Photo by Holly HomanOn November 5, 2011 I attended yet another Occupy Seattle event. I once again hopped on a bus to the downtown Seattle hub of Westlake Center. Getting there at around 1:00, I joined a protest already in progress at the busy intersection of fifth Ave and Pine Street. Traffic had to be diverted around us and there was a strong police presence both on horseback and bicycle. Protesters from all walks of life sat or stood in the street and took turns speaking about the greed of big banks and how they transferred both personal and business accounts from the Wall Street banks into a local credit union. One protester held up his broken in half Chase Bank card. Many complained about the big banks and all their hidden fees. How they were charged extra for not having direct deposit or not having a minimum of five thousand dollars in their accounts. This is a direct affront to the poor and working class. One woman claimed she couldn’t open an account at a Wall Street bank because she has less than perfect credit. But she was able to open an account at a credit union. One man posed as a banker complete with top hat and tails. He mockingly claimed he would steal everyone’s money. Someone piped up, ‘If you’re lucky enough to have a job.” Without missing a beat, the “banker” said, “Give me time. I’ll take that too.”
After a while the protesters moved from the intersection to Westlake Center one block away. There someone was handing out slices of free pizza. This was no ordinary pizza either. This was local Seattle pizza from Pagliacci — the best pizza Seattle has to offer.
The event continued with some stand up comics performing, followed by musicians.
All in all I was disappointed with the turnout. It was about one tenth the turnout from the last event I attended on October 15th. My estimate is about three hundred people. I just checked on local news channel on line and there was no mention of the event specifically. There was mention of the fact that it was Move Your Account day nationally and made mention of the fact that even though one local credit union signed up 16,000 people in the month of October, it really isn’t going to hurt the big banks that much. We need more people withdrawing their money from these big banks to make a dent.
