Re: [occupy-harvard] Digest for harvard-mit-occupy-boston@googlegroups.com - 16 Messages in 2 Topics

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aryt alasti

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Nov 8, 2011, 5:31:34 AM11/8/11
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As one who has suffered aplenty in the lower echelons of unfettered capitalist business operations, may I suggest that we not too easily allow ourselves to be insulted by our differing adamancies. It's common ground and consensus on strategy we need to be striving for, and quite probably all can benefit from being generously open-minded, yet prepared to persuade. I think there's a need for both the activist gestures which seek to communicate messaging and demonstrate resolve, and ideally with simultaneity, the practical tactics which can more directly effect change.

Regarding the banks, there is a lot of information available about investment practices and such, so it would behoove anyone wanting to both make a statement and to contribute to good works to research the options a bit.

                                                   Aryt

On Nov 8, 2011 3:14 AM, <harvard-mit-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Group: http://groups.google.com/group/harvard-mit-occupy-boston/topics

    Fenna Krienen <fen...@gmail.com> Nov 07 09:53PM -0500  

    *Occupy Harvard Rally and General Assembly*
     
    **
     
    *Rally, Wednesday, 7pm, Harvard Yard*****
     
    *
    *
     
    On Wednesday at 7pm, students, professors, and workers from the greater
    Boston community will descend on Harvard Yard *to ask that Harvard start
    acting as a university for the 99%*. The ensuing rally, held in front of
    the John Harvard statue, will highlight ways that Harvard has contributed
    to yawning inequality both on and off campus. Professors will critique
    Harvard-propagated economic models that brought us the great recession.
    Students will expose Harvard-fueled land grabs in Tanzania. Custodians
    will ask why Harvard pays them a mere $1 for every $180 paid to the execs
    of the Harvard Management Company. We are standing in solidarity with the
    Occupy movement to take back our universities, our economy, and our
    democracy. ****

     

    Nicholas Hayes <nic...@gmail.com> Nov 07 04:44AM -0800  

    Hey all,
     
    Glad to see this conversation happening. I'm a Div School student and
    one of the Protest Chaplains (Hannah Hofheinz, Marisa Egerstrom, Dave
    Woessner are all friends). I'll cut to the chase: a few other Div
    School students and I would like to organize a "Harvard Divestment
    Day" on campus, to mobilize students to move their money out of BofA,
    Citi, and other usual suspects en masse; likely focus on BofA since
    they have a central H Sq location and are used by the most students. A
    la "Bank Transfer Day" which happened on Sat, 11/5, but just at
    Harvard (--alas, haven't seen much press; was there any action at
    Harvard?) Current date set for Nov. 19 (Sat); have a team ready to get
    to work on it, a Facebook group and URL about to go public, etc.
     
    It makes sense to do this in conjunction with Occupy on campus. We'd
    like to reach out to as many schools at Harvard as possible;
    currently, most of our contacts are at the Div School, but we have a
    few at HKS, GSAS, and the College. I also started a conversation at
    MIT, in the hopes folks there might join. Would Occupy Harvard be game
    to partner on this? Any specific individuals I should talk to? And
    could we advertise over OH networks?
     
    Final question: we've got someone ready to go on making a flier, and
    would like to get them up by Weds, probably. She'd like to know who
    made the poster for the Harvard-MIT student march back on Columbus
    Day, and whether we could use that background; we thought it was
    great!
     
    Thanks!
     
    Peace,
    Nicholas
    517.610.8007
     

     

    Neal Meyer <neal...@gmail.com> Nov 07 09:09AM -0500  

    If anyone is interested in doing some reading on bank transfer day,
    particularly from a critical perspective, I've attached a few articles.
    They're easy enough to understand, and provide a sobering reminder that the
    big banks don't much care what responsible consumers decide to do with
    their money.
     
    "Why the big banks aren't sweating Bank Transfer Day"
    notes<http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/11/01/why-the-big-banks-arent-sweating-bank-transfer-day/>that
    big banks don't really want small bank accounts anymore:
     
    "And the big banks don’t particularly *want* all those retail-deposit funds
    — they’re getting precious little interest on them, and they come with all
    manner of expensive obligations to mail out statements and provide smiling
    service at teller windows and generally do the whole customer-service
    thing, which as we all know big banks are very bad at. Historically,
    they’ve done what they have to do on that front because they’ve been able
    to extract all manner of overdraft fees and interchange fees and the like,
    but that fee income is shrinking now, thanks to Dodd-Frank, and the fact is
    that millions of small bank accounts are actually unprofitable now for the
    big banks, and those banks won’t shed many tears if those customers go off
    to a credit union instead."
     
    And here <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Move_your_money.html>,
    left-wing economist Doug Henwood notes that most small financial
    institutions end up sending the money deposited with them off into the wide
    financial world, and it ends back up in the hands of Chase Bank or funding
    the gentrification of local neighborhoods and vicious private equity firms.

