NATO Protesters Demand 'Robin Hood' Tax

Hundreds of nurses wearing Robin Hood hats and red t-shirts calling for "an economy for the 99 percent" rallied in Chicago Friday ahead of the NATO summit.

"NATO is here, the time is right for dancing in the streets," they sang as the cheerful crowd broke out into a dance routine.

"They'll be teachers teaching and nurses healing -- dancing in the streets.... it's time to tax Wall Street!"

Sharon Tobin, a nurse from San Francisco, laughed and shouted "lets do that again" when the song wound up.

"We were practicing and practicing and practicing," she told Agence France Presse. "Demonstration or no demonstration, we always have fun."

The nurses and over 100 other groups are using the summit to call attention to a global movement to enact a Robin Hood tax on financial transactions such as stock, bond and derivatives sales that would raise an estimated $350 billion every year to pay for healthcare, education, and other basic needs and services.

Thousands of protesters are expected to descend on Chicago as the leaders of 50 countries gather for a NATO summit on Sunday and Monday.

Fears that the protests could turn violent have put the city on edge, with some downtown businesses even telling office workers to ditch their suits and ties and dress down to avoid being hassled or targeted on the streets.

Police and protest organizers have vowed that there will be no repeat of the trouble that erupted at G20 summits in London and Toronto or the riots that scarred Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

The decision to move the G8 summit -- set for Friday and Saturday -- from Chicago to the presidential retreat of Camp David outside Washington is expected to lessen the intensity of demonstrations in President Barack Obama's adoptive home town.

Several rallies held so far have been peaceful, although four protesters were arrested Tuesday at a rowdy rally outside a Chicago immigration court.

Eight protesters were charged with trespassing after they refused to leave the Chicago office tower which houses Obama's campaign headquarters.