros and Warren Buffet.

This is an extraordinary turn around, in no small part due to the campaigning efforts of civil society organisations around the world. Campaigners have come together to seize the opportunity for an international FTT and have been at the heart of sustaining momentum.

The extraordinary actions of people around the world mean this fight can be won. This week, as leaders meet for the G8 in Camp David, thousands of nurses with National Nurses United will march in Chicago to try to convince President Obama to put the interests of Main Street ahead of the titans of Wall Street. Some of those nurses will have travelled from around the world to take part with one simple message: enough is enough, and to ask governments to do what they do everyday – put people, not profit first with a Robin Hood Tax. You can watch the rally, which starts at noon CST, on NNU’s live-stream channel here.

This action is just part of the story, campaigners from thirty plus countries will be taking action: making a noise online, visiting embassies, dressing in kilts and cloggs, doing all they can to shout about the Robin Hood Tax.

As an economic storm once again threatens to engulf the world economy, all eyes will be on world leaders to fix the system at the upcoming G8, G20 and Rio Summits, by curbing casino capitalism Robin Hood taxes will help do that, in addition to raising tens of billions to help the world’s poorest people.

Ideas this good don’t come along every day. And when they do, they’re too powerful to ignore.

On to Chicago: May 18   With a victory over access to  Daley Plaza behind the nurses, plans are apace for the May 18 day of action and rally.   The May 18 event, which includes a performance by renowned musician Tom Morello, The Nightwatchman,  takes place prior to G-8 meetings at Camp David, Maryland and a meeting of NATO countries in Chicago.  It has been endorsed by more than 100 organizations of labor, environmentalists and consumers.

Another theme of the NNU day of action includes an international panel of speakers of guests from seven nations speaking about the global challenge by workers and communities against bank-imposed austerity measures. The event is open to the press.  The panel will kick off the Friday events at 8 a.m. at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. It will include speakers from the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, South Korea, Guatemala, Canada and the U.S.

In a Sunday night interview with Bill Moyers,  to be rebroadcast Wednesday, May 16, 10 pm (check local schedule) – Bill Moyers interviewed NNU Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, on the union’s call for a Robin Hood Tax, a sales tax on Wall Street speculation, that could raise up to $350 billion a year in revenue and is at the center of May 18 Rally.  

“There’s a deficit created by speculation. And all of a sudden working people are supposed to pay for the deficit, that’s the rallying cry?” DeMoro told Moyers in the broadcast interview.  “Like a deficit that working people didn’t cause, that that’s the priority of this country to resolve a deficit caused by Wall Street rather than job creation?”

The 23-minute conversation between Moyers and DeMoro examines the enduring economic harm in the country, as seen from the perspective of nurses.   NNU is comprised of 170,000 bedside nurses. 

“We’re working on the global scene, and the opportunities to actually have one world and one people, and even though that sounds pie in the sky are presenting itself in a way for the first time that I’ve seen in my life,” DeMoro told Moyers.  “ Because the financial transaction tax is seen by all of our allies internationally as a way of addressing the economy of the world. And that’s why it’s not the financial transaction tax in and of itself, it’s the reconceptualization of what we should be as a society of people.”

The revenue from the Robin Hood Tax is the first step to healing distressed communities and setting the U.S. on the road to a real recovery.  More than 40 countries, including many of the fastest growing economies, already have such a tax, and it may well be adopted European-wide this year.

 The critically-acclaimed actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, who portrays a nurse on the Emmy award winning Showtime dark comedy Nurse Jackie, will perform Tell Us Where It Hurts, America’s Nurses are Listening, a theatrical piece written for an estimated international audience of more than 1,000 nurses, at the Sheraton at 7:30 p.m . on May 18, capping the day of action.  “It’s a welcome creative challenge to tap into these experiences from the lives of nurses,” said Deavere Smith.

Tonight on Moyers & Company, eminent journalist Bill Moyers interviews National Nurses United Executive Director, RoseAnn DeMoro; go here for the full interview, or here for the full transcript.

BILL MOYERS: In politics, a game of compromise, you’re looking for absolutes?

ROSEANN DEMORO: There you know, we’ve made the compromises. Look where these compromises have got us. Do I think that there’s an absolute right for people to have health care in this country? Absolutely. Absolutely. Do I think people are entitled to work and provide for themselves and their families? Absolutely. That’s an absolute.

Do I think that people should have a home to live in and to be able to care for the most vulnerable? Absolutely. Yes, I’m looking for absolutes. I’m not interested in the neo-liberal agenda. I’m not interested in bipartisanship. I’m interested in social change that actually puts society back with the people.

ROSEANN DEMORO: We have to start all over, in terms of how we do politics. Right now—

BILL MOYERS: What do you mean?

ROSEANN DEMORO: We have to engage people in their communities to actually elect the people and tell those people what we want and tell them we will un-elect them if they don’t fulfill the needs of their community.

BILL MOYERS: Now you’re talking about a mass movement there.

ROSEANN DEMORO: I’m talking about an absolute mass movement.

BILL MOYERS: Because after the election, we both know that after the election, no matter how the voters have expressed themselves, it’s the donors who decide what the—

ROSEANN DEMORO: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: –incumbents do when they get into office. We know that.

ROSEANN DEMORO: Invariably what happens is the groups are called into the White House. And they’re told, “No.” And then they come back and they tell the coalition, “No.” And then everyone’s cutting side deals. And there’s no actual social movement.

What I like about Occupy is that a lot of groups tried to coopt it, and it stayed its own course. And we’ve got to have Occupy with a political– you know, strategic decisions that are actually going to push the agenda for the American people. Revolt is a good one, because ultimately revolt gets a lot of attention. But we also have to be on the demand side. And we’ve got to be able to reach everyday people who are actually out there struggling. And give them hope.

BILL MOYERS: The paradox, RoseAnn, is that you’re calling for more public action—

ROSEANN DEMORO: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: –for more public policy, for more government, at a time when there’s a growing powerful conservative movement that says government is the problem.

ROSEANN DEMORO: We want to have the corollary to that on the other side. Where we’re actually inspiring people toward a better vision for society, for hope, for a social movement that they can engage in, that’s not the politics of hatred, that’s not the politics of fear, but the politics of hope. Now to do that, we are going to tap the anger, because people should be angry. So we want to validate the anger, but not take it in a reactionary way. But a way that’s actually life affirming.