Take steps to Occupy Wash. U.
Last Friday, I attended an Occupy St. Louis march that included a protest outside of Bank of America’s St. Louis headquarters. Participants included people of different ages, races, socioeconomic backgrounds and political beliefs. There were students, veterans, union members, toddlers, adults who reminded me of my parents, members of the St. Louis LGBTQIA community and countless others. The ever-increasing diversity of the #occupy movement is clear. Now, we must work to harness that diversity in ways that strengthen, rather than fracture, the movement. We must recognize that different people are uniquely poised to affect change in different—and powerful—ways.
As students, what can we do? How can we help grow the #occupy movement and empower the 99%? We can do more than hold signs, hand out flyers, and post on Facebook. We can change the way our universities bank. Often, universities portray themselves as sacred temples of learning—places where apolitical knowledge is generated and shared. And while there is some truth to that, it must also be acknowledged that universities are powerful and wealthy institutions often controlled by powerful and wealthy individuals. These individuals have vested interests in seeing particular corporations prosper, as well as our current financial and political systems perpetuated.
Those interests are reflected in universities’ institutional relationships with big, corporate banks. Many universities use Bank of America and Chase for banking services. They have participated in interest rate swaps with Lehman Brothers. They have welcomed corporate banks onto campuses to sell credit cards to students. These relationships strengthen the big banks that charge excessively high interest rates, engage in risky financial bets and perpetuate predatory lending practices, particularly in low-income communities and communities of color.
Universities control an almost mind-boggling amount of money, including about $350 billion in endowments and almost $100 billion in annual spending. Of course, that money does not just sit in a vault in the admissions’ office. It is kept in a bank— usually a big corporate bank such as Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase or Citibank.
The #occupy movement has raised awareness that where we deposit our money matters. Banks depend on deposits from their clients—especially institutional clients like universities. When enough clients move their money because they do not agree with a bank’s practices (such as engaging in payday lending, funding mountaintop removal coal mining or perpetrating robo-signed foreclosures), the bank may be forced to change its practices in order to regain deposits and survive.
On Nov. 5, “Bank Transfer Day,” thousands of individuals will close their corporate bank accounts and move their money to community banks and credit unions—financial institutions that are more socially, environmentally and economically just and sustainable. College students: let’s join this action. But let’s also go a step further and demand that our universities close their corporate bank accounts and move their money as well.
This is not a ridiculous demand. In fact, divesting from corporate banks is in line with most universities’ rhetoric about already existing commitments to social, environmental and community responsibility.
We must ask ourselves: How can a school flaunt its LEED-certified buildings, sophisticated recycling program and commitment to buying local food, but keep its money in a bank that finances mountaintop coal removal? How can a school tout its community development initiatives and programs that provide tutors for children in underserved communities, but keep its money in a bank that unjustly forecloses on homes in those same children’s neighborhoods? It is the time for college students across the country to call attention to this hypocrisy and demand that institutions change it.
It is our moment. Now is the time to leverage our unique power as students to expand the #occupy movement to affect University finances. Every dollar that we move gets us one step closer to a financial system that values our planet and all of its people.
On Nov. 5, join me and other students across the country as we move our money. Then let’s call upon our universities to do the same.
Join the Facebook event “College Bank Transfer Day” to make a statement and learn more. And join the Facebook group “Occupy Wash U” to get updates on events that will help you navigate the process of moving your money.
Molly Gott is a senior in Arts & Sciences.
Can anyone do me a favor and explain these issues?
http://www.wupr.org/2011/11/04/the-break-up/
We encourage all students to join in the conversation online, on campus, and in person. The students can be the front line on this war against corruption of our democracy.
http://99stlouis.org
get a job hippie
“Get a job you dirty hippie, get a job you dirty hippie, work, work, work, ’til you die” a band sang last Saturday at OccupySTL. I love my work and I only wish I were still PAID by Wash U to do the work I oove, the work I have been doing for them since 1999. I have no job, I have an Occupation. That is what we say to all the passersby who say “get a job, hippie.” Get a job yourselves, if you can.
