Daylong Nonviolent Occupation of “Wall St West”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 21, 2012

Contact:
OccupySF Press Team +1 415 937-7759, press@occupywallstwest.org

Daylong Nonviolent Occupation of “Wall St West”

Thousands Demand End to Bank Evictions and Foreclosures, End to Corporate Personhood

San Francisco – On January 20, 2012 (J20), thousands of San Francisco Bay Area residents occupied San Francisco’s Financial District as part of the Occupy Wall St West actions to demand that banks end predatory evictions and foreclosures and that corporations lose the rights of personhood. Protestors targeted banks and corporations that have damaged Bay Area communities, homes, education, environment, livelihood, and democracy.

Participants considered the Occupy Wall Street West (OWSW) J20 action a success. Thousands of people from every sector of the Bay Area braved cold and rain to stage dozens of direct actions and events in San Francisco’s Financial District, in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in disrupting the City Hall auction of bank-foreclosed homes.

One group kicked off the day of action dressed as giant squids at Goldman Sachs, which Rolling Stone journalist Matt Taibbi refers to as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”.

Protestors shut down Wells Fargo Corporate Headquarters on Montgomery Street by chaining themselves to the doors. Police arrested at least eleven protestors who demanded an end to predatory bank evictions and foreclosures.

Demonstrators also occupied Bank of America’s main branch at Montgomery and California streets, which the activists blockaded and shut down for nine hours. At Citicorp’s 1 Sansome office, protestors staged a mock foreclosure, piling furniture and moving boxes into the revolving door at the main entrance.

A half block away, clergy and religious leaders marched around the banks blowing the horns of Jericho. Two flash mobs performed throughout the day and a brass band a numerous poets and bans performed on a pedal powered sound system.

Iraq Veterans Against the War engaged in guerrilla theater, detaining fellow protestors on suspicion of “terrorism” in a protest against an unconstitutional provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, recently passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama, one provision of which permits the arrest and indefinite detention of US citizens anywhere in the world, including the US.

At Bechtel, 45 Beale Street, four activists, including Father Louis Vitale, read a list of numerous charges of war profiteering against the corporation in the building lobby.

Occupy Oakland’s mobile music bus led several marches through the Financial District. One BofA branch was transformed into the roving People’s Food Bank of America at 1 Market Street where a hot, nutritious, organic meal sustained freezing Occupiers. According to a mainstream press source, a presumably well-employed passerby told the mysterious amorphous black blob that oozed around the financial district to go get a job. An Occupier deftly replied, “The occupation is our job.”

Meanwhile, at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Move To Amend activists held a teach-in featuring author Ted Nace and the local head of the National Lawyers Guild, drawing several hundred citizens who expressed their outrage at the US embrace of corporate personhood. As “Occupy the Courts” wrapped up, the group presented an oversized printed copy of the proposed 28th Amendment to Cathy Catterson, Executive of the Ninth US Circuit and Court of Appeals.

Then over at Occupy the Auction, Occupy Bernal protestors and supporters got the news that their planned protest at the weekly foreclosure auctions led Wells Fargo to postpone a foreclosure auction of the property rented by Bernal neighbors Maria and Washington Davila. Maria Davila and other foreclosure fighters thanked the crowd of about two hundred protestors for this first important step toward stopping banks from their predatory evictions and foreclosures throughout San Francisco.

Protestors stormed Fortress Investments to demand a halt to predatory equity scams where landlords and banks buy apartment buildings intending to remove rent-controlled units from the market so they can replace them with market-rate tenants. Other protestors occupied busses running on Market and Mission Streets to demand free transportation for youth.

Labor activists put foam in a fountain at the Grand Hyatt at Union Square to protest the anti-labor practices of the hotel chain, calling for a boycott in support of workers who are fighting for fair contracts at all three San Francisco Hyatts. Protestors led by the Filipino Community Center, with participation from the Chinese Progressive Association of San Francisco, occupied the Citi Apartments office to fight for workers’ stolen wages.

A march ended at Van Ness Avenue at Geary where hundreds of protestors had a rainy standoff with the SFPD. Police pepper sprayed a dozen protestors. More than a hundred occupiers gained entrance to the Cathedral Hill Hotel at 1001 Van Ness Ave. where they held a housewarming party and occupied the hotel until the early hours of the following morning. A site of labor disputes, the hotel sits vacant while 10,000 homeless people are living on the streets of San Francisco.

Occupy Wall St West — a broad alliance of occupy and allied organizations and individuals had agreed that all actions would remain nonviolent and would not include damage to property. An incident of property damage by individuals who were not part of Occupy Wall St West occurred as an early evening march passed by on Van Ness Ave. The march immediately stopped and organizers and participants made sure no other such damage occurred.

The Occupy Wall Street West action involved dozens of affinity groups (people self-organized into groups to participate in the occupation) and over 55 labor, environmental, student, tenant, homeowner, arts, LGBT, peace, and community organizations targeting specific banks and corporations.

