On May 12

New Yorkers to Wall Street on May 12: MAKE BIG BANKS AND MILLIONAIRES PAY! COALITION PLANS WEEK OF ACTION TO STOP BLOOMBERG’S BUDGET CUTS WITH TAXES ON MILLIONAIRES AND ENDING GIVEAWAYS TO BIG BANKS National Movement Connects the Dots to NYC, Demands Reform and Fair Share in Taxes from Financial Sector NEW YORK - A growing coalition of community, labor, and progressive groups announced today plans for a week of events starting May 9th, calling for Mayor Michael Bloomberg to end taxpayer-financed giveaways to Wall Street and ask for fair-share taxes from millionaires to mitigate his proposed budget cuts. The week of action will culminate in a major mobilization in Lower Manhattan on Thursday, May 12. The coalition, uniting under the banner “Make Big Banks and Millionaires Pay” will contrast the corporate welfare, property tax giveaways, and seemingly endless local and national tax cuts enjoyed by the financial sector with Bloomberg’s proposed cuts to childcare, classrooms, public safety, and dozens of other services working New Yorkers rely on. “The big banks wrecked our economy and are back to making billions in profits and lavish bonuses, while the rest of us are still cleaning up the mess they created,” said Mary Brosnahan, the Executive Director of the Coalition for the Homeless. “Now Bloomberg has a choice: ask Wall Street bankers to contribute their fair share to fixing New York City, rather than enacting devastating cuts to working families.” The organizers promise more than a typical “rally” on May 12th, with a day of diverse, creative actions across the downtown financial district. Michael Mulgrew, President of the United Federation of Teachers, said: “On May 12, tens of thousands of New Yorkers will descend on Wall Street, creating a giant school without walls throughout the financial district. Together, we will educate our city and expose the people and institutions that are destroying our jobs and our economy, and the politicians who are letting them get away with it.” The week of actions coincides with a growing national movement by communities increasingly questioning the practices of the financial industry and fighting back against attacks on working people. “We are connecting the dots from the big banks that crashed our economy, destroyed millions of jobs and foreclosed on millions of family homes to the human impact here in the financial capital of our country, ” said Michael Kink, Executive Director of Strong Economy for All Coalition. As the week of action approaches, organizers plan to release new data detailing the tax breaks and giveaways New York City doles out to the banking industry, as well as the effect of Wall Street-caused foreclosures on New York’s communities and tax revenue. “When New Yorkers see the skewed choices this city has made, it is no longer an abstraction,” added Kink. “Homeless shelters are bursting at the seams, and child care and senior centers are closing down -- not because we have gone broke, but because Bloomberg has chosen to spend hundreds of millions in subsidies for the people who need it least.” The following community groups and unions have joined the May 12 coalition (list in formation): ACT UP / NY Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) Bronx Defenders Center for Children Initiatives Center for Working Families Children's Defense Fund - New York Citizen Action NY Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) Coalition for the Homeless Code Pink NYC Common Cause NY Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 1 Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1104 Communications Workers of America Local (CWA) 1180 Community Organizations Community Voices Heard Council of School Supervisors and Administrators (CSA) CSEA Local 1000 CUNY Mobilization Network Emergency Coalition to Save Child Care Episcopal Social Services FUREE (Families United for Racial & Economic Equality) Good Old Lower East Side Granny Peace Brigade Grassroots Education Movement Greater NYC for Change Housing Works Human Services Council Hunger Action Network of NYS Judson Memorial Church Make the Road NY MinKwon Center Mirabal Sisters National People's Action Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project (NEDAP) Neighborhood Family Services Coalition Neighbors Helping Neighbors Neighbors Together New Deal for NY New York Charter Parents Association New York City Coalition Against Hunger New York City Parents Union New York Coalition for Adult Literacy New York Communities for Change New York Jobs with Justice New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts NW Bronx Community Clergy Coalition Organization for a Free Society Peace Action NYS Picture the Homeless Professional Staff Congress (PSC) Queens Community House Queens Council - MoveOn.org Queerocracy Right To the City Alliance SEIU 1199 United Healthcare Workers East SEIU Local 32BJ Strong Economy for All Coalition Teachers Unite Transport Workers Union Local 100 United Federation of Teachers (UFT) United For Peace and Justice United New York United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) Upper West Side MoveOn Council Urban Youth Collaborative (UYC) VOCAL-NY War Resisters League Who Cares? I Do. Campaign Working Families Party YaYa network