Over 2,000 Attend Lehman Tax the Rich Rally with Bernie Sanders

NYC Artist Allegra Krieger Tuning Her Guitar
Credit: Gilbert Areizaga

By Gilbert Areizaga

On Sunday, March 29, 2,000 community members packed into Lehman’s Performing Arts Center for a high-energy rally sponsored by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and headlined by Senator Bernie Sanders to urge New York Governor Kathy Hochul to raise taxes on the wealthiest members of the city.

“Right now you are living in a country where the top 1% owns more wealth than the bottom 93%,” Sanders said. “One man - Mr. Musk - owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households.” Zooming out and analyzing the gap between the richest in America and the working class, Sanders continued citing statistics, each one highlighting just how wide the gap between the rich and the rest is and how this manifests in the lives of average people. “We have 85 million Americans who are uninsured and under-insured, over a half a million Americans go bankrupt each year because of medically related debt, tens of thousands of our people die every year because they don’t have enough money to get to a doctor when they should in the richest country in the history of the world.” Sanders then explained how billionaires and large corporations pay less in taxes than the average American.

Following the rally’s main slogan “Tax The Rich,” many of the other speakers also emphasized how the extra money could be used. James Davis, President of the Professional Staff Congress union (PSC CUNY), which represents faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY), spoke about the lack of up-to-date campus infrastructure that is present on CUNY campuses. Teachers and faculty, he said, “would love to negotiate for better labs and facilities, if only they had the budget.”

““One man - Mr. Musk - owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households.” – Senator Bernie Sanders

Senator Gustavo Rivera also put healthcare at center stage, stating that by July of this year, 450,000 New Yorkers will lose access to health coverage due to federal changes, and that number is projected to reach 1.2 million by the end of 2027. Leader of the New York City Nurses Association Nancy Hagans shared how patients and healthcare workers are struggling now, saying, “From a hospital like mine that serves the low income [to] underinsured patients, and hospitals in the north country that are being threatened with closure every day, [hospitals and nurses] need to deliver the service [patients] deserve and support our communities. I know we can do it by taxing the rich.”

The rally’s ultimate message was that these conditions do not have to remain a permanent fixture in America. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has already proposed a tax increase for millionaires within the city, and Sanders stated that 54% of people in New York state are in favor of this bill. Sanders, who himself introduced a bill that would levy a 5% tax on American billionaires, urged Governor Hochul to follow his example and raise taxes on the richest in New York. The call was for action, with Sanders saying, “Unless we change the nature of this economy, which is what we are intending to do, our younger generation will have a lower standard of living than their parents. We will not allow that to happen.”

CJ Gallagher, co-chair of the Lehman chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), was excited about Sanders presence in the Bronx. “It means a lot to us. I feel like [the Bronx] often gets left out of the public discourse. I think that a lot of people don’t consider that this is a working-class borough. This is where a lot of stuff happens. I really hope that it [will] get more people from the Bronx involved in politics because I think there is a lot of power here.”

Recent Bronx resident David Z agreed: “It makes me happy that I moved to the Bronx about six weeks ago.”

Sude Atar, a German exchange student at Lehman College, also said the Bronx should get its fair share of resources. “Any extra money should go to the people who need it the most; the people from here, the Bronx.”