     

    Alex Auriema <alex.h....@gmail.com> Nov 07 12:49PM -0500  

    Dear Neal,
     
    There is a medieval fable that goes somethings like this:
     
    Once upon a time there was a walled city that prospered on its own
    resources. The city was enclosed by a moat of water and a large stone
    fortification. Inside the city several hundred people lived their lives as
    comfortably as the mid 12th century could afford. They farmed, prayed and
    socialized within these confines. It was a feudal society by todays
    standards, a king and queen of reasonable ilk, and a nobility that rarely
    hesitated to spread their wealth. The cities people were for the most part
    happy, and peaceful.
     
    This is why it came as a surprise when one day over the horizon the walled
    city's watchman spotted an army approaching. It did not take long for the
    army to grow and completely surround the walled city. When word got out the
    townspeople panicked. It was clear that the were outnumbered at least 10
    to 1 and their army was weak and under supplied.
     
    Meanwhile the surrounding army's commander sat atop his horse in full armor
    - coat of arms recently polished and glimmering in sunlight. The commander
    was not aware that the town was under supplied or outnumbered - with the
    large fortification he knew only that he could wait and was prepared to
    battle the towns army on any terms.
     
    The townspeople deliberated for hours. Every suggestion short of mass
    suicide was considered. Frustration ensued, until a quiet proposal was put
    forth by the queen to amass all the towns resources; its crops, livestock,
    weaponry, even the blacksmiths tools, and dump them over the walls of the
    city. The idea seemed preposterous, but the people agreed in desperation
    and trust for their good queen.
     
    So after hours of collecting, the city brought everything they subsisted on
    to the edge of the fortification. In unison they dumped it all over the
    edge of the wall. The scene was brilliant, and sad. Cows mooed and hissed,
    chickens screeched as they fell the long distance to the ground outside.
     
    The surrounding army watched in utter dismay. The commander and his high
    ranking officials were all speechless. They thought, as if all sharing the
    same brain: "How prosperous this town must be that they can afford to rid
    of all this bounty" The commander saw his troops faces expressing the same
    doubt in the whole operation.
     
    The army collectively withdrew.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    --
    Alex Auriema
     
    www.alexauriema.com

     

    Neal Meyer <neal...@gmail.com> Nov 07 01:29PM -0500  

    0_o
     
    I don't understand.
     

     

    Shari Bence <shari...@gmail.com> Nov 07 01:35PM -0500  

    In a more pedestrian fable (and, given that I've been cast by some critical perspectives as a radicalized populist with little understanding of what the economic pathogens are, seems an appropriate gesture):
     
    George Bailey was onto something with his little Building and Loan association that created an affordable housing project, low interest loans, and built a community that held back the proverbial Gates of Economic Hell, even if at the day's end it still deposited its equity in Potter's bank.
     
    I think many simple folk understand the depth and breadth of the issues, however ill formed and roughly hewn, critical perspectives notwithstanding.
     
     
    Transferring my bank account to a credit union will probably have as much effect as .....
     
    putting a tent in Zucotti Park.
     
     
     
    File under "Fables for the Twentyfirst century," or, "Don't Let An Entrenched Narrative Get The Better Of You."
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    On Nov 7, 2011, at 12:49 PM, Alex Auriema wrote:
     

     

    Camille Morvan <mor...@fas.harvard.edu> Nov 07 01:37PM -0500  

    Hi All,
     
    *Big banks* don't necessarily care about keeping us (although then why do
    they always try to keep you when you leave??).
     
    But what about the *small banks*? May be for them having our money is a
    plus. It might give them more room for action and to invest in the local
    community. Provided that they can handle the large number of new customers.
     

     

    Neal Meyer <neal...@gmail.com> Nov 07 02:28PM -0500  

    Hi Camille,
     
    That's why I sent out the second link as well. There is no guarantee that
    the money you put in a small bank goes anywhere good either. The three
    examples Henwood cites (a real estate firm which exploits poor tenants, a
    wave of gentrification in New York City, and Chase Bank) are sobering.
     
    There is nothing inherently virtuous about small banking institutions. Some
    of them are run by nice people with smiles. Others by nice people with
    smiles who can't pay their workers much and who send your deposits off to
    fund despicable new investments.
     
    I see very little difference between the small banking institution which *
    might* use your money to fund some local community projects (which in
    themselves are not necessarily great ventures - many of the worst bosses
    run small businesses) and the charity ventures of most big banks and
    businesses.
     
    I just want to encourage some critical thinking about this whole Move Your
    Money fad.
     
    Neal
     

     

    Neal Meyer <neal...@gmail.com> Nov 07 02:53PM -0500  

    My point is that on this issue there *is* a shortage of critical thinking.
    Moving your money is not a meaningful action.
     

     

    Hannah Hofheinz <hlh...@mail.harvard.edu> Nov 07 02:54PM -0500  

    Hi all,
     
    I can't help but jump in here.
     
    Yes, critical action. And, yes to the power of bodies in motion. The goods that occur through a readjustment of actions (for instance, a large number of people switching banks) may or may not manifest in apparent ends. Indeed, critical thinking demands that we open ourselves up to recognizing the more complex interplays here. We need to see the ways in which these actions - such as moving our money - do dramatically effect and re-align our societal possibilities and imagination. They open up alternatives performatively, not necessarily consequentially (although this can happen and is a good thing when it does); this is the great power of these actions, not chains of visible or anticipatable cause and effect.
     