The January 20, 2012, Occupy Wall St West actions were the culmination of actions in which hundreds of protestors successfully shut down bank branches in the Excelsior, Mission, and Bernal neighborhoods. The Occupy Movement will continue to build a strategic mass movement asserting the power of the 99% for economic justice and a better world.

For featured news roll, videostreams, and twitter feeds:
See www.occupywallstwest.org and http://www.occupysf.org

To subscribe to the press list or obtain photos and video of the actions: www.occupywallstwest.org/press

Occupy SF strives to address and confront the injustices in our society by giving voice to the 99% through direct actions. OSF is simultaneously creating a new culture based on direct democracy, diversity, sustainable communities, and respect for all peoples and the environment.

Occupy SF Housing is a coalition which includes OccupySF, SF Tenants Union, Housing Rights Committee of SF, Causa Justa: Just Cause, Eviction Defense Collaborative, ACCE, Homes Not Jails, Occupy Bernal, and other community groups and individuals. The coalition came together to stop banks from evicting tenants and homeowners through foreclosures or through their partnerships with real estate speculators.

Information on prior Occupy SF Housing actions:

Excelsior: www.occupywallstwest.org/wordpress/?p=362
Mission: www.occupywallstwest.org/wordpress/?p=713
Bernal: occupybernal.org/wordpress/?p=238 and occupybernal.org/wordpress/?p=190

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Occupy Wall St West Daylong Nonviolent Mass Occupation of SF Financial District

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 19, 2012

Contact:
OccupySF Press Team +1 415 937-7759, press@occupywallstwest.org

Occupy Wall St West Daylong Nonviolent Mass Occupation of SF Financial District

San Francisco – Occupy San Francisco activists plan to occupy San Francisco’s Financial District this Friday, January 20 (J20), to demand that banks end predatory evictions and foreclosures and that corporations lose the rights of personhood. Protestors will target banks and corporations complicit in attacking Bay Area communities, homes, education, environment, livelihood, and democracy.

The Occupy Movement will continue to build a strategic mass movement asserting the power of the 99% for economic justice and a better world.

The J20 Wall Street West action kicks off 2012 with dozens of affinity groups (people self-organized into groups to participate in the occupation) and over 55 organizations targeting specific banks and corporations. Occupy Wall St West will be the largest occupation and street protest of the SF Financial District since anti-war mass nonviolent direct actions on March 20, 2003.

WHAT: Daylong protests and direct actions to disrupt business as usual for banks and corporations complicit in evictions and foreclosures, economic injustice, war profiteering, and labor rights violations.

WHEN: 6:00am-7:00pm, January 20, 2012. The day kicks off with a 6:00am squid fry at Goldman Sachs, 555 California St, and culminates with a 5pm March from Bradley Manning (Justin Herman) Plaza to 555 California St. Press liaisons will be available from 6:00am to 6:00pm at Bradly Manning Plaza welcoming station to direct press inquiries.

WHERE: Pre-planned actions are identified on the
action map (www.occupywallstwest.org/map) and
action schedule/list (www.occupywallstwest.org/actions)
plus orientations / mobilizations at 6am, noon, and ongoing
at Bradley Manning (Justin Herman) Plaza, San Francisco.

HOW: For interview requests and hot action story tips:
Day-of-action press hotline: (415) 937-7759
Email: press@occupywallstwest.org

For featured news roll, videostreams, and twitter feeds:
See www.occupywallstwest.org and http://www.occupysf.org

Subscribe to press list or obtain photos and video of the actions: www.occupywallstwest.org/press

VISUALS:

  • 6:00am-11:30am: “Squidding Goldman Sachs” people in giant squid costumes – 555 California St.
  • 12:00pm (noon) (near California and Kearny), and 5:00pm (at Bradley Manning/Justin Herman Plaza): Large “One People” flashmob
  • 12:00pm (noon): Occupy the Courts action at the 9th District Court of Appeals
  • 4:30pm: Large labor protest at the Hyatt hotel
  • Throughout the day: Iraq veterans simulating occupation outside Bechtel office and Bank of America transformed into “food bank”

(Call +1 415 937-7759 or check action schedule/list on day-of-action for times and locations.)

The January 20, 2012, Occupy Wall St West actions are the culmination of actions in which hundreds of protestors successfully shut down bank branches in the Excelsior, Mission, and Bernal neighborhoods.

Occupy SF strives to address and confront the injustices in our society by giving voice to the 99% through direct actions. OSF is simultaneously creating a new culture based on direct democracy, diversity, sustainable communities, and respect for all peoples and the environment.

Occupy SF Housing is a coalition which includes OccupySF, SF Tenants Union, Housing Rights Committee of SF, Causa Justa: Just Cause, Eviction Defense Collaborative, ACCE, Homes Not Jails, Occupy Bernal, and other community groups and individuals. The coalition came together to stop banks from evicting tenants and homeowners through foreclosures or through their partnerships with real estate speculators.

