Tom Morello stirs the Occupy movement into action with a performance of "This Land is Your Land" in Foley Square ahead of Occupy Wall Street's one year anniversary on September 17, 2012.

After leaving the Spectra Pipeline Blast Zone, the Occupy Guitarmy will lead a musical march through the village to Foley Square. At Foley Square there will be a giant celebration for and by Occupy Wall Street, including an educational and community-oriented Occupy Town Square and a concert, which will feature Tom Morello, Jello Biafra, Das Racist, Rebel Diaz, Michelle Shocked, and many others.

Occupy Guitarmy will open the concert will a massive sing-along version of “Wall Street, Your Kingdom Must Come Down” leading into “Frack You.” We will end the concert with a massive singalong and guest verses of “Which Side Are You On?”

Bring your instruments, noisemakers, and voices.

12-1pm March leaves from Specra to Foley Square

1pm-6pm Occupy Town Square at Foley Square (Center Street and Worth Street)

Today, actor Mark Ruffalo, star of the current movie "The Avengers," released a video calling on Americans to join the campaign. He was joined in the video by Coldplay's Chris Martin and Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello. The video, above, www.robinhoodtax.org, features Ruffalo drawing a Robin Hood mask on a dollar bill and calling on others to do the same.

Dozens of national organizations, celebrities including actor/director Mark Ruffalo, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and Coldplay's Chris Martin, renowned economists including Jeffrey Sachs, former Goldman Sachs executives and global leaders including Desmond Tutu joined today for an unprecedented coalition, calling for a "Robin Hood Tax" on Wall Street.

In New York, Founding Fathers and notable figures will start showing their support for the Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street at statues in major squares in Manhattan, donning them with Robin Hood hats and masks

In 15 cities across the country, including New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles, America's biggest nurses union, National Nurses United, along with students, climate and AIDS activists, and faith leaders, will visit branches of JP Morgan Chase Tuesday, coinciding with an appearance before Congress by JP Morgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, whose trading loss of more than $2 billion caused many to underscore the need for new regulation and taxation of the financial sector to prevent future incidents.

"The Robin Hood Tax campaign that launches in the US today offers us a solution to kick-start our economy, to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, to help those who have lost out as a result of the financial crisis they did nothing to cause - not just here in America, but around the world," said Ruffalo.

Economists estimate that we could generate hundreds of billions of dollars annually by placing a small tax on stocks, bonds, derivatives and currencies. Experts also suggest that such a policy would help limit the reckless short-term speculation that threatens financial stability. Over 1,000 leading economists have endorsed the policy, including Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs and Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute.

"Wall Street and the big banks are exploiting tax loopholes while generating record profits and being rewarded with billions in bailouts and bonuses. Most of the recovery thus far has benefited the top 1%, not the 99%," said Jean Ross, RN and co-president, National Nurses United. "The Robin Hood Tax is easy to enforce, tough to evade and won't touch the bank accounts, pensions or savings of the vast majority of the American people."

"The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax with a big ambition – to get us back on our feet through nothing more complicated than asking Wall Street to pay their fair share," said Leigh Blake of Act V, an AIDS advocacy group.

"People with AIDS are rejecting austerity budgets. A Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street could literally end the AIDS pandemic," said Jennifer Flynn of Health GAP (Global Action Project). "We simply can't afford not to implement it."

"The Robin Hood Tax will not just begin to bring basic tax fairness to Wall Street, it will help curb the destructive gambling that drove the crisis and, as we see so clearly at JPMorgan Chase, continues to threaten our economic stability and security," said Liz Ryan Murray, Policy Director of National People's Action.

"There are huge, quick transactions that add to the churning and speculation in international markets that has helped to bring the world economy to the perilous state that it's in right now," said economist Jeffrey Sachs. "The time has really arrived to put a Robin Hood tax in place. Many countries around the world are doing so. It's time for the United States to do the same."

From 1914 until 1966, the United States enforced a Robin Hood tax that raised revenue from every sale or transfer of stock. Forty countries have employed this practice—and the policy is expected to be adopted in Europe this year.

[Via]

Tom Morello sings "Stray Bullets" with Iraq Veterans Against War during the #NoNATO rally in Chicago on May 20, 2012. The sound system had stopped working at the start of the rally, but Morello came down into the crowd and finished the song and played his accoustic guitar.

Enjoy, and see you all in the morning.

An army of guitarists took to the streets of New York City as part of Occupy Wall Street’s May Day resurgence. Led by former Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello, the ‘guitarmy’ marched peacefully while strumming protest songs including Woody Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land to Morello’s World Wide Rebel Song. The foot soldiers of the guitarmy ranged from seasoned activists and Zuccotti occupiers to high school students at their first protest march.