Sorry for flaming out a bit but please, let’s keep our discourse civil. The correct response to “get a job, hippie” is “I have an Occupation,” or silence, or a polite thank you.
“You can tell we’re all workers ’cause we’re out of work.” Here is a song by David Lippman, to the tune of the 1930 song, “The Panic is On,” by Hezekiah Jenkins:
“I reckon those bankers shoulda never been bailed
They should be sittin in the county jail
If we do do somethin by and by
We could walk down to Wall Street and occupy
Doggone, occupation is on
400 people got too much stuff
For 150 million, life is tough
The top 1 percent are feelin fine
We’re here to represent the other 99
Doggone, occupation is on
I went down to Wall Street said what’s all this fuss
Well, we occupy Wall Street cause it occupies us
Corporations on top, that’s how the world is run
I’ll believe they’re people when Texas executes one
Doggone, occupation is on
I need a job to pay my debts
Money talks too much, shuts up all the rest
Downsized and merged across the nation
Lost my job, found an occupation
Doggone, occupation is on
Come all you workers and students, better not shirk
You can tell we’re all workers cause we’re out of work
We must do something, and do it now
We could occupy together, overthrow the Dow
Doggone, the people’s movement is on
We communed in Paris in ’68
Teamsters and turtles had a fine blind date
Now the bankers are trying to grab it all
After the Arab Spring comes the American fall
Doggone, autumn is on
All over the world you can hear the call
Housing, jobs and justice, human rights for all
The banksters wish uprising would cease
But we’re learnin from Cairo, London, Spain & Greece
Doggone, occupation is on”
http://davelippman.com/Occupation.html
I’m sorry, but this article is just patently wrong. The assertions put forth explicitly say that the “mind-boggling… $350 billion” in university endowments is somehow sitting in “…a bank— usually a big corporate bank such as Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase or Citibank.” That statement is unequivocally false. University endowments (and nonprofit endowments similarly) are kept largely with asset managers of varying shapes, sizes, aims, and risk/reward ratios. To say that JP Morgan Chase & Co is sitting on hundreds of billions in endowment cash is not true.
Endowments are invested, by and large. Is there some cash? Yes, of course there is, however the purpose of the endowment is to generate a return on the investments. You really ought to know that giving money to a bank to sit in a corporate checking account would yield almost zero. Instead WashU and other universities invest with private equity firms, hedge funds, traditional portfolios of equities, debt instruments of all shapes and sizes, and any other variety of interesting financial products. To say it’s sitting in a bank is to say that the endowment is not working to achieve its goal of supporting the university and its students. Without said endowment, we wouldn’t have a lot of financial aid, new buildings, as many departments, and just about everything that makes a university an operational body.
This op-ed is so patently false it’s “mind-boggling” that it was even printed.
JPM
Ironically, for what it’s worth, had the billions of dollars just been sitting with banks for the past few years we would be doing much better as the value of the endowment would not have dropped so precipitously when credit markets collapsed!
The whole problem with Occupy is that the occupiers are genuinely clueless and unintelligent. It’s misguided editorials like these along with absurd demands and antisemitism that completely degrades any credibility occupiers have. While I personally don’t support the Occupy movement, it seems clear that any sort of Occupy Wash U. cripples our reputation as a premier academic institution with students who have the potential to be thoughtful and smart movers and shakers in the world.
Of course we are being smeared as anti-Semitic. We (OccupySTL) are also alleged to have threatened death to the Young Americans for Freedom, after a videotaped and witnessed amicable exchange. We are a free speech movement but we had to adopt a speech code banning hate speech, just so we can dissociate ourselves from random people who show up in a public park to rant.
Please don’t generalize about Occupiers as clueless and unintelligent.
Your pseudonym intrigues me: the 98%. Let’s talk about class, the great American taboo (along with death). Let’s have a great debate about it.
Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
–with an open agenda: Initiative for Lecturer’s Policy Reform and Fairer Deals for Adjuncts
–who has never, and never will, post to Student Life pseudonymously or anonymously
I should have said “random people and trolls with ulterior motives who show up in a public park to rant.” I am NOT accusing “the 98%” of being a troll. “While I personally don’t support the Occupy movement, it seems clear that any sort of Occupy Wash U. cripples our reputation as a premier academic institution” suggests an open mind and a willingness to join a debate about social class and economic inequality, and potential solutions to these problems, if this is conducted at at least a collegiate level. I recommend our teach-Ins, on Sunday afternoons usually, with retired Wash U professor of economics Fred Raines, and our Labor discussion group, Sundays and Thursdays at 7pm. Soon we will have free and open college level classes and reading groups (I have volunteered to teach at least one class, and so have other local faculty). We have a library set up in one of our central tents. Please see the Occupy Saint Louis website for a schedule of events, and please feel free to schedule your own event if you have a solution or wish to join the debate. It’s a public park, the People’s Park, after all. We have de facto permission to occupy this space, as long as we police ourselves, but we Occupiers don’t own it. We all do. That includes you all.
before, I am not from the US, but I think you will find that whoever is in your gonmvreent has a global impact and therefore we all watch very closely to see what is happening in your political system. I, personally, have never trusted Obama. I found the hysteria which surrounded him to be rather concerning. His actions since becoming president have largely supported my earlier suspicions. Where I live (Western Europe), Obama would not be considered left wing, but instead centre right. Please note I am not from eastern Europe, we have not experienced communism here. But we have experienced something more akin to socialism. Therefore when we see Americans describing Obama as a socialist, or even a Marxist, it actually make us laugh. The problem for me is that when Bush was in power it caused greater problems for us than Obama has. Therefore for my country Obama is the lesser of two evils. When the republicans blocked Obama raising the debt ceiling it had consequences for European economies. Had a deal not been struck the result would have been disastrous for us. I’m sorry to tell you but the US often appears as an aggressor on the world stage, whether this is justified or not is not for me to say, but Bush certainly made this situation worse. In the global economy a republican gonmvreent is not necessarily good PR.On a second point where there is some agreement between our views is over people such as Michael Moore who to me are sensationalists. There is a real argument to be made for the left. I find it disquieting when lefties basically rely on what I deem as PR stunts. I think an important distinction needs to be made between what those on the left think, and what left-wing gonmvreents do. My views are often not represented by left wing gonmvreents, who to my mind are often neo-liberals and wolves in sheeps clothing. But they are at least nearer to my beliefs and ideals than the right and so with little other options I will continue to vote for them. Personally I would favour splinter political parties formed of the centrist element of both political wings. I feel It would be more representative and would probably result in more common sense policies.Thirdly, you said ‘We’re all being screwed by the same people, but it doesn’t have to do with Left and Right.’ I agree with you here. But I think this situation will often apply to those who support the occupiers. As I said before, my dad is centre-right but he supports the occupiers, my mum who is as centrist as they come also supports the occupiers. I think this goes beyond politics. The occupy movement over here is almost apolitical. You will find support for it in both the left and right wing press. This is about economics, and only about politics to the extent in which the state can influence corporations. I have my suspicions that all of our gonmvreents are actually quite powerless to deal with this situation. People are fed up of becoming increasingly poor whilst large corporations make ever greater profits. This situation affects most of the middle and working classes. They have the right to oppose this. Just as you have the right to oppose them opposing this. I agree with you on your point about violent revolution. You will see this in my previous comment about anarchists. I think violence dilutes a valid point. I have 100% support for none violent protest. I am a pacifist and therefore never condone the use of force. Of course this goes both ways and I feel that the police often act as antagonists. I have witnessed police brutality which was simply ‘provoked’ by people walking and chanting. You might not believe this, you might feel that the police simply defend themselves, but my eyes have told me something very different.Regarding Jesus, I’m sure the social revolution