ACT-UP joins #Occupy in call for Wall Street Healthcare Tax

Members of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, (ACT-UP), joined forces with members of Occupy Wall Street on Wednesday to draw attention to a plan that would provide better health care for the uninsured.

About nine activists were arrested during the protest, held in the heart of New York’s financial district.

According to the Washington Post,”New York Stock Exchange workers jeered from the sidewalk as handcuffed protesters wearing Robin Hood costumes were loaded into police vans after chaining themselves together and blocking traffic in the area around Wall Street. Police used chain cutters to remove them.”

“The protestors are asking for the government to tax market trades by investment banks, hedge funds and other financial outfits to fund universal health care,” explains an ACT-UP blog post. “The AIDS activists met up with Occupy Wall Street supporters at City Hall to rally for what they call a “Financial Speculative Tax.” They contend the funds generated by such a tax would help treat HIV-positive people and those who are uninsured — and that it would register as barely a blip on the bottom line of most Wall Street firms.”

Eric Sawyer, who is one of the group’s founding members tells the Washington Post,”When it comes to AIDS and housing services…big business is not funding anything, but they got the bailout.”

Act-Up was founded in 1987 amid the AIDS crises, the group has since gone international with chapters around the world.

According to the group,”Today, out of the 34 million people living with HIV worldwide, about 6.6 million people in low- and –middle income countries have access to HIV treatment with nearly 8 million additional people still in need.”