Over 50 additional organizations are participating in the Occupy Wall Street West Day of Action including: 28th Amendment Group, Ack-Act Theater, ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and Racism Coalition), Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Asian Law Caucus, Bail Out the People Movement, Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace & Justice, California Nurses Association, Causa Justa: Just Cause, Coalition on Homelessness, Chinese Progressive Association, CODEPINK Women for Peace, Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, Dancing Without Borders, Eviction Defense Collaborative, Filipino Community Center, Global Exchange, Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, Homonomixxx, Housing Rights Committee, International Action Center, International Socialist Organization, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Jewish Youth for Community Action, Jobs with Justice, La Raza Centro Legal­Day Laborer Program and Women’s Collective, Move to Amend, Move to Amend: Olympia, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, NationofChange, Occupy Bernal, Occupy Berkeley, Occupy MJC (Modesto Junior College), Occupy Oakland, Occupy SF General Assembly and Action Council, Occupy SF Housing Coalition, Occupy SFSU (San Francisco State University), Old Lesbians Organizing for Change, People Organized to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights, People Organized to Win Employment Rights, Pride at Work, Pride at Work/HAVOQ (Horizontal Alliance of Very Organized Queers), Progressive Workers Alliance, QUEEN, Rainforest Action Network, San Francisco for Democracy, San Francisco Labor Council, San Francisco Tenants Union, SF 99% Coalition, SF Gray Panthers, Seminary of the Street, SF Interfaith Allies of Occupy, SF-NOW, Workers World Party, Young Workers United.

Information on prior Occupy SF Housing actions:

Excelsior: www.occupywallstwest.org/wordpress/?p=362
Mission: www.occupywallstwest.org/wordpress/?p=713
Bernal: occupybernal.org/wordpress/?p=238 and occupybernal.org/wordpress/?p=190

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Press Conference on January 20, 2012, Occupy Wall St West Actions

At 10:00am this morning, January 18, 2012, Occupy Wall St West held a well-attended press conference with speeches and action announcements from a diverse group of affinity group and organizational representatives, including Iraq Veterans Against the War, Young Workers United, The Progressive Workers Alliance, Unite Here Local 2 Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union, California Nurses Association, Occupy SFSU (San Francisco State University), Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), the Episcopalian Church, and the ANSWER Coalition. Videostream available here (please endure the advertisement to see the program).

Run On The Banks: No More Evictions or Foreclosures For Profit!

Occupy SF Housing Media Advisory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Amitai Heller or Stardust, +1 415 937-7759, press@occupywallstwest.org

Run On The Banks: No More Evictions or Foreclosures For Profit!

San Francisco Protests to Keep Our Neighbors in Our Homes

San Francisco – January 3, 2012 – Occupy SF Housing today invited the 99% to participate in an escalating series of “Run On The Bank” actions to demand an end to for-profit evictions and foreclosures in San Francisco and beyond:

* 12:00-1:00pm, Thursday, January 5: Bank of America, 3250 Mission St.
Senior protestors from Occupy Bernal tell B of A to stop raising fees, pay fair taxes, and use the bailout money to stop foreclosures.

* 12:00 noon, Saturday, January 7: Persia Triangle in Excelsior District (Mission St., Persia Ave. and Ocean Ave. intersection)
The banks evict thousands of renters and homeowners in San Francisco each year. San Francisco’s Excelsior District has been especially hard hit by the wealthy 1% bank corporations preying on the 99%. This action will protest evictions and foreclosures by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Chase, demand that the banks reverse evictions to get people back in their homes, and ask people of the Excelsior to withdraw their money from these predatory banks.

* 12:00-1:00pm, Thursday, January 12: Bank of America, 3250 Mission St.
Senior protestors from Occupy Bernal tell B of A to stop raising fees, pay fair taxes, and use the bailout money to stop foreclosures.

* 12:00 noon, Saturday, January 14: Plaza above 16th St Mission BART station
No more for-profit evictions in the Mission District!

* 6:00-8:00pm, Sunday, January 15: Location TBA
Occupy SF will conduct a General Assembly/Town Hall Meeting in the Mission District – everyone from the neighborhood is welcome/encouraged to attend and participate in an open discussion regarding issues local to the Mission and their correlation with the Occupy Movement

* All Day, Friday, January 20: Dozens of Locations Focused on SF Financial District
Occupy Wall St West actions to shut down the financial district’s banks and corporations most involved in evicting tenants and homeowners.

Occupy SF Housing is a coalition which includes Occupy SF, SF Tenants Union, Housing Rights Committee of SF, Causa Justa::Just Cause, Eviction Defense Collaborative, ACCE, Homes Not Jails and others. The coalition came together to stop banks from evicting tenants and homeowners from their homes through foreclosures or through their partnerships with real estate speculators.

To sign up for the presslist and/or obtain photos and video of the actions, see http://www.occupywallstwest.org/wordpress/?page_id=20

For more information, see http://www.occupywallstwest.org and http://www.occupysf.org.

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