Protests
like today's march on General Electric and other ruthless tax-dodgers
remind me of why money-grubbing conservatives hate community
organizers so much. Because without nearly 1000 heads waving signs to
inform people about the Fortune 500 behemoths that screw us, these
companies would simply weave through loopholes unnoticed. In fact
they mostly do anyway.
Today's
mass pickets were pinned to tax day. That goes for City Life's
afternoon romp at Bank of America on Federal Street, as well as for
the march through downtown this evening, when MassUniting and a
number of affiliated groups brought a familiar message to GE,
Verizon, State Street, Fidelity, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America:
Pay your fair fucking share!
But
while tax evaders were the direct object of today's aggression, the
real message on the block was that protest season – despite never
fully ceasing through the somewhat cold months – is back in full
swing. From Occupy Boston's recent Camp Charlie stand-off and current
“sleepful protest” just blocks from Dewey Square, to City Life's
ongoing hostility toward a range of top offenders, it's sure to be an
electric Spring.
I
arrived downtown at around 2pm today – just in time for City Life's
afternoon march on Bank of America's central Hub lair. Occupy Boston
had been booted from the sidewalk outside of a nearby B of A branch
about an hour earlier, and, though there was no deliberate
coordination, the 25-or-so City Life protesters picked up the
rebellious momentum. Of the bunch, police and passersby were
particularly shook by the sight of an older black man, laughing hysterically – one hand on a placard, the other on a headless banker
in a swivel chair – and shouting “WE'RE BACK!” loud enough to
echo for blocks.
Fast
forward to 6pm, when more than 500 picket-happy hecklers congregated
down in Dewey before marching forth. I'm sure I missed a few participants, but my attendance
roll clocked in troops from the aforementioned outfits as well as:
Occupy Arlington, the SEIU, Occupy Quincy, Occupy Weymouth, the
Jewish Labor Committee, the T Riders Union, Right to the City, the
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Mass Senior
Action, which was rolling deep on rented golf carts in the back of
the pack. In other words: it was the representative 99 percent, or
something close to it.
Nationally,
there's been a deafening amount of chatter about a showdown between
Occupy groups and “The 99% Spring” – a markedly non-violent
federation of non-profits and do-gooder orgs across the country
(including the oh so controversial MoveOn.org, which many Occupiers
fear is no more than a shill for that bank-loving Obama guy). I've
recently kept my two cents in escrow on that note, though I've been
covering relations between organized labor, longtime activists, and
Occupy Boston since day two. My prevailing thought, however, is that
Boston's somewhat unique in this department; at least out in the
open, these factions are grooving right along together relatively well here.
With
all that said, what I realized today is that Occupiers and their
likeminded org affiliates don't have to work together every time.
They don't even have to gel on tactics, or pursue the same actions
(though today's march and rally did draw significant Occupy forces).
So long as they keep targeting the same enemies, there's a chance
that someone at Bank of America – or any of the other culprit
companies – might concede that people hate them for a reason.
(Theoretically, the Tea Party might even get involved. But whereas
they love to cry about taxes and government subsidies, in practice
they hold little animosity toward big businesses that jerk the
system).
Finally
. . . Occupy soldiers and reps from groups like MassUniting need to
share more ideas, and not just for the sake of spooning. Unions and
known progressive entities have adequate funds to spark major
spectacles, but they should remember how little media love their
protests got before Occupy arrived. The Dewey squatters got attention
through extraordinary actions – not from screaming at an empty
downtown building, as protesters wound up doing today, in the most
deserted corner of the city, after rush hour. At the same time,
Occupiers need to cut the shit about being co-opted – especially in
Boston, where they landed on Dewey within hours of MassUniting's
long-planned fireworks spectacular.
As for
those who are down with neither Occupy nor “99% Spring”
offensives – particularly the worker fools who walked by today's
show, clicked voyeuristic cell phone pics, and smirked at protesters
– I can only assume they think it's fair that companies like GE and
Verizon pay less taxes than they do. Either that, or they're just
comfy in their bubble. I guess they have a point. Despite all the
noise made tonight and in the past few months, approximately zero
predatory bankers have been harmed or jailed in the making of this
movement.