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I sent this post to a few of my good activist friends with the hope that something can be done to salvage the Occupy movement before it is trivialized by politicians, police and the main stream media.
Why do I feel like it needs to be salvaged?
I'll tell ya..
I've begun to wonder if the Occupy movement is even real.. Maybe it's a CIA special ops operation?
"Oh look! How cute! We have our own "Tahrir square" Isn't that special!"
Who TF are you occupiers?
A bunch of 1960's hippie wannabes?
You want to put some f'ing tents in a public park, smoke pot and eat beanie wienies?
Like that's going to bring down Wall Street?
This ain't Egypt folks.. it's the United States of America.
Your little camp outs are drawing the homeless in for free food. And a certain percentage of the homeless, coincidentally, happen to be mentally ill drug addicts, rapists and murderers..
The "focus" of the "movement" is becoming the riffraff you draw to yourselves!
So here's an actionable plan for you..
Get OUT of the f'ing parks and INTO the banks, insurance companies, auto dealers and payday loan companies!
This is America, we have FREEDOM here!
Rather than park 800 idiots in a public park to be harassed by police take it to the f'ing streets!
As Americans we have every legal right to enter a bank lobby in a peaceful, orderly manner. We have every legal right to ask questions of a public corporation.
So do that!
Take hundreds of your asses into a bank lobby, each of you armed with a legitimate question for the employees of the bank.
I like "Why / how do you expect people to pay a 17% interest rate for one of your crappy credit cards while you are able to borrow money yourselves practically for free?!"
But ANY legitimate question will work..
What time do you open?
What are your hours?
What products do you offer?
What's your phone number?
How many branches do you have?
What are those branch locations?
Hopefully you get the idea..
You can SHUT DOWN businesses with your numbers alone IF you put those numbers in the right SPOTS!
When / if you jam pack a bank lobby with people who desire to ask a legitimate question of the bankers it will be nearly impossible for non-participating bank customers to do their business.. If they can't do their business with a too big to fail maybe they'll move their account..
All you / we need is bodies.. Enough bodies to fill as many TBTF bank lobbies as possible. As many insurance offices as possible. As many car dealerships as possible. As many payday loan companies as possible.
Be at the door waiting to get in when they open. When it's closing time leave peacefully, return to your family or whatever you normally do. But the the next morning be there again, bright and early, ready to spend the entire day in these greedy corrupt to the core businesses. Every day, day in and day out.
SHUT them DOWN! But be polite about it ;)
If you can't go personally CALL them with your questions!
Set up phone banks to call them with questions! Thousands and thousands of questions! Denial of service attacks on computer networks are illegal.. Calling public corporations on the phone, by the thousands, is not! Though the result can be exactly the same.
The ONLY way "they" can stop this sort of civil disobedience would be to pass a law to make it illegal for American citizens to enter or call a public corporation with legitimate questions!
*I* don't see that happening! Do you?
Please.. use your freedom wisely and we can accomplish great things..
Here is the definition of Civil Disobedience
Greg
They did this, here is one example:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.twitvid.com/ZUYXO
Civil disobedience properly belongs focused at government. Banks can't physically force anyone to use their services, as can governments via their enforcers.
ReplyDeleteSimply move any money still in a commercial bank - especially the biggies like BofA, Chase, Wells Fargo - to a credit union. My money has been in TruWest Credit Union since before it changed from Motorola Employees Credit Union (when I first became an employee there in 1984 and continued after I left in 2000).
But make it very clear publicly WHY your money is being withdrawn - you don't like one or more bank practices. I and husband Paul Wakfer do not use the BofA VISA we have had for many years (Paul had singly before I joined him) except for 1 international service provider that doesn't take Discover. (This also keeps the card active in case of an emergency need.)
Trying to "shut them down" with people in lobbies or on phones gives these banks attention that they really don't deserve. Instead "vote" with your money by taking it elsewhere AND publicize that fact.
What are the actionable steps the Occupy movement is advocating for positive change? There would be power for you guys if you could articulate this beyond "disruption."
ReplyDeleteYour suggestion is interesting. But your tone is not helpful. The fact is, OWS has made more headway putting the issues of economic inequality, the impact of corporate money on politicians, and tax justice in two months than we'd previously seen in 50 years. So lighten up, stop with the hectoring, give these folks some credit. The proper target of OWS is BOTH big private irresponsible corporations AND big irresponsible unresponsive government -- not either. It's IS a banksta corpocracy we talkin' about heah.....after all.
ReplyDeleteAs for "actionable step" that OWS supporters may favor, there are dozens. But we can name THREE where (a) the traditional political parties have been BOUGHT OFF or are afraid of losing corp $ on the margin.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has their favorite ideas -- that's the beauty of OWS. For what it is worth, here are three that I think we could all support:
1. Breaking up the big banks (whose market share now exceeds 50% in many markets, and whose excessive size creates unacceptable systemic risks).
2. Tax the rich in proportion to their wealth and income. Since the 1970s we've seen the progressive income tax eroded, while "flat taxes" like social security, sales taxes, and prop taxes have soared. The US needs to LEAD on this issue -- then other countries can follow. Otherwise we get a "race to the bottom" like we've been seeing.
3. Get big corporate money the fuck out of politics. Corporations are NOT people, contrary to the US Supreme Court's Citizen United decision. We need to reverse this now even it it takes a Constitutonal amendment.