Expect it to be quiet on Broadway this weekend. An Occupy Seattle splinter group is planning a silent march against the power of money in the political process slated to start in Cal Anderson Saturday morning and wind its way, vigil by vigil, up Broadway. #MicCheckWallSt, the group behind the protest, says it intends to get its message across quietly — without busting windows or tagging walls:
We are a peaceful group as stated in our Principles of Agreement and our mission statement. This means that as a group we do not engage in or support verbal, physical violence, or property destruction. Everyone participating is expected to respect and embody both those principles and mission in their ideas, actions, and the treatment of others in order to be considered a member of #MicCheckWallSt. If you can’t conform or adhere to those ideas we urge you to start your own group or organization.
Details on Saturday’s Capitol Hill Money Shouldn’t Talk march are below:
This is a silent flash march along Broadway, in and around Capitol Hill. During while we will be encouraging people to silently enter actual stores and well as meeting up at designated times in front of Bank of America, Chase, and U.S. Bank on the sidewalk to hold short silent vigils.
We’ll be meeting up at Cal Anderson Park by the water fountain at 10:30am before heading out to walk around Broadway.
Even if you can’t make it, please share the heck out of this *and* add your friends to the invite!!
What’s this about?
“Right now, with every dollar we spend, we give corporations more and more influence over our politics. Over our healthcare, our government, our society, and our future. With every dollar we give them more and more influence over our daily lives.
We think this is wrong. Money isn’t speech. And it definitely shouldn’t be a corporate megaphone with which to corrupt our system of government, bribe our politicians, and buy special treatment.
Buying their goods shouldn’t mean selling ourselves. We feel it’s time people started drawing direct attention to the silencing power of money as speech. As consumers, as voters, as citizens, as a society, as people, and as human beings, we can all agree, money shouldn’t talk.
Together let us reclaim our voices with silence.”
We will have small printed versions of the above statement contained in this invite for you to hand out if someone wishes to engage you in positive dialog about this action or wants a more information about the action and you do not wish to break your silence. We will also have small cheat-sheets available with a map and the times for the silent vigils in front of the banks.
In keeping with the message of the dollars tapped over our mouths, “silent” means remaining quiet. No chanting, singing, or drums, etc. As well talking amongst ourselves should be kept to a minimum. We make our point by engaging in eye contact with as many of the people that pass by as possible and holding it just a little bit too long.
We want to draw as much visual attention to the dollars and the messages you’ve written on them as possible. Corporate logos, wording, occupy gear, etc. will detract from this. So if you can, please try to wear plain clothing without any words, symbols, logos, or stickers. For that reason also, please do not bring signs to hold or flags to wave.
In between the silent vigils in front of the banks you are encouraged to make your way around Capitol Hill, up and down Broadway by yourself, with a couple friends, or in a larger group.
• 10:30am – Meet in Cal Anderson Park by the water fountain and get ready.
– There will be a brief orientation
– Printed versions of the statement will be available if you wish to hand them out
– Please bring a dollar bill with you if you can (we’ll have some extra)
– We’ll have some tape & spirit gum on hand.
– If you can bring some tape with you to share, even better.
– We’ll have markers on hand if you wish to write a message on your dollar.• 11:00am – Walk around Broadway and or enter shops.
• 11:30am to 12:00pm – Silent vigil in front of Bank of America (614 Broadway East)
• 12:00pm – Walk around Broadway and or enter shops.
• 12:30pm to 1:00pm – Silent vigil in front of Chase Bank (301 Broadway East)
• 1:00pm – Walk around Broadway and or enter shops.
• 1:30pm to 2:00pm – Silent vigil in front of U.S. Bank (135 Broadway East)
• 2:00pm – March concludes.
See you there!!!
The Capitol Hill Times talked to people involved with Occupy Seattle spin-offs here.
On Valentine’s Day, the group orchestrated a money drop in the middle of downtown Seattle:
I’m sure the local staff of Broadway rental storefronts will enjoy this very much.
2:05pm The anarchists arrive with their black masks on and smash up Chase windows in your name and run away anyway!
Yeah im not sure what the logic of just walking around Broadway for 3 hours entering shops and not buy anything. Seems like a waste the store owners time, might as well close the store for 3 hours.
If you want to make an impact, move your money out of the big financial institutions and into local credit unions.
DON’T harass the the workers who are trying to make a living.
I have no special knowledge of this group, but respect what they say they are doing.
To the trolls commenting, check out what is happening in the streets of Greece — that can happen on Broadway! You might want to support peaceful and silent actions more.
America can change the easy way or the hard way, but it is going to change.
Peace & Love
moron! greece is burning down right now, police stations, banks, political offices ect. ect..
moron-locator: Check mirror immediately!
Hey genius, where does it say anything about “harassing workers”?
one douchey anarchist communique meets glee flashmob at a time
In fact, we will be handing out information on how people can switch from their big bad banks to local banking institutions, such as credit unions.
I definitely prefer this kind of action compared to the noisy, vandalizing, violent ones…and it has a better chance at getting people’s attention than the latter. But I do question its effectiveness. Most people already are aware and agree with the message they are expressing…and those who don’t (the 1%) couldn’t care less about this kind of a protest…in fact, they won’t even know about it.
Will they just be walking into the national-chain type stores? I hope so, because small, local, independent businesses along Broadway…of which there are many…do not need this kind of distraction.
I felt the same way at first, Calhoun, but I now realize this group is more about their ‘call to friendship’ tagline than political action. The group was started by a guy who splintered from Occupy because he didn’t want to deal with the logistics of the camp site. He really just wants to recruit as many liberal activists as he could — not so much for action, but for discussion and having big meetings and whatnot. Most of their ‘think op’ actions aren’t designed to beget political change; they’re designed to publicize the group and get more people to join them.
Like their ‘conceive of income equality’ stickers, or what they wrote on the money they threw off the building — ask anyone involved what their message is and you’ll get a different wishy-washy answer. The real point is just to have the #MicCheck hash on something in circulation so that more people join their group.
‘Community organizing’ without directed action frustrates me, and so I oppose them despite sharing their political beliefs.
Before you criticize or formulate opinions, just a suggestion, do some research. The information for this group is available, hence the reasoning behind their direct actions. Also, it looks like they have some community building planned. To assume you know who these people are and why they do what they do, with out speaking to them or researching the provided information, is blatantly ignorant.
We’re more of a ‘walking call-to-action’. Our actions aren’t direct attacks on Wall St or the Gov, they are a direct attack on INACTION. We don’t want people to join us, necessarily; We’d actually rather see all of you people create your own groups with your own ideas and actions. Everything we do is a call-to-action, and that is what our ‘call to friendship’ is all about… NOT specifically and exclusively joining our ‘club’. We don’t care who you do it with, what you do it about, but DO SOMETHING!
This seems to be a little known fact, but that the “1%” doesn’t actually frequent Broadway. Maybe it’s time to wrap whole thing up, give Capitol Hill a well deserved break, and march on over to Mediana?
“Maybe it’s time to wrap whole thing up, give Capitol Hill a well deserved break, and march on over to Mediana?”
I couldn’t agree more. The hill has been nothing more than a punching bag for political free speech.