aspect is simply a matter of interpretation, but you cannot deny that he would be against many of the events which are taking place in banking and corporations. We only need read the teachings from Matthew to understand this. You say that he was a revolutionary of the heart, but surely the heart should follow helping one another, making sure that the poor and the sick do not suffer. Jesus healed the sick and he fed the hungry, that cannot be denied. Last year I had to have cancerous cells removed. Whilst I was going through this situation I spoke to many women online. Many women in the US were suffering, untreated, with cervical cancer because they couldn’t afford to access medical care. I know that the argument for why this is okay is because they have the option to go make money etc. But trust me, through mine and my partner’s work we have met many people who don’t have those options. There are many people who have had poor educations, and poor parenting, who are in terrible situations and who haven’t been given the tools to even understand how to get out of that situation. Regardless of anything else, with the way unemployment figures are soaring globally, many do not even have the chance to find a job. I spoke to one woman. A single mother with 3 children and she was dying because she couldn’t access care. Perhaps this makes me some soft, or naefve, lefty but it broke my heart. I cannot imagine that the teachings of the New Testament would condone allowing that to happen when it is so avoidable. The bible does teach us lessons which convey that exploitation is against the word of God. The story of Moses teaches us that.Mkgcos0- Please allow that I am not in the US and therefore the situation in my country is not the same as in yours. I did not realise fuel was cheap in the US. Fuel here is extremely expensive, to the extent that the average (not classically poor) person is experiencing fuel poverty. Petrol here is $2.25 per litre. In the last year the cost of domestic fuel was increased by 20%. I do not know what the situation is in America but in w. Europe the result has been disastrous for many families, which is why I used BP and the fuel situation as one example of why I am supporting the occupiers. The occupy movement has spread across the globe. I made this example in order to illustrate that many of us believe in it for reasons other than those provided by Robin in the article.I think you are being over-simplistic in what you believe is happening with those profits. Their net profits are calculated after reinvestment; otherwise this would be their gross income. Yes, it probably does go into your stock portfolio. Good for you, it’s going into your stock portfolio out of the pockets of those who cannot afford shares because all of their money is going on their utility bills. Your nest egg is made out of taking too much money from the less fortunate. I don’t want to be personal but you referred to yourself hence why I am using the personal pronouns ‘you’ and ‘your’. If I was in that situation, I don’t think my conscience would be that happy. Fuel companies have become so large that they are able to fix the prices amongst themselves. The profit margin shows us that the increasing cost of fuel is not the result of a natural increase in the cost of raw materials. This cost increase has been artificially created by the companies themselves. Therefore, I feel it is only right that average people join together and try to do something about this. This does not happen only in fuel. The cost of food is increasing exponentially. Where I live food prices have increased by about 15%. Many of the superstores, such as Walmart, produce their own food and then state that their producers (i.e. themselves) have increased the cost, therefore they need to increase the price for their customers. Another example of how the average working population is being let down by bug business.I appreciate your response Robin. It has been very warming to be able to have a conversation with you about this which has managed to be reasonable and well considered. I am a little appalled that some posters have referred to me as being: the devil, a member of the KGB, a cunning provocateur, a useful idiot, a troll, and having a filthy and evil nature (As a Christian, I found that part particularly distressing). But I have a lot of respect for the way you have conducted yourself and I wish you all the best.
You’ve essentially proven my point, Dr. Bauer.
Ultimately, what this comes down to is people are out of work and people are upset about it. That is fine and as a college student who will soon be part of the labor force, it concerns me too. And no, I do NOT have a doctorate either. So perhaps I am not as smart as you and perhaps I am not as smart as lot of people in your movement. But what I am smart enough to realize is you, sir, are the “troll.” Google “Dr. Jerome Bauer WUSTL” and see what comes up. I’m glad you have “no hidden agenda” but if my agenda were to hire someone and you were to be in consideration, your “passion” would likely disqualify you. That’s why so many occupiers “don’t have jobs, we have an Occupation.”
Sincerely,
The 98%
-with a rationale agenda: find reasonable solutions to restore American prosperity.
