By Matthew Russell Lee
WALL STREET, October 8 -- In Zuccotti Park on Saturday night, there was drumming and tombstones for the Glass-Steagall Act. There were police on all four corners with bullhorns, and busses of tourists rolling past on Broadway snapping pictures.
Earlier at a General Assembly in Washington Square Park, a self-described banker told the crowd to max out their credit cards to get an education, and then not pay it back. The bankers, he said, are living in million dollar condominium and don't need your money.
In the days after the October 5 labor march and late night Wall Street action complete with pepper spray and batons, there's been increasing focus on who supports Occupy Wall Street. Obama, Nancy Pelosi, even Federal Reserve Boardchairman Ben Bernanke saying he understands. Is this the death or new stage of the movement?
For Inner City Press at least, the hunger for celebrities at Occupy Wall Street is troubling. Alec Baldwin, for example, tweeted Friday that despite Occupy Wall Street, Capital One is still a good partner. Really? Even the Fed has held three hearing on Capital One's rip-off of consumers, considering its application to buy ING DIRECT and HSBC's subprime credit cards.
In Zuccotti Park Saturday night, a sign lay on the ground about Capital One abusive calling a borrower up to ten times a day. This is what Capital One does, but Alec Baldwin doesn't seem to care. He like Jimmy Fallon, both considered liberals, take Capital One's money to advertise for them.
In Zuccotti Park on Oct 8, 2011 re Cap One, Baldwin not show (c) MRLee
Some in Zuccotti Park, meanwhile, are happy for visits by celebrities, whether feel-good spiritualists who moonlight with the UN or otherwise.
A close observer likened some of those in Zuccotti Park to the Desparate Housewifes in suburban New Jersey -- they are paid to keep the home fires burning, to "look good." But look good then: much is made online of a protester defecating on an NYPD squad car.
Inner City Press' view, after the arrests of October 1 and the ad hoc moves on Wall Street October 5, is that some keep up residence in the park to keep the momentum going, but the energy comes from outside for real marches, best when challenging the physical symbols of the crisis:JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, further uptown Citigroup. Desperate Housewives indeed. Watch this site.
