In response to the coordinated assaults on the Occupy encampments,
the Bay Area Occupy movement declared Jan. 20 to be “Occupy Wall
Street West”—a shutdown of San Francisco’s financial district.
Due to a large turnout, the San Francisco headquarters of three of
the largest banks in the nation were forced to close for the day.
Despite pouring rain, protesters were already busy as early as 6
a.m. when activists, including members of the Party for Socialism and
Liberation, blocked the entrance to the Goldman Sachs building in
downtown San Francisco. A breakfast of grilled squid was served, as
the company has been described as a “great vampire squid wrapped
around the face of humanity.”
Between 7 and 9 a.m., hundreds of Occupy protesters set up camps
in front of the downtown headquarters of Wells Fargo, Chase and Bank
of America, making it impossible for employees to enter and for the
banks to open. They remained closed the entire day. At times, police
attempted to break up the occupations but were met with militant
resistance and driven back.
At 8 a.m., the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End
Racism), of which PSL is a member, organized a shutdown of a Bank of
America branch at Powell Square, one of the busiest intersections in
the city.
Outside the bank, ANSWER speakers noted how the 2008 bailouts of
the largest banks, overseen by both the Bush and Obama
administrations, had handed over billions in taxpayer money to
parasitic financial institutions, when that money could have been
paid back to the workers in the form of investments in education,
housing and jobs.
A PSL organizer and fourth-grade teacher spoke of the hardships of
having to pay for her students’ supplies due to cuts to education.
Why, she asked, could the government always find more money for wars
when that same government claims there is no money for schools.
Several bystanders, moved by the speakers, asked how they could
assist in shutting down the bank.
Four ANSWER activists and an Occupy SF organizer surreptitiously
entered the BofA. When they unfurled their banner, which read “Jobs
Not Genocide! Banks are War Profiteers!” the security guards locked
the doors and escorted the remaining customers out. The activists
read their charges against BofA, which included war profiteering in
Iraq and Afghanistan, foreclosing on 45,000 homes, laundering drug
money, and buying political influence, among others.
The occupiers then addressed the bank employees, telling them
that the shutdown was not an action against them, and that they, too,
were victims of BofA, as they, as employees, were exploited by their
employer as are all workers under capitalism. One of the security
guards mouthed to the protesters outside, “I’m with you!”
Throughout the city, even in quiet residential neighborhoods,
outlets of the major banks were shut down for parts of the business
day by groups of Occupiers. The fear of the banks was apparent. As a
troop of ANSWER activists, including this reporter, passed a Chase
bank to get coffee, frantic bank employees locked the doors to
block our potential entry.”
Unions used the day to demonstrate their solidarity with Occupy
and highlight their own struggles. National Nurses United picketed
the planned site for a new Sutter Health-owned hospital. The new
hospital will be on the site of low-income housing, its erection
necessitating the eviction of many low-income residents. The new
hospital will also be non-union, and its construction will divert
funding from community health care for the 99 percent by whisking
away specialists from St. Luke’s hospital, which serves primarily
low-income Cal-Med recipients.
Later in the afternoon, UNITE HERE Local 2, which represents hotel
workers, held a picket in front of the Union Square Hyatt. The
fabulously wealthy Pritzker family, which owns Hyatt, helped
influence San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee to evict the Occupy SF
encampment. Hyatt workers have been fighting for a decent union
contract for nearly three years.
At 5 p.m., Occupy San Francisco organized its Closing Unity March.
Despite pouring rain and gusting wind, a multinational crowd of
thousands assembled at Justin Herman Plaza, the site of the original
Occupy SF encampment, to express their support for the movement. We
marched by the banks that had been closed for the day, chanting: “We
are the 99 percent!” and “This system has got to die! Hella,
hella occupy!”
A bus owned by a protester, which had been navigating the city
bringing food and supplies to the various bank occupations, was
pulled over by the cops. But the crowd encircled the vehicle and
demanded that the bus be allowed to continue on its way. The officers
let the Occu-bus go.
The day of action was seemingly coming to an end with a
celebratory rally that featured speakers from Occupy SF and the
ANSWER Coalition. But then, a young protester used the people’s mike
to inform the crowd that a handful of occupiers had seized the
Cathedral Hill Hotel in the working-class Tenderloin District. The
protester pleaded for a few of those attending the rally to come and
support the takeover of the hotel. Instead, the entire crowd of
thousands started marching to the Tenderloin in the rain.
The Cathedral Hill went out of business over two years ago and has
since been owned by a bank. The eight-story building could house
thousands of the Bay Area’s homeless population. Instead, it sits
boarded up and empty. When the procession arrived at the building,
police guarded the entrance. ANSWER activists were among those on
the front line trying to move past the lines of cops. This reporter
heard one officer make the ridiculous claim to others that a
protester held a “spear.” At this point, police started clubbing
protesters. They arrested three people, who they pepper-sprayed after
they were handcuffed on the ground.
The marchers decided to go to City Hall to express their outrage,
but half-way there heard news that 15 occupiers had made it into the
building and reversed course to support them. Once back at the
Cathedral Hill, a back door was opened by the Occupiers and hundreds
of people entered the building, preparing to make it their home. The
occupation of the hotel lasted over an hour before a platoon of cops
burst through the front entrance and occupiers retreated, restoring
the building to its former uselessness.
Occupy Wall Street West was a great day for the 99 percent of the
Bay Area. The city of San Francisco was transformed into an urban
topography of resistance! The very right of the banks, the
institutions of the 1 percent, to hold property was thrown into
question, and with it the capitalist system itself!
Mazda Majidi and Forrest Schmidt contributed to this article.
