A group of 50 financial professionals—investors, traders, academics and banking executives—urged G-20 and European leaders to back small financial transaction taxes (FTTs) on financial industry speculation.    

In a letter to world leaders, the group notes that FTTs “have a proven track record” and would help rebalance financial markets away from “a short-term trading mentality that has contributed to instability in our financial markets.” It also says FTTs have the potential to raise significant revenue.

Working familes in Washington, D.C., and Cannes, France (where leaders of the G-20 are meeting), rallied yesterday for passage of a Robin Hood tax on Wall Street. You can join the action by telling Wall Street it’s time to pay its fair share.

Taking the stage in Lafayette Park across from the White House in front of nearly 1,500 union members and Occupy D.C., supporters, a not-quite  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner look-alike vowed “Never, Never, Never” to impose a Robin Hood (or financial speculation) tax on Wall Street.

The day before participants at demonstrations in Washington, D.C., Cannes, France, Los Angeles and San Francisco will call on Congress and global leaders to adopt a small “Robin Hood” tax (financial speculation tax) to create jobs, bills were introduced in the U.S. House and Senate to adopt such a tax.

As world leaders head to France for the the G-20 economic summit in Cannes, labor leaders from around the globe will gather nearby to represent the needs of the world’s workers. Among their demands is a Robin Hood tax on banks and financial institutions that would exact a nano-percentage of each financial transaction to the tune of 0.5 percent. (See video.) That’s one half of 1 percent on every bond or derivative traded, stocks sold and a host of other “financial instruments” bought and sold by the very institutions bailed out by the world’s taxpayers.

From California to Capitol Hill to Cannes, France, on Nov. 3 nurses from National Nurses United (NNU) and other union members and community activists will call on the leaders of the world’s top economies—known as the G-20—to adopt a small Robin Hood tax (financial speculation tax) to create jobs.

The global union movement is calling on the labor ministers of the world’s top economies, known as the G-20, to create millions of new jobs around the world. In a statement prepared for the labor ministers meeting next week in Paris, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Trade Union Advisory Committee (TUAC) and Global Unions say 110 million jobs are needed by 2015 just to return G-20 countries to pre-crisis levels. That’s 22 million new jobs every year. Read the global unions’ statement here.

On the same day the International Labor Organization warned that worldwide unemployment is still a crisis, the global union movement issued a statement calling on participants in the World Economic Forum to keep their focus on jobs.