The Financial Transaction Tax, also known as the FTT, the Wall Street Tax, the Robin Hood Tax was implemented in the United States from 1916 to 1966. What is it? Where is it? And why do we need it now?

Find out more at our Teach-In on the Financial Transaction Tax / FTT!

Co-Sponsored by Queering OWS

When:  Feb, 26th 6:30

Where:  LGBT Center, 208 W. 13th Street (between 7th & 8th Aves.)

NOTE: This week’s Healthcare for the 99% Meeting will be held at Tompkins Square Park , at 4pm, as always.

Come join us for “Occupy Town Square II“

When: Sat Feb 11, 1-7 PM
Where: West Park Presbyterian Church, 165 W. 86th St Manhattan.

It will be indoors and so will have different feel to it then prior events, with teach-ins and trainings, speeches and discussion, pamphlets and performances. Come help us revive the great democratic tradition of public discourse and civic engagement. Whether you consider yourself a supporter of the movement or not, we want to meet you. Share our food and warmth; bring your stories and your ideas; learn, argue, debate, coordinate, collaborate!” We are discussing how to make this teach-in different, including photo and video and whiteboards, soliciting public input on what real health reform would be for them, “street theater” with the “our ass isn’t covered” dress-up, and of course doctors and nurses in their white coats and scrubs.

Join us there anytime during the afternoon from 1-7pm!

Facebook Event Page

Here is info from the organizers of the larger event:

Occupy Wall Street is four months old. We don’t live in a park anymore, but we’re still here, and we’re still fighting for economic justice. Now, OWS is coming to a neighborhood near you. Over the next few months, mobile, daytime occupations, called Occupy Town Squares, will be held in parks and other public spaces, indoor and outdoor, around New York City. For a few hours a week, these events will recreate the essence of the Zuccotti Park Occupation. There will be info tables, teach-ins, trainings, and political discussions.

Whether you consider yourself a supporter of the movement or not, we want to meet you: come share your ideas and stories, learn about the movement, argue with us, debate with us, collaborate with us. If you’re already active in OWS, this is a chance to exchange information, to coordinate between working groups, and to get to know our brothers and sisters in the movement.

Facebook Event Page
Twitter: @occupytownsq
Hashtag: #occupytownsq

• How can we bring a hospital back to our community?
• How can we get true universal healthcare?

Come Join the Discussion!

What:  ST. VINCENT’S COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY

When: Tuesday, January 31st at 6pm

Where: LGBT Center, 208 West 13th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues)

Details: A consensus-based conversation facilitated by HEALTHCARE FOR THE 99%, An OCCUPY WALL STREET working group

HEALTHCARE IS A HUMAN RIGHT
• FIGHT! For a hospital in this community
• FIGHT! Against systemic hospital closings all over New York City
• FIGHT! For affordable, comprehensive, high-quality healthcare for all

• 7 a.m. – Rally and Breakfast
• 7:30 a.m. – Press Conference
• 8 a.m. – Speak-Out

Enough is enough!  Our communities have seen our homes taken by the banks and our public schools carved up into charters — now they are coming after our health care.

Governor Cuomo appointed a special workgroup chaired by Wall Street financier Stephen Berger to recommend fixes for Brooklyn’s troubled hospitals.  Late last fall, their report called for letting private investors come in to “save” these hospitals and cutting benefits to lower-income employees.

Changes to our health care should be made transparently and democratically.  These life and death decisions should be made by the communities who will be affected, NOT by the bankers who caused our problems in the first place, and would profit by the sticking it to taxpayers once again.

• 20% of Brooklyn residents live in poverty.  40% of Brooklyn residents have Medicaid as their health insurance, and another 20% have no health insurance at all.

• One-third of all Brooklyn residents lack a regular doctor, so they use emergency rooms (ERs) when they get sick.  46% percent of all ER visits in Brooklyn could be better treated in the community.

• 6 of Brooklyn’s 14 hospitals are almost out of money and in danger of closing:  Brookdale (Brownsville), Brooklyn Hospital (Ft. Greene), Interfaith (Bedford-Stuyvesant), Kingsbrook Jewish (East Flatbush), Long Island College (Cobble Hill), and Wyckoff (Bushwick).  These hospitals serve low-income communities, where most people have Medicaid or no insurance, and many are immigrants and people of color.

• Gov. Cuomo appointed a special workgroup chaired by an investment banker to suggest fixes for Brooklyn’s troubled hospitals.  They suggested letting private investors come in to “save” these hospitals.

• Brooklyn is fighting to keep hospitals open in low-income neighborhoods.  Meanwhile, the wealthy east side of Manhattan is stuffed with well-connected hospitals that grab public money, but give little care to low-income communities of color.