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The website occupytheboardroom.org was put together to give us 99% an opportunity to talk with the 1%. It lets you pick a “penpal” you can write to and tell your story. People can pick from dozens of top executives at Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley
The stories will be sent to the actual email accounts of the executives as well as delivered by mail. You can read some of the funny, heartbreaking and passionate letters already written at the Occupy The Board Room Mail Bag.
The site encourages you to write your letter in a constructive manner that helps build the movement for a better world. From the site: “DO NOT intimidate, harass or threaten anyone, no matter what you might think of them. Think funny! The #OWS movement emphasizes peaceful, non-violent protesting.”
I think this is a great idea for people who can’t get down to the various OWS sites to participate. I’m always trying to think about what kind of actions are necessary to either change the configuration of someone’s thinking or to change people’s behavior.
This website is designed to reach the 1% but there are other important audiences that these stories are for:
1) Anyone in the MSM who wants to believe that Occupy Wall Street supporters are just young people or “dirty hippies” There are hundreds of stories to chose from of home owners, retired people, working stiffs, average Janes and Joes.
2) The right wing media who desperately want to discredit the movement. If they follow their standard playbook they will take a few of the examples and turn them into a “Blame the victim for their poor choice of parents, life choices, industry choices and financial decisions.” If you can’t pull yourself up from your bootstraps and fly around the room they want you to shut up.
I expect Erick Erickson from CNN to wade through the list and find the handful out of thousands who he considers whiners or to find some details that haven’t been verified and pounce on it. It’s what they do. Expect it. That is why we need to make sure others read the thousands of stories that are rock solid and, when vetted, will show just how real these people and their problems are.
Who else needs to hear these stories?
3) State Attorney Generals. Especially those who want some some mediagenic anecdotal stories to tell to back up their cases when they are going after groups for systemic mortgage fraud. The stories are coded by zip code so the odds are there are stories from your state that they need to hear so they don’t just join in the group blow off lawsuit lots of have agreed to.
4) Politicians. They say during election years, “I listen (because I want your vote.)” but they really listen to the campaign contributors because “I want your money.” These stories show their failure to regulate the financial services industry. Politicians who didn’t demand more and better regulation in exchange for keeping the money tap on from the financial services industry are culpable.
How to Use these Stories for Leverage
During the Health Care Debate I remember hearing that Joe Biden was gathering stories of people hurt by the health insurance industry, health care providers and BigPharma. They were stories like Michael Moore used in Sicko. They could have been used as leverage to get the deal they wanted. The people would testify in front of congress about the abuses they suffered. As far as I know they weren’t used publicly. Maybe they didn’t want to subject the people to Michelle Malkin and other RW attackers, “He says he is broke but his house has marble counter tops!” like during the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) debate.
The more of these good stories get out there to multiple audiences (including us in The Choir!) the better we can solidify the narrative that these stories are widespread are not aberrations, but “the new normal” and although they aren’t seen on camera at a OWS event they are there in electronic form.
Read the stories. Add your own. Take a story and amplify it by sending it to MSM, AGs and politicians.
LLAP
Spocko
I’m proud to lend a bit of my Vulcan brain to this effort, but the real brains behind this are the folks at New York Communities for Change, ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York, and a group of volunteer developers, designers, and researchers down at Zuccotti.
My friends at ALIGN and NYCC explained that they recruited directly by OWS to build the site and developed it in close consultation with the ad-hoc working group that planned the entire Oct 15 action. This group contained members from almost all other working groups, all of whom approved and supported the project, and many of whom contributed ideas that we incorporated into it. Other groups involved are Strong Economy for All and UnitedNY.
Cross posted at Spocko’s Brain
16 Comments
Great idea. I sent a few out. I’ll post this site at my own blog. Thanks for the effort!
I thought I would share a few that I spotted that you might like.
You can make a difference
Dear Mr. Collins,
Twenty years ago, my father was a Vice President of Citibank. His office was in the World Trade Center. He died of a stress-related heart attack many years before the tragedy of 9/11. I remember him coming home late every evening after his long commute, and always having time to spend with his children. At his funeral a workmate we had never met spoke about the time my father took time out to help him when he was in dire circumstances, even though the other employee was well below my dad on the corporate ladder.
