Disparate Groups Unite at Wells Fargo Protest
Unions, advocates and community groups try to capitalize on growing Occupy movement
A protest outside the Wells Fargo headquarters in downtown San Francisco, which led to 11 arrests Wednesday morning, was a unique moment of unity for a broad coalition of community groups, unions and advocacy organizations, organizers said.
Beginning around 7:30 a.m., the demonstrators blocked off the entrances to a Wells Fargo branch in the headquarters building on Montgomery Street and blockaded the surrounding streets. Eleven protesters were arrested for trespassing when they obstructed an entrance to the building, Officer Albie Esparza of the San Francisco Police Department said.
The march, which drew about 500 people, was planned as an effort to capitalize on the Occupy movement, which has gathered momentum across the country in recent weeks. There are some 25 "occupied" cities nationwide and some 15,000 people showed up to an Occupy Wall Street protest in New York recently.
Wednesday's action wasn’t the largest of the Occupy protests to take place in San Francisco. But organizers said the demonstration was a rare moment that brought together more than 30 groups that don't normally protest together. They ranged from Causa Justa/Just Cause, a housing rights advocacy organization, to the environmental group Rainforest Action Network and the local chapter of the hotel and food service union UNITE HERE.
While many of the groups support each other’s causes, they often work in isolation, organizers said.
“Today was very special," said María Poblet, the executive director of Causa Justa. “It’s been a very long time” since we all got together.
Like the Occupy SF protesters camping out in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the groups were drawn together by the concept of the 99 percent. They believe their problems are due, in part, to a government that caters to corporations and banks rather than ordinary people, according Max Bell Alper, an organizer with UNITE HERE.
“Something about ‘We are the 99 percent’ makes a lot of sense to people,” Alper said. “Right now, there’s a lot of energy, and people want to be out on the street. And for all of us organizing, now is the moment.”
Wednesday's march grew out of the excitement the activists felt as they watched the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York expand.
For the first time, ordinary people seemed to be taking an interest in the issues they had been fighting for, said Evelyn Sanchez of the Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network, which advocates for parents in the Oakland Unified School District.
“It was very exciting for a lot of us,” Sanchez said.
Organizers had been planning the protest for several weeks. A group of about 40 people met twice at the local UNITE HERE offices in Oakland before deciding to march.
They chose the Occupy SF encampment on Market Street as their starting point. While Occupy SF had little to do with planning the demonstration, the organizers of the march see it as a potent symbol.
Sanchez said the encampments "are a new form of organizing." By staying in the news, the encampments keep the public's attention on the 99 percent.
“We’re happy to see the encampments springing up,” said Sanchez.
It's not clear whether the coalition will grow to tip the scales of the Occupy movement in the Bay Area, as the support of large unions has done in New York. But participants say more protests are in the works, and they hope to build on Wednesday’s momentum.
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Frank DeFelice
The police arrest people because they are told to do so, by their supervisor. Their supervisor gets orders from the Chief, who probably gets orders from the mayor. This is a dumb move, because you don't want to alienate people who believe in justice. I am very happy that demonstrations are going on, protesting the corruption on Wall Street, and in Congress. Maybe someday we'll get our democracy back.
Peter Piasecki
Hate to say it, we do not live in a democracy, it is known as a Representative republic. They should be in Washington protesting our congress and senate, they are the ones who pass laws then exempt them self from those laws. I wonder how many corporations did not pay taxes like GE, friend of our president, then we have our justice department selling weapons to the Mexican drug cartels, I wish we had objective, investigative reporters, instead of the subjective ones. from what I see in the pictures, these people are protesting everything they can think, some want their student loans forgiven, others their mortgages, were did the hell did they get these idea's, it must be academia.