[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/19/BA0R1MR6RG.DTL]
Ending weeks of relative dormancy, Occupy San Francisco activists hope to disrupt business as usual in the Financial District on Friday with marches, demonstrations and flash mobs.
Organizers plan to muster participants at more than two dozen locations from the early morning into the evening, and say protesters are busing in from as far away as Washington, D.C., for the action.
The daylong protest is timed to coincide with the two-year anniversary Saturday of the Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which allowed corporations the same rights as people in spending money on politics. Occupiers say the decision exacerbated the gap between rich and poor, their core rallying cause, by handing too much power to business titans.
In addition to picketing at the doorsteps of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and other financial institutions, activists plan a noon rally at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Seventh and Mission streets.
Across the bay, Occupy Oakland activists plan a demonstration at the Ron Dellums Federal Building courthouse at Clay and 13th streets between 8 and 11 a.m. before joining their colleagues in San Francisco.
Similar protests at courthouses and banks are planned Friday across the country.
"Corporate greed is being allowed to dominate our communities, and that means all people will suffer," Pilar Schiavo, an organizer with the California Nurses Association, said Wednesday. "This will be a peaceful day of action to say we need change."
More than 50 organizations are participating in the protest, from the Filipino Community Center and the Housing Rights Committee to the Rainforest Action Network, S.F. Gray Panthers and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. Also demonstrating will be members of the 28th Amendment Group, which seeks an amendment to the U.S. Constitution overturning the Citizens United ruling.
Occupy San Francisco's last major actions came in mid-December when police cleared out its remaining tent encampments in and near Justin Herman Plaza.
Organizers say they hope this event will attract thousands of participants to denounce a range of grievances, including economic inequality, pay-for-play politics, environmental degradation and police crackdowns on Occupy camps.
"This movement is the only hope the 99 percent have to take back our country," said Warren Langley, former president of the Pacific Stock Exchange in San Francisco. He said he intends to join the demonstrations Friday.
Some workers in the Financial District were unenthusiastic about the plans.
"It's keeping people from working, and that's not a good thing," said Markus Neuweiler, an accountant, as he walked to his job Wednesday morning. "Like a lot of people, I agree with some of what the Occupy people are saying, but there is no leadership and no real goal. They need to have a goal if they want to move forward."
Jason Matherne of Iraq Veterans Against the War speaks at an Occupy SF informational session.
Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle
No comments:
Post a Comment