Banks exist to make money, but the level of greed, and the disparity in the distribution of resources in this country isn’t right. The government is not able to help you regulate yourselves, so you must take the lead. I believe that individuals can make a difference, my father taught me that.
Please help us.
Michelle
Here is another, heart breaking:
Losing Everything
My husband and I are 60 and 58 years old. In the next year we will be on the way to losing everything we have. My husband is sole proprietor of his home based structural engineering business. We have only had a small handful of work in the last 3 years. We were not well off to start with. Now most of our savings are gone and our home of 17 years is in serious need of repair. We couldn’t help our 19 year old son with college; he is mowing lawns. We have never gotten any kind of assistance, although soon we will be going to the food bank. Where do people go when the money is gone? When the house is gone? When the almost 30 year old cars won’t run anymore?
The Occupy is all about you! Hang on you’re in for a bumpy ride!
this is a great idea and thanks for noting it
we must recreate reality and that means popping the bubblegum dreams that now pass for it
occupy reality!
What’s wrong with the idea of occupying the board room? Plenty! David Koch could not have thought of a better idea. First of all you are bowing to their power when you need to be taking action that will REMOVE them from power.
You are not occupying the board room, the 1% are. You are a member of the 99% writing letters to these people.
What on earth makes you think that these people are going to suddenly have an epiphany and start listening to the 99%? They are not. They may patronize you, but if they haven’t shown by now that they truly don’t give a damn about the 99%, they never will. They don’t give a damn if we die in the streets. How many times and in how many different ways do they have to tell us this before it sinks in? These people are the enemy.
Do you honestly think this is all a “mistake” on their part and they don’t realize what they are doing and writing them letter will cause a change of heart? If so you are dreaming.
Appealing to these people is reinforces their position of power and wastes valuable time. Stop appealing to them. Instead, ignore them and create solutions that don’t require their permission. Bipartisanship is their game. We don’t need it. We are the 99%.
What should we be doing? #1 We should be finding candidates from the 99%–non millionaires to run as Independents in 2012 for every single seat open and that includes the 435 in the House. We are the majority and they can’t do a damn thing about that.
#2 We should be at least developing plans for a business system to replace the Wall Street Casino–We don’t have to resort to violence to do this. All we have to do is stop bringing our money to the Casino and invest it locally.
We are well beyond the point of writing letters to these people. F them. Don’t you get it? They will laugh at us for being so damn gullible and stupid.
Dear Liz:
Thank you for commenting. I do hope that you read my entire post, in which I point out that this effort is really about more than reaching the 1%.
Do I expect the 1% to have an epiphany from reading a letter? Not really, but it could happen. But this really is also about reaching other people, the mainstream media and people like state attorney generals.
They are the ones we want to give real people stories to tell and when their story is out there the financial services people need to respond. Sure they will say, “We care, we’ll see what we can do.” out of on side of their mouth and then, if there are no consequences wish the problem away to the cornfield. But getting them on record publicity is important.
Lots of time people talk about a “news Narrative” This effort is designed to open up the protest movement to the people who support it but can’t physically be there at the moment.
I talked about leverage. This is attempting to get public opinion leverage strongly enough that it can lead to additional action–just like you suggested.
This is not a zero sum game. We need multiple strategies via multiple venues to make change. I’m a communications and media guy. If I was a lawyer I might use a different approach. If I was a policy wonk I would go that way. I think your political and business strategy ideas are great! Keep working at them.
When you are out there getting candidates that fit your criteria they can say, “I’m a supporter of OWS.” That is a shortcut phrase that means something. Just like “I’m a tea party member”
We can then use that moniker to push the views about regulation and changing the WS Casino. And if they don’t we dump them.
Had to stop and tell ya what a hell of an effort this is.
Thanks for the diary, the work . . .
IMHO this is what #Occupy needs, a means to further the dialogue, take that dialogue to the 1%, and in the process, allow the 99% to read more and more about each other . . .
And these stories should be shared mouth to mouth, email to email, fax to fax or by any means possible, flyers, hand outs . . . these are the stories that will arouse others of the same who have held back, are hard hit and can’t participate, who might just not believe we are all in it together.
Studs Terkel was a master at using people’s stories, their chronicles, to shape a book FULL of so much story it was IMPOSSIBLE not to be moved and fully captured to the causes he wrote about.