The full transcript of an excellent interview with Morello by Bill Moyers is after the jump.

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A couple headed to a NATO dinner banquet hurry to pass NoNATO protesters held back by Chicago police on May 20, 2012.

Police keep guard at Rahm Emanuel's house as NoNATO protesters gather outside on May 20, 2012.

A NoNATO protester receives medical attention to an injury after Chicago police brutally attack protesters on May 20, 2012.

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"For the fired auto workers who were twisted, tricked and robbed / To the
peasant in Guatemala in a sweatshop got your job / And she can't feed
her family on the pennies that she makes / Meanwhile the crime
rate's rising up and down the Great Lake states"

Occupy Detroit gets a home base:

With its comfy sofas, kitchen and sunlit windows, the brick building at 5900 Michigan Ave. in Detroit that opened this year could pass for a spacious café.

But a banner high on the wall that reads "We are the 99%" signifies this is a different type of place, one that's become the center for activists in metro Detroit. After leaving their encampment in Grand Circus Park in November, Occupy Detroit has found a new home in the heart of southwest Detroit.

Across the street from a grocery store, the two-floor 12,000-square-foot building with a tall ceiling was refurbished by activists and is a striking symbol of the movement's attempts to establish a solid base in the region for its activities. "OCCUPY," it reads on the windowpanes outside.

Awesome news!

Social Security is not going broke. I repeat, Social Security is not going broke.

Which federal program took in more than it spent last year, added $95 billion to its surplus and lifted 20 million Americans of all ages out of poverty? Why, Social Security, of course...

Tom Morello, Worldwide Rebel Tour, performing "Night Watchman."

Tom Morello has done it again. Always looking to support the Occupy Movement in one way or another, he has now released a free 30-minute documentary , (did I mention it's free?) in celebration of May Day. Directed by Bobby Roth and filmed at Henson Studios in Los Angeles last August, the film features interviews with Morello juxtaposed with live performances of “Black Spartacus Heart Attack Machine,” “Save The Hammer For The Man,” “It Begins Tonight,” and “World Wide Rebel Songs.” The film is sure to inspire fans both in and out of the Occupy Movement.

Says Morello, "Remember that old Coca-Cola commercial? ‘I’d like to teach the world to sing/in perfect harmony'? It’s like that. But with class warfare."

Tom Morello was also honored for his activism:

The Rage Against The Machine star has been one of the most fervent supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in New York last year (11), and has traveled across the U.S. and Canada, and even to London to perform for demonstrators calling for an end to corporate greed.

He also led hundreds of protesters in a musical march through the streets of the Big Apple on May Day (01May12) for the so-called Occupy Guitarmy event, and his campaign work earned him special recognition for public service at the 2012 Hillman Prizes ceremony.

Morello was presented with the award by singer and fellow civil rights activist Harry Belafonte, Jr. at the prizegiving in New York on Tuesday night (01May12), but the rocker admitted he didn't think he'd make it to the event when Occupy demonstrators clashed with police earlier that day.

From ThinkProgress: Wall Street CEOs Personally Lobby Federal Reserve To Weaken New Financial Regulations.

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This is Tom Morello and Ben Harper performing "Save the Hammer for the Man."

"If the fire's hot enough
Iron and steel will bend
Save the hammer for the man
Oh, save the hammer for the man
Gotta save the hammer for the man
I will whisper words of freedom, I'll swing hard as I can
Save the hammer for the man, for the man
I will whisper words of freedom
I'll swing hard as I can."

Enjoy, and have a great night everyone!

'Occupy This Album' is now available for preorder, featuring music from Debbie Harry, Jackson Browne, Yoko Ono, Third Eye Blind, Crosby and Nash and many more. Several of the contributors, including Joan Baez and Crosby and Nash, performed at Occupy Wall Street's Zuccotti Park site while it was still an encampment.

Proceeds from Occupy This Album will benefit the Occupy movement, which has flourished from an initial staging last year in New York City into an international grassroots effort. According to the press release, "all proceeds received from the sale of this work will go directly to the Occupy movement. . . The cause can now be found in 951 cities in 83 countries including Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa."

The full roster of artists on Occupy This Album:
•Crosby & Nash
•Yoko Ono
•Debbie Harry
•Devo
•Willie Nelson
•Jackson Browne
•Tom Morello
•Michael Moore
•Thievery Corporation
•Immortal Technique
•Joan Baez, James McMurtry and Steve Earle

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