Occupy Seattle, Saturday Nov. 5th, 2011 – take your money out of big banks and put it in a credit union

Photos by Amy Fields.

I stepped right off a bus into the throng of the march in progress. We had just chanted outside Chase and Bank of America and were shown where the credit union was.

Governor Gregoire has called a special legislative session for Monday, November 28th. She wants to make more cuts to “balance the budget” on the backs of the poor. Does this seem like a good idea? Or can we see an end to this nonsense. Maybe a general strike is needed. I’m sure lots of concerned voters will want to be there in Olympia for that special session! Sign up here , or go with your fave socialists, unions etc.

And before you go any further, here’s how they do it NY style:  How To Make A Billionaire Blink

turning onto 5th Ave

marching up 5th Ave

no one felt too bad about holding up traffic

looking back on 5th Ave

occupy your money – leave big banks!

5th and Pine

sit-in at 5th and Pine

talking about banks and their plutocracidal tendencies!

I moved my money to a credit union – it was easy!

put your money in a credit union, instead!

bring down parasitic financial institutions!

you know and I know

mic check!

Diverting traffic. The police were pretty restrained, diverting traffic around the intersection. Perhaps they were trying to atone for beating, macing and arresting people the previous Wednesday during protests against JP Morgan/Chase chief bankster Jamie Dimon.

See photos of the violence from the previous Wednesday here – hella good photojournalism by Joshua Trujillo and the Seattle P.I. 

Watching traffic. Thank you, brave medical volunteers!

After 20 or 30 minutes, we were warned that the horse patrol would clear the intersection if we didn’t. The good folks of Occupy Seattle told us that there was pizza, comedians, music and dancing at the plaza.

pizza sounded like a good alternative

courtesy of Pagliacci’s

lots of signs of things going wrong

1st comedian -Travis Simmons aka The Big Funny

I tried not to get in the way of the performers and the crowd. Some artists were easier to take multiple photos of, like this next guy. I thought it interesting to see different stages of his jokes:

comedian Nigel Larson

comic 2.2

comic 2.3

comic 2.4

comic 3 and crowd

comic 3 with crowd and buildings

Comedienne Barbara Sehr was next – a personal favorite – she cracked me up! Oh no, you didn’t say that!

Barbara Sehr 2

comic 5 – America’s Got Talent Alumnus Jen Seaman

comic 5.2

comic 5.3

comic 6 – this guy was pretty funny, kind of a loose cannon. Can anyone fill this one’s name in for me?

comic 6.2

crowd enjoying comics

crowd with building

crowd with trees

This costs money, please donate to Occupy Seattle!

 Find out more here

the sound crew

the sound crew 2

visualize general strike!

It was nice to see servicemen there

singer

dancers

dancers 2

dancers 3

scarf dancer

scarf dancer 2

a bankster

A band started to play. I was walking away, but the beautiful, echoing voice of the singer and the accompaniment brought me back. I’m glad I went back. These guys were really good, they were wailing.

They’re called Surrealized. These photos are not in sequence – I just tried to tell a little bit of the story. I couldn’t stay for the whole set. See link to their Facebook page below.

 Surrealized Facebook page here

Surrealized 2

drummer with building

drummer with building 2

multi-instrumentalist

wailing!

trumpet and building

trumpet and buildings. See that big wall there? I think this plaza was designed acoustically to be a good performance space. And you’d have to say these guys were using it to its best advantage. Very nice!

father and son dancing (?)

mother and son (?)

bicyclist riding to honor military families

update and donation bucket

riding to honor military families 2

bicyclist with passers-by

 

the foggy keep

why I’m a Buddhist and socialist –

a socialist because wealth needs to be redistributed to the needy – health care, education, food, housing and employment… and a  Buddhist because I believe in the sanctity of life; and to keep from being ground down and numbed into passivity, the way I see economics affecting people – scarcity ideation

_______________________________________________________________

Men of power, their vassals keep

o’er the air, a foggy sleep

at infernal days end, we mewl as sheep

the fiery furnace, ‘fore to keep.

– A fog of gloom and helplessness

depression, grief – it’s just business

The status quo and its deceit

has sprung its trap on our conceit

For those who dare to dream so free

for immigrants – just misery

*

In Palestine, just look and see

the shattered lives – land, sky and sea!

locked down for life, “They must be freed!”

we mutter vaguely, in our safety

*

These wars I would not subsidize

homeland insecurity institutionalized

blaming the raped,

the victimized

In the name of democracy

and justice

we know what’s best

– what’s best for us!

*

the recent past, COINTELPRO

shot down the leaders here below:

farm workers, Panthers,

anti-war, Chicano,

Native Americans,

feminists and queers,

socialists –

anything that threatened their status quo

*

What present COINTELPRO will the future reveal?

The original, so damnably effective!

at creating divisions and scaring

away the righteous

*

Lady ‘Day, Lenny Bruce

squeeeeze them for their bitter juice

the drugs, the jails, the brothers still

in slavery’s continu-ation

the cops on the corner, clubs all drawn

hunger for the bloody dawn

*

Locked down ourselves,  our ruin looms

as millionaires through empty rooms

wander aimless, in laughing fits –

they piss themselves as here we sit!