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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2011
N17 Media Point of Contact: David Osborn
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Mass Actions Occupy the Banks on Nov 17th
Big banks that threaten our democracy are shut down,
Groups specifically demand an end to home foreclosures
Portland, OR — On November 17th, environmentalists, human rights advocates, prison reformers, organized labor and clowns coordinated direct actions, street theater, and sit-ins shutting down seven banks and the Steel Bridge in Portland. Thirty-four people were arrested in these actions, which also occurred in dozens of cities across the United States to mark the two month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street.
We are Oregon and organized labor led the action on the Steel Bridge, using the bridge as a symbol of needed infrastructure investment in our community. The protests represent an elevated level of coordination within the protest movement, with numerous groups coordinating simultaneous acts of peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience along with a march of one thousand people.
“Physically shutting down the banks on November 17th demonstrates that the Occupy movement wants multi-national, too-big-to-fail banks out of our democracy,” says Kari Koch, organizer with N17, “They fund legislation and support politicians that are at the core of the issues that bring working people to be involved with the Occupy movement.”
The organizations collaborating on Thursday’s protest united behind two specific demands as a first step. The groups demand that banks stop foreclosing on people’s homes, and that the City of Portland and Multnomah County immediately cease enforcing foreclosures.
“Refusing to enforce home foreclosures is one concrete way that we can reclaim power from the big banks and meet the needs of the people,” says N17 organizer David Osborn, “It is time to reclaim our economy and recreate our democracy.”
A dozen groups visually demonstrated the ways in which the banks are exploiting our system and profiting from human need. Under the umbrella demand of “Get Banks out of our Democracy,” organizations gave their own examples of how banks are bad for democracy. These included:
- The Portland Central American Solidarity Committee took action to demonstrate against Wells Fargo’s profiting from the detention of immigrants through their funding of private prisons. Nine individuals were arrested in Wells Fargo as they demanded that Wells Fargo end private prisons and stop funding racist laws that criminalize immigrants and destroy our communities.
- The Wells Fargo Embargo Affinity Group addressed the fact that student debt has become big business for banks like Wells Fargo and US Bank. Current and former students in the US hold close to $1 trillion dollars in debt and on average students leave college $25,250 in debt. “Bail out the students! Cancel student loan debt! Fund education, not wars!” said Katherine Ball.
- The Animal Defense League acted to demonstrate that banking has become a lynchpin in the systematic destruction of the earth. They stated, “Banks like Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo invest in a wide range of immoral industries, from contract animal testing facilities to coal mining and infrastructure to genetic engineering by agribusiness corporations like Monsanto. At every crucial step of the way banks have funded our ecological crisis. At every step of the way they must be stopped.”
- The Clown Affinity Group issued a “Clownifesto” and drew attention to the ridiculousness of money, banks, debt, student loans, bankruptcy, foreclosure and many more things through humor and comedy throughout the march.
- Portland Rising Tide participated in the protest to draw attention to bank funding of destructive extractive industries. These included Bank of America’s funding of coal export terminals in the Pacific NW and mountain top removal in Appalachia, which fuel climate change and destroy communities.
“These coordinated mass actions are a continuation of the Occupy Portland movement. Occupy Portland was forcefully eviction from the parks last weekend, but showed today that the Mayor Adam’s and Police Chief Reese’s actions only fortified this movement,” said David Osborn. “Today’s action to Occupy the Banks showed that our movement is only growing.”
Occupy the Banks is a multi-generational collaboration of student organizers, labor groups, veterans, animal rights and environmental organizations, immigrant justice organizers and Occupy Portland activists.
High resolution photos of today’s actions:
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For more information visit www.n17pdx.org and www.november17.org.