Forgot about Bank Transfer Day? Missed the Million Hoodie March? Still emotionally support Occupy and the 99%? Not to worry! Here’s something you can do to support the 99% and it won’t cost you a damn cent or take one damn minute of your time. This is perhaps the most perfect protest for the Age of Slacktivism: a May Day protest in which you do not a goddam thing, and by so doing, bring the 1% to their knees.
Remember, Remember. Make sure Wall Street never forgets!
Yes, it’s November 5th, Bank Transfer Day.
Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason, why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, guy, t’was his intent
To blow up king and parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England’s overthrow.
By God’s mercy he was catch’d
With a darkened lantern and burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys, Let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the king.
Who is this Thomas Jefferson guy? He sounds like a filthy dirty hippie.
Don’t look now, but there’s something going on at the bank over there, George!
Occupy your own wallet by taking all your funds out of the Big Banks, putting them into your local credit union. You’ll get better service and better protections, you’ll own stock in a community business, and you’ll be helping make the world a better place.
Along with over one million Americans and counting:
That’s already about twice as many as switched from banks to credit unions last year, and when that video was made it wasn’t even November 5th yet! More switched in the month of October, 2011 than switched in all of last year.
“These results indicate that consumers are clearly making a smarter choice by moving to credit unions where, on average, they will save about $70 a year in fewer or no fees, lower rates on loans and higher return on savings,” said CUNA President Bill Cheney.
Scott Warren opened an account at JP Morgan Chase Bank in 2009 to receive unemployment payments.
Scott Warren mailed his statement to Chase after switching to a credit union. It said 'Dear Chase, Occupy Wall St., from your ex-customer.'"
“Chase was the only one that set it up for you,” said Warren, who was a quality supervisor at Unisolar in Greenville before being laid off. “I went to the unemployment office, they gave me my paperwork. I go to Chase, they set me up, and, right away, they’re trying to get me to sign up for a credit card.”
Warren was stunned. And it happened every time he went into a branch, he said.
“They knew why I was there,” he said, referring to his unemployed status at the time. “I told them I didn’t think that was smart. This tells me that they are not in business to serve my needs. They intend to make money off of my failures.”
In light of corralled girls and teargassed wheel-chair bound women and articulate youth and the hashtag #occupy showing up here, there, everywhere, does Vancity have something to offer? Yes, this vid gives a glimpse of a better way. It’s inspiring.
But it’s not a manifesto, and if ever a ballsy manifesto (nothing pretty, please! and no slick marketing!) was needed from a financial institution, one whose DNA is still gritty and radical even if tamed over the years, it’s needed now. Is a credit union something more than a kinder, gentler bank? I’m listening. And I hope about 99% of Canadian citizens are too.
Between September 2008 and March 2009, Canadian banks reduced their holdings of domestic residential mortgages from $486.1 billion to $434.9 billion according to Bank of Canada stats; on a net basis.
Where did those mortgages go, you ask? Did 10% of Canadian homeonwers sell their homes and move into rental accomodation enmasse during a six month period?
Of course not. The federal government created a unique program through CMHC specifically targeted at allowing Canadian chartered banks to move tens of billions of dollars of assets off of their balance sheets. The reason? Canadian banks couldn’t raise sufficient and/or cost-effective funding from their traditional sources – primarily other global financial institutions – and needed Crown intervention to keep the wolf from the door. By mid-November 2008, the federal government had agreed to take $75 billion of mortgages from Canadian banks.
Assuming the risk-weighting of these assets was 20%, the feds essentially put $15 billion of capital into the Canadian banks that participated in the $75 billion CMHC program.
Bank Transfer Day: Ah, remember how it all began!
More money for you, less for “Too big to fail” corporations that would no longer exist if your tax dollars hadn’t been used to prop them up when their own machinations dug a grave for them. No tie-dyed, herbal-tea-stained, smelly hippie radical protester fingerprints on any of it.
Taking back your own wealth while sticking it to The Man, making more money, and saving fees?
As of this writing, somebody’s posting to Facebook every 30 seconds that they ditched their bank in favor of a credit union…The campaign has caught on and credit unions reported a $4.5 billion surge in assets in October alone…
Should you wish to go about your business today or any other day wearing an Anonymous-approved Guy Fawkes mask, but hesitate to participate in consumerism by buying a mask copyrighted by Warner Brothers, you can print out a paper pattern for a 3D mask here, and you can find instructions on making an origami mask at the bottom of this post.
Short Attention Span Lemur presents: your Occupy Unicorn Chaser!
A day late and $75 billion short on your Unicorn Chaser good news roundup. After what went down last night in Oakland, I think we could all use a Unicorn Chaser, and the sooner the better.
What went down in Oakland, did I hear you ask? This:
But hey, cheer up!
Occupy Rockettes. If Michael Lohan can do it, you can too!
There! All better! Not quite?
Occu-Pumpkin to be turned into Occu-pie!
Now?
Well, I didn’t want to bring out the heavy artillery, but okay. Here goes. Be careful: better sit down for this.
Tom Morello's back at OccupyVancouver Wednesday Oct 19
Here’s the livestream of Tom Morello‘s show at the Vogue which as I write this hasn’t started yet. He was going to perform a few songs at Occupy Vancouver, but then it started to pour and instead he said, “I’ll do something better: I’ll invite ALL OF YOU to my show at the Vogue tonight,” and so he did! Everyone lined up, got their name down on a list, and away they went to the Vogue. Livestream below.
Tom Morello wil Occupy Vancouver
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Not sure if the livestream will work, but what the hell, winging it is the name of the game.
Well, the livestream works, but it’s still live streaming, so until Occupy gets the concert video up, here’s a compilation: Morello’s first song at the concert and footage from both the concert and Occupy Vancouver.
Tom Morello, radically awesome musician and activist formerly of Rage Against the Machine, now solo as the Nightwatchman, addressed the crowd at Occupy Vancouver tonight. Here’s 57 seconds of him addressing the crowd, right up until my battery ran out. I’ll add the rest of the pix and videos as the night goes on. You can’t hear a word HE says, but you can hear the Human Mic, which is an amusing way to get the information. If you think “well, it’s not his real voice” reflect on the fact that an electronic microphone isn’t his real voice either, it just resembles it more.
When we arrived, someone had set up a green cord on the plaza and everyone was standing behind it, leaving about 30 feet empty in front of the stage where a couple of people were dancing to the drum circle that was going when I arrived. Strangely, no matter how many people arrived, people stayed behind it without anyone asking them to. An interesting example of default obedience to perceived rules, without ascertaining whether the rules even existed, never mind who put them in place.
Took the lazy way out and did a slideshow, so here it is:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
and here’s my favorite picture from tonight.
My favorite pic from OccupyVancouver Wednesday Oct 19
raincoaster 