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- Date: Wednesday, Nov 16
- Time: 9:00AM
- Location: Portland City Hall ( East side entrance, across from Terry Schrunk Plaza )
Purpose
Take the Bank Transfer Day concept to City Hall! Help convince local leaders to move Portland’s money out of the Wall Street banks and bring it home. In the long term a Municipal or State Bank might be the best institution, in the meantime: why not a credit union or local community bank?
Other details
Todd Olson of Oregon Move Our Money will address the City Council with the following demands:
- That they immediately move as much of the city’s money as possible out of Wells Fargo and Bank of America and into local credit unions and banks who serve the interests of the 99%;
- That they direct the city’s chief financial officer to publish a summary of the city’s current and projected cash deposits, debts, and contracts with all banks and financial institutions as soon as possible;
- That they schedule a public hearing as soon as possible to address questions and hear proposals regarding the city’s banking relationships and policies.
This will be a fun, positive action, and all the rest of us have to do is show up!
- 9AM – Meetup at City Hall
- 9:30AM – City Council Meeting
- 10-10:30AM – Victory!
- ACTION: Very Important! Council hearing on police oversight, Wed. 11/16, 2 PM Please plan on attending!
The event will surely attract media attention and put the city council on the spot. Pundits and politicians have been asking for demands from the Occupy movement so let’s give them one. ( Note: No signs bigger than an 8.5×11 are likely to be allowed in the chambers. Small signs, Occupy and 99% t-shirts, buttons, etc. are encouraged but not necessary. Just being there is enough! )
- Facebook event for this action
- Facebook page for Move Money oregon
A wonderful idea! Move big city money to smaller local institutions, such as Albina Community Bank, and keep it working in our town. Give big banks something to think about!!
LOL! Good luck with that( sarcasm). Small banks can’t offer the services the city needs to financially operate.
Awesome – please let us know the results of this action! Was just talking about the need for this yesterday with my Dad and our neighbor. If there is a petition, could it be circulated tomorrow at the N17 actions? I’d like to see us trying to get initiatives and petitions put together to move forward on items like this, as well as campaign finance reform and abolishing corporate personhood and representative term limits.
I arrived at Chapman and Lonsdale Parks late in the morning on Monday the 14th. I stood at 3rd and Main with my sign and protested alone for most of the day while city employees filled trucks and dumpsters with the remains of the occupation and a small army of police stood outside the fences. I never camped in the parks but the occupation was inspirational to me. I came every weekend and marched and protested, washed dishes, helped load dumpsters with trash, smoked cigarettes rolled by Nick@Night and ate my share of the endless food flowing from the kitchen. I loved sitting at the crossroads of Chapman playing my guitar, listening to others making music, and talking to different people, but I could see that the parks were not designed to facilitate what was happening.
That evening I went to the GA in Pioneer Square where I found a crowd larger than I had expected. All the core occupiers were there along with many families, with children, that wanted to see the changes that the movement embraces. Everything went smoothly until certain people, not following GA protocol, demanded to have their say. The facilitators eventually gave in and let them have their say. It got ugly. Not that I’m the virgin Mary, but the language got foul and one guy with a flag on a long pole even insulted the crowd. As the crowd started to thin a little, I wondered how many might have been alienated and hoped people could get past this moment.
On Tuesday afternoon, I wandered into Pioneer Square to find a very informal GA. People shared ideas—it was a relaxed scene. I joined a march with probably about 100 people and just about as many police, keeping us out of the streets. We marched to the US Bank building and went inside. I thought we were going into a bank and thought “uh-oh.” I didn’t know it was a small mall with shops. One shop owner quickly closed his doors in fear of the crowd. This illustrated his perception of what we were all about. I wondered how many other people shared his misinformed fear. We marched through the mall chanting our slogans. The police remained outside and were there to meet us as we exited. We marched on with the police keeping us on the sidewalks and making sure we safely crossed intersections when the traffic lights changed. A few protesters demonstrated their animosity of the police, taunting them. The police remained calm and refused to be baited. I don’t really know for sure but it seems that there wasn’t a definite route we were taking through the streets. The police didn’t seem to know where we wanted to go next, making their job more difficult. I hoped this was not the intention of those that seemed to be leading us. At one point we came to a standstill, the police surrounded us. Down the street, a group of police in riot gear were marching in formation toward us. They looked like storm troopers from the Empire Strikes Back. It was very confrontational. If I had had children or my 88-year-old father with me, I would have left the march at that point, fearing for their safety. I am not protesting to fight with police, or to shove my ideas down someone’s throat. I am protesting to draw attention to the social, political, economic injustices we’d like to see changed. The standstill ended without incident, we marched on peacefully to City Hall where we chanted and danced and then dispersed.
I don’t live in Portland, but it seems to be one of the most tolerant cities I’ve ever visited. The people, including the homeless, are friendly to me. I feel safe walking the streets late at night. In some places, the police are looking for reasons to hassle people, but I don’t get that feeling in Portland. They seem to look the other way when I jay walk, which could be a reason to be hassled and searched in many other places. The city is full of beautiful parks, public restrooms, and I love all the bubbling water fountains everywhere. Michael Moore said we had the largest occupation in the county when he visited us.
We have to put behind us all the bad blood that the occupation of Chapman and Lonsdale Parks caused. We have to stop demanding apologies and stop bickering. We need to focus on moving forward. We need to be almost inhumanly reasonable and peaceful. We need to occupy a spiritual park where parents feel that their children and elderly parents are safe when they join us. We need to rely on and include the police in order to accomplish this. When we march and publicly assemble, we should lovingly demand that the police see to our safety. We should approach them as friends because we need them to accomplish what seems to be an almost impossible goal—changing a world motivated by greed into a world motivated by love and tolerance.
Both Wells Fargo and Bank of America are investors (top-tier investors) of the Portland Business Alliance. GROSS. WRONG! CITY MONEY DOES NOT BELONG IN THE HANDS OF THE UNETHICAL PBA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!