Community groups, unions, political parties protest proposed tax reform

Santo Domingo.- A group of community organizations, labor unions and representatives from political parties are started marching to Congress Friday morning, to protest against the proposed tax reform, to demand comprehensive land reform and for the government to spend on what they consider top priorities; housing, agriculture and food .

The Alternative Social Forum, the Peasant Movement National Coordinator, the Zero Eviction Campaign Movement, the Civic Forum and the National Human Rights Commission, among other groups, are taking their protest to Congress, where a police barricade awaits them.

Carrying pickets and shouting, among other slogans, “Leonel and his lackeys should be sent to Najayo," in reference to ex president Leonel Fernandez, and the Najayo penitentiary, in San Cristobal.

Victor Geronimo, of the Alternative Social Forum, said those sectors of society want to state their rebuke to the government’s tax measures and demand that the authorities establish responsibilities for the “fiscal abyss” left by Fernandez’s Administration.

The organizations demand that the Government get the funds it needs through other means, without charging more taxes on working people and the middle class.

They propose a productive reform, based on a real and not parasitic economy, which spurs the entire national production in the interior and the cities.

Geronimo said the organizations will seek to prosecute Fernandez and other officials they blame for the record deficit.

The protest began at 9am in front of Congress and the organizers say it will conclude at Parque Independencia at 5pm.