    I hope you are having a good day!
     
    ~Hannah
     
     
     
    On Nov 7, 2011, at 2:37 PM, Alex Auriema wrote:
     
     
    > --
    > Alex Auriema
     
    > www.alexauriema.com
     
    _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
    Hannah Hofheinz | hhof...@mail.harvard.edu
    Teaching Fellow Advisor | Harvard Divinity School
    Departmental Teaching Fellow | The Study of Religion, Harvard University
    Doctoral Candidate in Theology | Harvard Divinity School

     

    Neal Meyer <neal...@gmail.com> Nov 07 03:13PM -0500  

    Last time I checked this whole occupy phenomenon was a protest against an
    economic system which has left 16% of the labor force under- or unemployed,
    denies healthcare to millions of families, is rapidly foreclosing and
    stealing the homes of tenants and working-class homeowners, and saddles
    students with enormous debt.
     
    Frankly Hannah, I am insulted by your suggestion that the importance of
    these protests lies in performatively opening imaginary alternatives. It
    separates these social protests from the real material suffering of
    millions during this crisis. If your point is really that these protests
    and actions are the first step towards winning real material concessions
    from "the 1%" to improve the lives of working-class people, then I will
    forgive you. But I will point out that your strategy in that case is poorly
    chosen - winning material concessions from the ruling class demands
    strategy and actions which make sense. Performance and purposeless actions
    do not serve that interest.
     
    I am not having a good day because I am afraid that my generation is more
    interested in pomo dilletantism than fighting, but thank you for wishing me
    well.
     

     

    Camille Morvan <mor...@fas.harvard.edu> Nov 07 03:38PM -0500  

    Neal, you said "My point is that on this issue there *is* a shortage of
    critical thinking. Moving your money is not a meaningful action."
    What alternative(s) do you have in mind?
     

     

    Neal Meyer <neal...@gmail.com> Nov 07 03:52PM -0500  

    I think that this is something that a general assembly could really discuss
    (if Ron Paul people weren't allowed to block discussion).
     
    Certainly regulating the financial system is a start. I'm currently reading
    through Doug Henwood's Wall Street if others are interested in this issue -
    he has a lot of great points to make about the financial system in that
    book and towards the end he offers some ideas for reform.
     
    My broad point is that we should be looking in the long term to radical
    political action in order to make meaningful economic changes - and that in
    the short term our actions should be directed towards building the road to
    left politics again, which means laying the ground work for a real
    coalition of students, the blue-collar working class, and the white-collar
    working class. Part of setting up this foundation for a new left politics
    requires fostering critical thinking about economic problems and possible
    solutions, putting aside superficial reforms which make no real changes and
    only encourage spending time on consumer activism, and developing healthy
    and constructive procedures for decision making which encourage
    participation, are efficient, and do not infantilize participants.
     

     

    Shari Bence <shari...@gmail.com> Nov 07 04:12PM -0500  

    There are a lot of narratives floating around the Occupy movement, as well its critics, many of them under the guise of "critical thinking."
     
    The narratives of "bodies in motion" opposing the status quo, and, over time, creating change, is much older and more empowering than the narratives generated by economists (or statistics geeks) working under a skewed paradigm of knowledge, one I'd argue that helps drive the narratives that are currently running the status quo, and that are so deeply entrenched that few see beyond them. (Although that discussion is beyond this list.)
     
    It's no accident that Gandhi's become a resurrected icon of empowerment against an oppressive economic system. It's a powerful story, one grounded in multiple traditions, as well as a successful strategy.
     
    A march to make salt? How silly is that? I get the impression that the critical perspective articles sent previously, and spawning this conversation, would have urged that making salt wasn't enough to topple the empire, that Gandhi's approach was woefully misguided, naive, and :::: snicker, snicker:::: another form of populist ignorance.
     
    It eventually liberated the nation. One movement among many, but they added up over time.
     
    I find nothing dilettantish in such actions.
     
    Unless, Neal, you want to argue that setting up tents (an equally silly idea, it seems to me), is too facile and self-serving for your tastes.
     
    To be honest, I was insulted by your critical perspective articles, which seemed to me more of the same old skepticism that continually dogs social reform movement (not just the Occupation), and found them the very antithesis of much of what the Occupation emerged from, though that assumes I understand it, so excuse my hubris. I chose not to jump in, to avoid my usual overly acerbic reaction, but now I'm compelled given the many subtexts that have emerged, and to post my original reaction to your articles.
     
    In short, your writer's said, "These folks are ignorant, simple minds and don't know what the fuck they are doing." In very nice prose, of course, buttressed in the language of intellectual authority, and with an appeal to history, which is about as dilettantish a bait as one can hope to take. I do find a peculiar irony in your offense, Neal.
     
    That was my reading.
     
    I'm having a fine day, all things considered.
     
     
    Be well.
     
     
     
     
     
    On Nov 7, 2011, at 3:13 PM, Neal Meyer wrote:
     

     

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