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by Jim Lockhart
Two big protests this last month!
Break Up the Banks!
On April 11, 2009 a “Break Up the Banks” rally was held at Pioneer Square in downtown Portland. A subsequent march toured three Portland banks, issuing them each a “citizen notice of termination.”
At Pioneer Square the event was moderated by Laurie King King of Portland Jobs with Justice, who states in broad terms the problem with past and current government bailouts of the banking industry. “That money should be going to health care, education, child care, jobs for now and in the future,” she said, “not to zombie banks, zombie bankers and zombie shareholders.”
She then introduced Barbara Dudley, adjunct professor at Portland State University, the first of three speakers, who declares, “if they’re too big to fail, they’re too big to exist. What we need to know is that any time they are demanding taxpayer money to keep Wall Street afloat we have a problem.”
She spoke about a Populist movement 100 years ago whose first focus was the banks. “One of the things they demanded was that they be broken up because they were essentially monopolizing the money of this country. We can’t allow this to happen again. We need to nationalize these banks, and not nationalize and give them back to Wall Street, but keep them under our control or keep them so small that they will never again need to be bailed out by the taxpayer.”
“We need to bring our money home. It is very, very important that we begin to understand that investment is about economic development, it is not about gambling....We need to decentralize our money......and the banks, and make our State government put it’s money in the state, to put people back to work, and we need to put our personal money in this state.”
Fire Your Banks!
Barbara then introduced Jarat Gardener, working with Real Wealth Portland, who talked briefly about their local campaign, Fire Your Banks, which urges people to fire their national and multinational banks. “We have some tremendous banks and credit unions in town that are serving our community, and that’s what we are asking people to do,” she said.
J Gardener introduced Mike, of the Rural Organizing Project, who says that “we need to take things over... we have to get serious, we have to look deep down inside and see if we have the fortitude to move forward and take control of these institutions before they take control of us entirely.”
He spoke about some of the work his organization is doing in the rural communities of Oregon by forming Human Dignity Groups and seeking to form alliances which could find innovative solutions.
“When people create revolutions they create alternative structures of government and we have to think about that,” according to Mike.
After a few more words from Laurie King, the gathering moved off down the street to Bank of America, the first of the three banks being given their Notice of Termination by the people. Chris Ferlazo spoke, emphasizing the fact that this bank received $25 billion in tax payer bailout cash, adding, “now that we have contributed our part, don’t you think that it is time that we owned this bank?”
Gardener then read the Notice of Termination: “We are firing this bank for violent disregard of public welfare, gross mismanagement of all taxpayer funds, devastating violation of public trust, willful and criminal undermining of the values assets world wide, and a personal grievance, outrageous compensation for these criminals.”
He then encouraged folks to move their money to Community Banks and Credit Unions, putting their money towards more productive use.
Ferlazo then spoke about Bank of America organizing against the Employee Free Choice Act, the right of workers to organize. “They are taking our tax dollars and trying to stop our right to organize unions,” Ferlazo said.
The march next stopped at Key Bank, who, besides receiving 2.5 billion in bail out money, are currently funding Oak Harbor Shipping and Delivery out of Seattle Washington, who is attempting to break their Teamsters union. Members of the Portland Teamsters Local 81 have recently returned after being on strike there for 154 days.
A member of local Jobs with Justice took the megaphone and stated that, “they’ve brought in strikebreakers from all over the country to bust this union that has been there for over 50 years.”
“This is 1000 family wage jobs before this contract battle happened. They’ve been without a contract for two years, they are trying their best to bargain a new one, but Oak Harbor is able to hold out because they’re being funded by Key Bank. Our bail out money is being used to fund these strike breakers and to break this Union...We don’t want our taxpayer money to go to break Unions and take away people’s right to a decent life.”
The speaker then encouraged people to follow the lead of Jobs with Justice who have removed their money from Key Bank.
The final stop was at Wells Fargo, also loudly fired by the crowd. This bank also received $25 billion in bailout money. Taking the megaphone, Chris Ferlazo declares that, “it’s time to nationalize this bank, it’s time to fire this bank and break it up.”
As with the other two banks, there were other Northwest grievances. “Wells Fargo is an investor with the Geo Group which runs the Tacoma Immigration Detention Center up in Tacoma Washington. This is a privately run prison, technically a holding center for folks who have no rights, folks that were arrested at the Del Monte factory in Portland, taken up to Tacoma where they were tricked into signing voluntary deportation. Wells Fargo invests heavily in the Geo Group which runs that,” according to Ferlazo.
Reading from the Notice of Termination, Ferlazo says, “it has come to my attention that this bank participates in corrupt financial practices that have damaged working people everywhere. I can no longer support this shameless behavior with my patronage, therefore you are hereby given notice that your employment as my bank is terminated. You are not too big to fail; you have failed.”
“I am moving my money to local institution that better reflects my values, one that is accountable to me and my Community,” continued Ferlazo, before the crowd added “YOU’RE FIRED!”
Portland Tax Day Tea Party
Portland’s Tax Day Tea Party was held at Pioneer Square on April 15th. The Tax Day Tea Parties were part of a nation-wide organization coordinated by Freedom Works, a conservative, anti-tax, anti-social services group. The Square itself, the steps leading up to the upper level, as well as all the surrounding areas looking down and across to the main square were filled with people, and many carried signs. Throughout the afternoon there were several spontaneous chants of “USA, USA,” “We, the People” and “We have just begun,” as well as several more such chants initiated by a host of speakers.
Most signs and all the speakers blamed the government, mainly the Obama administration, for a whole range of problems, including taxes, bail outs, the compromise of liberty, and “the wholesale intrusion of the public sector into the private sector, our businesses, our property, our families,” as one sign verbosely put it.
A dominant theme throughout the rally was that the problems we face “are not a left and right thing, but an up-and-down thing, an us-versus-them thing.” There was a consistent and persistent effort to include and play to the left, though the left had no obvious part in the planning or execution of the event.
When thank-yous were handed out at the end no progressive or left-wing group was included, though many thanks were offered to the Republican and Libertarian parties, Glenn Beck’s 912 Project, and Americans for Prosperity, among others.
An opening speaker brought the crowd together, defining their values and priorities.
“Our state and nation were founded on time honored principles; we believe in living within our means, living according to the Ten Commandments... and yet, today, our state and national leaders have gone astray. Today our leaders seek to solve a credit and debt crisis with unprecedented levels of borrowing and spending,” said the speaker.
He continued:
“today our state and national leaders act like we are working for them instead of them working for us. In 1773 the Sons of Liberty sent a message to the King of England when they tossed a boatload of British tea into the cold, black waters of Boston harbor. Today we gather in cities and ports across our nation to honor those patriots and send our message to elitist officers in Salem and in Washington: ‘we have had enough.’”
Speaker after speaker fanned the crowd into a nationalistic frenzy of chants about liberty, revolution, religious and family values. All the Conservative hot button phrases and values were utilized to impress upon them the need to organize against what they allege is wholesale government intrusion into their lives. The president wasn’t specifically mentioned though many signs depicted him as a dangerous socialist; one claimed that we have made “One Big Ass Mistake America (OBAMA).”
The event patriotically began with a spirited speaking of the Declaration of Independence and ended with our Pledge of Allegiance.
Both these events were as interesting for what they left out as for what they discussed. The former Rally and March didn’t address government collusion in the banking collapse and the later didn’t mention either the past Republican contribution to current crisis or the overall culpability of our Capitalist economic system.
Jim Lockhart is an Alliance volunteer.
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