Forum Post: Hurt the Banks & Military Legally
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 4, 2011, 1:32 a.m. EST by unclebg
(0)
from Seattle, WA
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
We should focus on licit actions that hurt the Empire. Move Your Money. Ask friends to Move Their Money. Go into any branch of any of the Big, Bad Banks and request to close your account loudly enough to be heard by others ( you don't need an account).When the teller/manager asks for your account #, say you've lost it and give them your real name/show ID. When teller says, "We show no such name in our accounts", account closer says, "Isn't this ABC Bank" When told, "No, this is DEF Bank". Closer apologizes profusely, acts very embarrassed, and rushes out. Manager and tellers are flustered; bank floor decorum is rattled; other customers are alarmed. (Said Bank can be denounced , not too loudly, for whatever crimes are most notorious). Skit can be enacted by 100,000 pranksters or a million simultaneously or serially. Best when played for ridicule.
Similar prank can be used against military and CIA recruiters at colleges, high schools, or recruiting offices. Healthy, clean cut young man or woman walks in and asks interviewer about college financing help.( Veterans can do this or train others to sound plausible). [The object is to play the recruiter and waste his/her time.] After enuf fun prankster say, "Oh! I have to get to work, class, etc. " {Don't give fraudulent name or other fraudulent info. For extra fun, give recruiter your real phone and play him along. Or give the # of a bar, morgue, ???} HAVE FUN!!!
This was so stupid...
Good idea. In the UK, there are pranksters that say they represent a bank or global entity. You can. All you need is one share in the company, and you can represent it as a Stockholder. These pranksters have had news conferences to make an important announcement. They then dish the dirt.
Ineffective. Congress makes the decisions. Mass protests at senators' offices, faxes, emails, phone calls, and ultimately they will vote your way if in danger of losing their election.
It's so naive.
The money of the 99% doesn't matter because the 1% have most of it.
Simply tell them that you dispise them, everywhere, when they are at home with their family, sent them a Christmas letter: I dispise you and your work and what you banksters have done. May you all rott in hell! That adds emotional stress.
Banksters are the new Tobacco lobbying. Tell them how much you dispise them and their work for evil!
A friend of mine did this when military recruiters came to his campus in Illinois; got an appointment, showed up in a suit, etc. He used the opportunity to denounce the military wars (not the GIs, usually working class, who often have to enlist to get a job and education). I don't know if he made any difference, but because of his philosophy and relentless activism, he was able to force the closure of the main branch of one of the biggest producers of chemical weapons (some of which were used in Vietnam) in the country by challenging them on some type of environmental regulations they violated.
I don't think your characterization of a "prank" is exactly what's going to work, but the idea of legally using every avenue to fight the 1% is pretty powerful. Even though I doubt the bank day in New York City, where people went to the big banks to withdraw their money, made a dent in the actual bank holdings, it did grab huge publicity and was an educational coup for all of us 99% people. OWS is revolutionizing the country, and I think you're on the right track.
Solidarity!
Hold on a minute. From what I've seen the military are not our adversaires. In fact, from what I've seen thus far, the military (as in the actual American soldiers) are on our side. This is a VERY IMPORTANT distinction to make. It serves this movement poorly, in the extreme, to assume the military are our adversaries when they have been in many cases on the front line of this cause!
i am for ows and i have to say that you are stupid. shit like that doesn't help, it hurts. moronic pranksters stay home! we don't want your "help".
start a run on the banks. Then when they all collapse make the federal government issue money backed by gold or silver
How about putting a "kick me" sticker on the back of every hippy you see walking down Wall Street!