I recommend Dr. John Ikerd’s books, “Sustainable Capitalism: A Matter of Common Sense: and “A Return to Common Sense,” and his new online book “A Revolution of the Middle,” which we will be reading at Occupy and hopefully discussing with the author in mid-December or mid-January. I am interested in any attempt to find a third way between what we call left and right, something that will work for America. I do not believe Occupation is the Revolution, but I believe it is the schoolyard for the Revolution, or whatever we will call the great awakening or revitalization that will probably occur in about 2030 if the pattern of American history holds true. It is very important that we relearn how to demonstrate and conduct civil disobedience, both great American traditions, and that we keep it nonviolent in body, speech, and mind. I believe Occupy is a stable populist coalition of left and right libertarians, far more than just a strategic alliance between the Ron Paul campaign and the AFL-CIO. I believe it has the potential to be transformative, if we make it so.
I deeply resent being called a “troll” even by somebody with the intriguing pseudonym “the 98%.” I deeply resent being blacklisted as a “proselytizer” just because I stand for something, since my specialty is convincingly playing devil’s advocate for minority points of view not my own, and expecting my students to do the same. I always say at the beginning of every class that I have no covert or overt missionary agenda and I do not care what you believe, but I draw the line at Hitler and fascism. Any kind, including even American corporatism, arguably a form of fascism or a precursor to it. One student gave me credit, halfway through a class, for deconverting him from neo-Nazism. They can put that on my tombstone, instead of flowers: Jerome Bauer, Rest in Peace, once talked a Nazi out of it. So please watch it with the anti-Semitism allegations.
Never said YOU were antisemitic. In fact, I never “generalized,” as you claim that all occupiers were antisemitic. The reason I mentioned it was to demonstrate how there are many, NOT ALL, occupiers who are guided by irrational extremist logic with antisemitism is only one example of this.
My point is this: it’s not, or at least it shouldn’t be, 99% versus 1%. There are people in the 99% who understand that capitalism can help create a better society just as there are people in the 1% who believe that corporate greed is unjust. Right now, we have two groups of “shouters.” The Tea Party on the right. Occupy on the left. We don’t need an “American Spring.” What we need is a unified America where cooler heads prevail.
And since you seem to be fixated on my pseudonym: I hope you enjoy my little change. . .Not that I really care. You’re entitled to your opinion. I’m entitled to mine. But just because you yell yours at a louder volume, or through a human microphone, or with weird hand signals, doesn’t mean you’re changing my mind.
PS. to my comment below: You can Google Dr. Jerome Bauer WUSTL all you want, but why don’t you try searching the Student Life newspaper’s archive? Please look up my op-ed, “SWA a necessary presence on campus” and “Former (sic) Lecturer finds new paths after leaving (sic) WU,” and my comments. It is illegal to fire somebody for advocating organized labor, or for posting a flyer, and Wash U is NOT above the law.
I agree that we are one people and we will have to resolve this without violence. We are not a lynch mob. Please let it not come to that.
One intelligent Jew here in full support of Occupy St. Louis and I’m far from the only one.
Stop smearing those that are actively and patriotically participating in this movement. In other words, stop repeating the nonsense you hear on talk radio and see that there is a huge variety of people from all backgrounds that are marching with us against the corrupt system.
As for intelligentsia factors…I assure you many of these people are mental elitists unlike participants in other faux astroturf movements like the geniuses over at the tea party.
How the heck did we drag religion into this, and why is it under my initial comment? Could somebody please, for heaven’s sake, tell me how we jumped from “that’s not how endowments work” to “blah blah blah Jews blah blah…”
I mean, seriously? Where in any of the comments was religion or antisemitism brought up? I don’t think Professor Bauer or many of the occupiers are antisemitic. I really don’t know why anyone would unless they have evidence that I do not. I would say with a decent bit certainty that Professor Bauer really, really dislikes Citigroup (and it’s more than likely that the Occupiers feel similarly), but do we really have to be flying off at so many tangential angles?
