Reverse Robin Hood Visits Banks Near WI Capitol

This afternoon, the People's Rights Campaign, a coalition of labor and community organizations, organized a community action on Madison's Capitol Square. Activists scrounged for their last pennies and taped them to "deposit slips" so that they could be deposited directly into the accounts of the CEOs of M&I Bank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase Bank.

"Why should they have to pay any taxes at all when grubby peasants and working stiffs still have a few pennies left in their pockets?" asked the group's press release.

"What we're trying to do here is call a spade a spade," National Nurses United organizer Pilar Schiavo said. "Walker's budget takes from the poor, seniors, students and workers at a time when people most need help. Walker is taking our last pennies and giving them to the rich and to corporations."

Kim Grveles of Wisconsin Resists added, "We're demonstrating Walker's agenda to transfer money from people to corporate sponsors of the governor and other GOP members of the legislature. Every bill is making us poorer and making the big corporate campaign contributors wealthier just like a reverse Robin Hood-- stealing from the working class poor and giving to the rich.

"The corporations aren't paying their fair share in taxes, they're getting bailout money and they're making millions in profits every year."

Organizers referenced a May 1st article in the Wisconsin State Journal that pointed out that "changes to a corporate tax law proposed in Walker's budget may mean businesses would pay the state about $46 million less in taxes over the next two years-- and $40 million less each year after that."

Groups of protestors spread out and took their pennies and deposit slips to the branches of M&I Bank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase Bank closest to the Capitol.

At M&I, security guards locked the front door as soon as the group of a dozen or so approached. Mike Amato of the Teaching Assistants' Association, who was dressed as a Reverse Robin Hood, tried giving his deposit slip to a guard, saying, "They want to create a peasant system, so we're helping them out by being reverse Robin Hoods, stealing pennies from the poor to give to the rich."

The security guard seemed unimpressed, later blocking off the entrance to the drive-thru teller window as well, saying that it was "private property" and making deposits to the CEO's account would not be allowed, but he was later seen with a bank manager, discussing the text of one of the deposit slips the group had left behind.

According to Schiavo, a group of protestors succeeded in getting into the local Bank of America investment branch, where they deposited their pennies into CEO Brian Moynihan's account. Protesters were locked out of JPMorgan Chase Bank's branch but were able to deposit their slips through the slit between the glass doors and leave them in a pile in the entryway.

Schiavo noted that the People's Rights Campaign seeks, through this action, to call attention to their platform, which calls for "restored rights to living wage jobs, access to healthcare and retirement security rather than giving back to corporations that have already received money from the government and continue to give huge bonuses to their CEOs."