Occupy: Phase Two; Remember, remember the 5th of November

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

It is easy to ignore and step over one homeless person on the sidewalk as it is to ignore hundreds (thousands) of protesters camped out at your place of employment. It's a nuisance, perhaps even a hazard. It ties up police, bylaw and security resources. But it is as easy to ignore as it is easy to ignore the consequences of chemicals dumped into the river to save proper disposal/storage costs. Blinders are wonderful things.

But how does the Occupy Movement capture attention? Sure they have the attention of the media, and much of the public. But this attention only translates into supporter and detractors. What Occupy wants (DEMANDS!) is some action taken to make things right. They need the attention of policy makers in business and government to make things right.

As a community, occupy can distill which demands are best, most appropriate and doable. And perhaps this requires input not just from within the Occupy movement, but broadly, Dialogue must occur between Occupy and those they seek to engage, like Wall Street, the bankers, the Government, etc. It's not even a stalemate when the engagement is lip service.

"The protests, for all this incoherence, restore Wall Street to a central place in the economic narrative. Here is the financial industry, not just as recipient of taxpayer funds but as originator and aggravator of the crisis. The protests may not have an agenda, but they do not need an agenda other than to return political focus onto Wall Street." -Jonathan Chait, New York magazine

So how to gain the attention of those that Occupy wants to engage? Well, if they are willing to step over the people sleeping in the streets, block the calls of workers they've laid off, you got to hit them where it hurts... in the bank balance.

Bank Transfer Day has the potential to wake up more then a few sleepy Wall Streeters with blinders on. The idea is to withdraw all money from the big national banks and put it into small local/community credit unions (hopefully not ones owned by the big banks) by November 5th. Then the smart thing to do is to avoid any/all fees the banks could be making a profit with. Transfer your mortgage. Stop using debit. Etc.

Furthermore, cash in on all investments. The point is to hurt the banks and Wall Street as much as possible, limiting their earnings, and thereby forcing them to finally engage the 99%.

And finally, do all your shopping at small independent merchants.

The downside is that if Walmart (NYSE: WMT) looses significant investment, and customer base, it might be pushed to initiate layoffs. Hurting the largest single employer in the world, would hurt employees. Hurting Wall Street could hurt everyone. But that's the gamble.

Business is said to have to answer to investors. And the customer is always right. Not being either means a relinquishment of all power. But we are potential customers and their profits are entirely dependent on us.

The 1200 protests with average of 1000 participants each is only 1.2million customers. Most are living are month to month, paycheque to paycheque. Many can't afford to not shop at big box stores, the parking fees downtown would kill us. We do not represent enough profit for big business to worry about. Not unless this thing catches on.

Comments

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Ah, the people who bring up Guy Fawkes do realize he was a Catholic advocate of absolute monarchy and not an anarchist anything, right? This also requires a movement with a lot of discipline, will, and cojones and thus far the OWS movement, like the Tea Party, gives indication of none of the above, and the Tea Party factions that show the first only do so because they're Republican auxiliaries and not a movement in their own right.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

The Guy Fawkes legend, like most legends, is not based on or in the true reality of fact, but in the romanticized myth, embellished and serving the purpose of the storyteller. Since the 80's, Alan Moore's futuristic neo-Jamesean tale has become popular culture, and cult culture symbolism for Anarchists everywhere.

Don't get sidetracked by (historical) fact, when the fiction is more relevant.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, Alan Moore the wannabe porn comic writer who went into superhero comics, succeeded, and hated his own success. Unfortunately when it comes to bringing up that particular tale of a self-avowed terrorism and Margaret Thatcher bashing I will bring up the history as you do not want me to get started on how crappy Alan Moore is as a writer.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Let's get one thing straight. The Occupy movement is now bigger then just OWS. It would seem to be bigger then the Tea Party, but as a non-American, the Tea Party is really of little concern. This is a global movement. It started with idea printed in Adbusters (out of Vancouver (Canada)) and started on the streets of New York, but has since blossomed globally.