Tiy EW
Sorry for the gibberish. I hit the wrong key somehow. Yes, I really dislike Citigroup, especially Citimortgage. So far I have resisted the impulse to take the microphone and tell my mortgage horror story. I would have to get in a long line to do so.
Interesting that Student Life is willing to take a local bank’s money to advertise on this website while running this op-ed. If I were the advertiser I’d take my money elsewhere.
One goal of Bank Transfer Day and the Occupy movement is to encourage local investment, local currencies, local control, and local initiatives of all kinds. To that end, we recommend taking money out of big banks and putting it into local banks such as Pulaski, Commerce, or a credit union. It would be in local banks’ best interest to advertise in Student Life.
Yeah see, what the Occupy movement in their unparalleled myopia doesn’t realize is that these little rinky-dink banks still rely on the giant financial institutions for transaction servicing, FX, and custodianship. You can either do business with one facet of Wall St. directly, or you can support the back room stuff indirectly.
Also, implicit in the assumption that moving money to small, local institutions will be a great idea is the notion that they will not grow. Take PNC as a case-in-point example of a local bank that became a regional bank. That regional bank then swallowed up the Cleveland-based National City and now it’s an international financial powerhouse. Anybody else notice how like… a bajillion PNC branches just popped up out of the woodwork in St. Louis in the past three years? Commerce and Pulaski haven’t become the giant, visible financial services corporations that others have become for the simple reason that they’re not large enough. Feed them (with your deposits) and it’s basically going to be a Little Shop of Horrors-like financial s***-show a few years down the line. It’ll just be déjà vu all over again.
I’d also like to point out that I’m not a Wall Street troll – I just have a lot of knowledge of the area. My list of financial institutions I prefer not to transact with is rather large and I, for one, think Bankrupting of America… sorry.. Bank** of America ought to be slowly dismantled, sold off in pieces, and finally done away with. Citi too, albeit to a lesser extent. Currently my off-limits list includes:
Bank of America Corporation
Citigroup, Inc.
Wells Fargo & Company
PNC Financial Servies Group, Inc.
JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Ally Financial, Inc.
CapitalOne Financial Corp.
In my opinion, the only really legitimate financial services firms out there are the RBS Group and most large Canadian Banks.
JPM
Thanks for the advice! I will pass it along. I would have put my money in a credit union instead of Pulaski but the office is inaccessible to me. Pulaski is within walking distance. We could all keep our money is a cash box under our beds but most of us are not prepared to do that.
Here is what to expect if you try to close your account as part of the Occupy movement:
Bank of America: Occupy Customers Can’t Close Accounts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OslMu3slRFQ&feature=share
CITIBANK ARRESTS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH3kiaJ1-c8&feature=colike
The university deposits it’s monies in accounts that serve the best interests of the university which ulitmately is to the benefit of the students. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. Besides, it’s none of your business. If you don’t lilt it, transfer to another school.
You will probably not have any trouble closing your accounts if you do so quietly and on some day other than November 5, but if you do so under protest, you will risk arrest. Be sure to bring your cameras to document any abuse.
I wonder if any of our local students will have the gumption to “occupy” their colleges and walk out or sit in, risking expulsion, blacklisting, and years of police harassment? A polite protest of “clean coal” or an honorary degree is harmless enough but THIS would cost them money. If this miracle happens I hope you students remember to ask for more of your exorbitant tuition money to pay the salaries of service workers, lecturers, and adjuncts. I hope you all remember that the police and administrators are our friends, the 99%. They will join us, and so will the most conservative faculty and trustees, eventually. Gandhi teaches us to trust our opponents.
If you try to organize, please remember that your inner circle will be infiltrated, and you will be spied upon in other ways as well. Count on it. Lines of communication, covert and overt, must be kept open. Don’t say anything to anybody that you don’t want broadcast and blogged. Don’t hide behind a pseudonym or false profile. Stand by what you say. Per veritatem vis, strength through truth.