Previously: Tax Day Fun: Where To Mail Your Returns Late, Where To Protest
Protesters are gathering throughout the Bay Area and nation today the deadline to file tax returns – to call for higher taxes for banks and wealthy corporations.
A “flash mob” rally put on by groups including Causa Justa Just Cause and People Organized to Win Employment Rights is holding a symbolic marriage ceremony between corporations and the government at San Francisco City Hall.
When asked whether anyone objects to the union of the couple, “Uncle Sam” and “Ms. Filthy B. Rich,” protesters planned to break into a song and dance routine called the “Tax the Rich Shuffle,” said Robbie Clark, the housing rights lead organizer for Causa Justa.
The groups argue that wealthy corporations and individuals are not paying their fair share, and that closing corporate loopholes and levying a small tax on the wealthiest citizens could create revenue to help save jobs and maintain government services.
The rally was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. in City Hall rotunda. Similar rallies were planned in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Boston, and Arlington, Va., Clark said.
“They’re all carrying the same message,” Clark said. “Corporate greed has gone wild, and we need to tax the rich to keep jobs and help keep people in their homes.”
Several other rallies are being held in the Bay Area today as part of a campaign titled “Make Them Pay” by worker and housing rights advocates.
The groups, which include Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, are targeting what they say are the “Deadbeat Dozen” of corporations who they say are avoiding paying federal taxes.
Rallies were planned outside San Francisco City Hall and the Santa Clara County Government Building in San Jose at 11:30 a.m., and outside a Bank of America building on Macdonald Avenue in Richmond and a post office on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland at 3:30 p.m.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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