Many Occupy participants are proud that the organization has been leaderless and anarchy in action. It is by far not the most disciplined of organizations, precisely because it is anarchy by nature. But what Occupy lacks in discipline and organization, it has already proved itself to have will and bollocks.

What will prove itself worthy of a footnote in history is it's stay-power. Do they have the traction to survive the cold winter? And more importantly, do they have the power to achieve any of it's many goals? (any one achievement would be awesome)

[onefatmusicnerd.livejournal.com]

But Alan Moore used Guy Fawkes ironically.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

1.2 million people could have fixed a lot of things if they hadn't wasted their time standing around and yelling.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

Don't tell me you're jealous that those guys have become bigger than anything the Tea Party could ever organize. Not to mention they've gone international.

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

The tea party got dozens of candidates elected.

OWS has alienated so many people it may get many Dems unelected.

[fizzyland.livejournal.com]

What exactly could they have fixed?

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

The Tea Party did a lot of standing around and yelling, too.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

The face of poverty is overwhelmingly women and children. Righties don't like to deal with this fact, since women and children are sort of a lot of the focus when it comes to the Bible. So instead they paint a picture of lazy males, because we all know that lazy males don't get any love from the Bible. Fuck lazy, stupid males.

This sort of attitude falls really flat when you start showing pictures of women and children. Which is why they had to invent the "welfare queen". "Queen" because no one can feel sorry for a "queen" (queens are powerful and therefore bad).

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the retards. Jesus even loved the retards. And they are usually quite poor.

[raichu100.livejournal.com]

This is a really interesting comment. I like the way you put it.

Think of it as a really big trust fall

[oportet.livejournal.com]

I guess we'll find out if the 99% is really 99%, I'm guessing they need to be at least 20% to break the skin.

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

I hope OWS does well here and around the world, I really do.

But I feel it's all but inevitable before it gets co-oped by its fringe elements. I like some of their demands on the website, but when I see stuff like end the Fed, return to the gold standard, etc it really makes me wonder if their all-inclusive attitude is gonna be their downfall.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

I think its the overdraft fee's that tend to give people the sour taste. Like when you overdraw your account by 1 dollar, so they charge you 35 per transaction thereafter. It kicks the poorest when they are down.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

By the way, why is paper checking free and electronic means not free? Doesn't that seem backwards?

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

The complaint isn't strictly about the banking fees... but by not paying these convenience fees is but just one way in which Occupy supporters can hurt the banks revenue stream.

And we want to hurt the banks revenue stream so they will change the way they conduct business. Predatory lending practices is why the 2008 crash happened and that practice hasn't stopped. It's just being conducted by even larger banks now.

The goal is to prevent the next crash from happening. Right now it seems inevitable. Being ignorant of the situation isn't helping. Waiting for government to stop it isn't working. We have to appeal to those who are practicing financial terrorism.

easy to ignore hundreds (thousands) of protesters

[zebra24.livejournal.com]

Last year, hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for an event called Restoring Honor.

**The attendance of the rally was disputed; a scientific estimate placed the crowd size around 87,000, while media reports varied dramatically from tens of thousands to 500,000.**

This year restoring courage
http://www.glennbeck.com/publish/uploads/2011/08/1108024_07_03_190-640x426.jpg


SURE - IT IS VERY EASY TO IGNORE!

Re: easy to ignore hundreds (thousands) of protesters

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Ironic that conservatives would rally round the flag of the same President they demonize as introducing the wicked power of the state.

What Occupy wants (DEMANDS!)

[zebra24.livejournal.com]

I know what they want.
1. Eat the reach
2. No Jewish in the banks/courts/USA
3. Make more regulations and Tax the reach
4. Pay them more money for doing nothing, or doing job others will do with half price.

How they do it?
Creating hazards in streets and parks, fighting with police and defecating on police cars.

Sounds like solid movement and solid plan.
Sure we should hear them and think about them!

Re: What Occupy wants (DEMANDS!)

[mahnmut.livejournal.com]

Eat the reach

That doesn't even make any sense.

What the fuck?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

What do Jews have to do with anything?