por Yáshenka Baca
Students protest before penetrating and then to occupy the headquarters of the Bank of America in SF before the police arrested them. (PHOTO BY OCCUPY SF)
The Bank of America branch at 50 California St. San Francisco, was shut down by students Wed. Nov. 16 at 2:00 p.m., after hundreds of them marched into the building protesting against corporate greed.
The California students hanged out signs, set up a tent, and climbed on chairs and desks chanting against the bank as the workers left. The protest’s initial intention was to rally against the UC Regents meeting scheduled for Wed. in San Francisco, but the meeting was canceled as officials thought it could cause violence.
Students then decided to gather at the Occupy SF encampment in Justin Herman Plaza, and rally to the main banks in the Financial District. They stopped outside the Wells Fargo branch and then headed to the Bank of America offices, since one of the UC Regents, Monica Lozano, is on the bank Board of Directors.
The broad majority of the protesters were students from UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, SF State and SF Community College. According to Anthropology student Erin O’Flynn, from UC Santa Cruz, there were also students from Fresno, Merced and even Humboldt State University from Arcata. “Police in riot gear came inside the bank and said: If you don’t leave now you will be arrested” mentioned O’Flynn.
Outside the facility other 300 protesters sat on the floor, held signs and chanted against budget cuts in schools. Their claim “banks got bailout, we got sold out” could be heard blocks away, where hundreds of people piled up to observe the protest from the sidewalks. A total of 95 students were arrested inside the bank as supporters cheered them through the glass walls and shouted “shame!, shame!” to the police.
Anthony Chavez, student at SF City College said, “I support the movement. I don’t agree we should take loans to go to school. Our teachers now have to spend their own money to pay for teaching utensils” Chavez added. Psychology major SF State student Morgan Laurie said, “tuition has doubled in the last three years because of education cuts, it was $ 1,400 before and now we are paying $ 3,100.”
During the two hours it took the police to arrest all the bank occupiers, some people complained about the way the protesters had taken action, a woman who identified herself only as Julie, said the whole idea of the protest was good, but disturbing the life of other people wasn’t. Julie was waiting to meet a friend who was inside the building and, apparently, couldn’t get out.
But the action also got supporters who heard about it on the news or through social media, and came to see by themselves what was going on. Chris, a small business owner was one of them.
“I’ve heard media saying the protest is not good for small business and I have to say that’s not true. The big banks have being the worse to small businesses, they are not granting credits. The protest is helping us” he added.
As the police continued to arrest all the protesters inside the bank, another couple hundred people who remained outside marched to San Francisco City Hall and the State Building, where an assembly took place until 6 p.m.
UC Berkeley raid intensifies students’ actions
Ever since police forcefully removed UC Berkeley students from their encampment Nov. 9, the General Assemblies and Action Days have intensified in schools all over the Bay Area.
Several tents arose at UC Berkeley only a day after deputies hit the midsections of activists with batons, dragged them and later arrested students and a teacher in front of Sproul Hall. The videos from the police actions went viral online, several hundreds more have joined the Occupy Cal general assembly ever since.
Only this year, California cut $650 million from the UC and California State University systems, causing class cancellations and layoffs in both systems. Another $100 million reduction could happen if the state revenue does not meet a certain threshold.
