Deep frustration with the nations major banks has grown into a movement to move personal and business funds from those institutions to credit unions and smaller community banks. The amount of money that has been transferred to those entities nationally is around 650 million dollars since September of 2011.
Kristen Christian is a Los Angles Gallery owner and former B of A customer who started the revolt on her facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/Nov.Fifth Her page that states the case for using credit unions and small non investment banks while punishing the larger banks for their behavior since 2008 and before. She originally sent the her page out to 500 friends and now has 28,000 nationwide supporters.
The Bank Transfer group makes a point of having no connection to the Occupy movement growing throughout the U.S. and the world.
This had no effect whatsoever on the positive activities at Occupy Los Angeles. There were classes and organizational meetings held constantly for days before the Bank Transfer Day actions. Although no official connection has been made between the two, Occuppy LA fully embraced it.
Every color, smell and texture of the disenfranchised, the moral and the outraged converged at One California Plaza on Saturday . They spoke of broken promises and impersonal treatment. Greed , indifference and the robotic inhuman procedures of foreclosure were indicted loudly.
The march was filled with quite a few different factions from the 99 percenters to union people to pacifist / anti war groups , to the foreclosed upon, the homeless, the jobless and the indignant. Groups such as Good Jobs LA were visibly present.
http://www.goodjobsla.org/ Credit cards were cut up with hedge clippers on the the steps of the plaza.
Calls to action were shouted as the cards were sliced but they were at least partially muffled and blocked ( for a time) by the nest of media collectors hovering close to the card cutters and orators. Funny thing to happen in a classically shaped mini amphitheater that that section of california plaza resembles.
Mario Brito was revving up the protesters with shouts for fairness and equality when a counter protester approached him on stage, and shouted political accusations into the microphone that Brito was holding.. The would be usurper had shown up at the Occupy camp on October 15th as a self proclaimed "one percenter " who had made a fortune in medical supplies.
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2011/10/248740.php After a minute of stage tussling the rally resumed.
Saturday morning, fifty fours stories down from the top floor at the Wells Fargo Skyscraper , a vigorous crowd protested through the banking district of downtown Los Angeles. They marched down Grand Street past the Geary designed Disney Hall, and past the Federal courts. They stopped at the Bank of America branch next to City Hall.
Three lines of bike police guarded the front doors and ATM's of the closed branch from a loud crowd numbering in the hundreds.
The marble lined side wall was graffitied with chalk while fervent 99 percenters preached and pleaded with the stoic bike cops about their inclusion into the general population. Whether that was effective remains to be seen.
The crowd chanted in huge chorus's ........" Banks got bailed out, We got sold out ".
People shouted "Make banks pay" at the tops of their lungs.
The march ended at the Occupy LA / City Hall camp with Ozomatli jamming away until notaries such as Robert Reich, Robert Scheer, William Black and Joel Rodgers came out to speak and field questions.
Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich in a solo improvised speech emphasized the need for being steady and focused. He has been stopping in at a number Occupy areas around the country to speak , listen and relate what he is witnessing.
On a panel headed by Robert Scheer, William Black hammered on the amount of prosecutable corruption that was lurking beneath the surface in American finance since 2008. Joel Rodgers like Reich also spoke of keeping steady to the course and his experiences in the Scott walker / Wisconsin situation.
For more information on any of these speakers........
Robert Scheer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Scheer,
Robert Reich
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reich William Black
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_K._Black Joel Rodgers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Rogers Meanwhile....
On the other side of the camp a group staged a Marijuana appreciation / action. Denis Perone was given an honorary citation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Peron There was campaigning done in the name of two new California marijuana initiatives.
The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012 (RMLW
http://regulatemarijuanalikewine.com/ The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 (RPC)
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/LegalizationNation/archives/2011/08/22/repeal-cannabis-prohibition-act-of-2012-filed Some discussion about the issue.
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/10/31/gvsa1031.htm http://cannabisculture.com/v2/content/2011/09/29/Battle-Marijuana-Bills-Why-Regulate-Better-Repeal "Medicine" was then spontaneously given away, a brass band of sorts broke out a funky tune on the steps and eventually a number of LAPD came by to diplomatically dissuade the pot activists from their generosity.
The "medicine" had run out by that point anyway. Agreements between the two factions were made amidst a heavy amount of speechifying through protester held bullhorns. Dinner was then served (spaghetti ) and a good Saturday was had in the new village outside of City Hall . They celebrated another day of survival and political organization.
and another general assembly.
