MoveOn.org Plans Federal Budget Protest in Levittown

Political advocacy group MoveOn.org is planning a protest in Levittown in response to budget discussions being held in U.S. Congress.

The protest is part of a nationwide effort by the website to get the common people, or "99 percent," that they see as consistently being under-represented in government, to protest the budget discussions currently ongoing in Congress. The budget plan, designed to cut spending, will protect the 1 percent at the expense of the 99 percent, according to MoveOn.org.

The organization announced the Levittown protest in a blog post on their official blog:

"We need to remind Congress—and our fellow community members—that there's plenty of work that needs doing in America, if only Washington would focus on the right things. And we need to show Congress how huge the backlash will be if they push through yet another disastrous deal."

According to the blog post, the protest, titled "We Are the 99 Percent," is being coordinated with members of Occupy Wall Street and groups like the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, which MoveOn.org calls "progressive allies."

The protest will take place at 3350 Hempstead Turnpike, which is the southeast corner of where the turnpike meets Gardiners Avenue. The location of the place is deliberate, as a former Kmart building at that corner has been empty for several years:

"Our plan for November 17 is to hold events at the very places where Congress could be creating jobs to get Americans back to work; crumbling bridges, understaffed schools, and other examples of critical infrastructure in disrepair."

The blog post includes a link for those interested to RSVP to the protest, which is scheduled for this Thursday, Nov. 17, at 4 p.m. According to a link on the MoveOn.org website, 309 protests are planned nationwide as of Sunday night. According to that link, it is the only such protest planned on Long Island.