The narrative, the story, the chronicles of we the people, that’s the magic, that’s the medicine, that’s the mojo to beat back the lies and deceits waged upon we the people to impoverish us all . . . .
TELL THE STORY!
OCCUPY THE NARRATIVE!
Yeah, baby . . . thanks Spocko for all you do, rcc’d highly x a gizillion . . . .
I gotta muse me some about this narrative thang, it’s dear to my life and heart . . . #Occupy has GOT it . . .
1) Will these stories be available for sharing on the intertubes? Blogged about? Shared here at MyFDL?
I’m telling ya, the narrative, the story . . . IS the life blood of 20′s n 30′s US human suffering, and the labor organizing, the tent cities in DC and elsewhere, the revolts against the coal mine owners, and more . . .
Studs Terkel, U Utah Phillips, Eugene Debs . . . they were the story, they compiled the story, they sang and wrote and lived the story . . .
Heady stuff to consider here, using narrative and story and chronicle to share with others of common cause, even if they don’t KNOW they are common cause.
THis is how #Occupy grows FAST. It’s how the past disobediences spread, thru the 60′s and 70′s even . . . the telling and sharing of story is a powerful juju.
Hmmm . . . .
None of the 1% are actually going to read any of those emails, except maybe for entertainment.
Besides the act of writing these ‘people’ only shows them that you are below them. There is no need to talk to someone who couldn’t care less whether you live, starve, or die. No one is going to see the light. No ah ha moments.
I fail to see any logic in begging. But I see the psychological logic in getting people to share stories to further the movement. I suppose in that capacity the endeavor is logical.
Spocko, yer diary moves me, I’m gonna post one about it, using my comment as base, referencing to YOUR diary . . . and well, ask MyFDL readers how we can share this story of ours more, better, oftener, spread it, smear it, n get it to the nation so everyone is telling their story to their neighbor . . . and in doing so, create tension, participation, and maybe action but MOST importantly, create AWARENESS of our conditions!
So, thanks hoss . . . working on it now, Tuesday nite 10:40 Left Coast time . . . up by 11pm I hope.
*G*
tweeted and recommended spocko
I agree with you. The One PerCenters have constructed an alternate reality where they are successful, admired and beloved. We should make them as uncomfortable as possible. That is how the zeitgeist shifts.
Spocko – Has there been any discussion about using shareholder initiatives or having shareholders show up at annual meetings?
Thank you! recommended
Here is mine sent to a woman at WellsFargo.
“I suppose it is naive of me to believe that a high ranking woman in the banking industry would have more compassion than the high ranking “alpha” males (that is how they think of themselves, I am sure). Have you tried to modify the pain that your fellow officers are causing the country. Or are you really, really, really rich like the rest of the one percenters that are gutting the planet? If this is the case, I hope you reconsider your position and join the 99%ers.”
That was pretty much my thought.
spocko: “They say during election years, “I listen (because I want your vote.)” but they really listen to the campaign contributors because “I want your money.” “
Of course: because they use that money to buy your vote. Not that they’ll be crude enough to send you a check, they use the money to run what is essentially an ad campaign. Buy the product Obama-B! It’s young and exciting! It’s transparent and hopeful! Obama-B will change your life so order NOW!
You know what blows the Irony Meter threw the roof? If the voters simply gave enough of a damn to actually examine all the candidates’ records to see how closely each matched their desires, if they put as much “comparison shopping” effort into Governors as they do into coffee pots, if they stopped buying the same model year after year even though they never liked it, then a lot of very startled lobbyists would be hearing things like this:
Congresscritter: Thank your clients for their generous donations, please. I spent the money on a poll which clearly shows that if I do what they want I’ll lose 11% to 13% of my District.
Lobbyist: They forget. They’re stupid and swayed by TV. We can buy you a commentator!
Congresscritter: Get with the times, kid. The former occupant of this seat spent like crazy on his campaign and got booted out because the voters didn’t like his voting. Gotta keep the crowds satisfied if I want to keep my job. Bye-bye.
Yes. In fact there was an article where a corporate consultant told execs to watchout for this kind of action.
http://october2011.org/blogs/kevin-zeese/leaked-memo-corporate-board-rooms-fear-occupy-movement-occupying-their-board-rooms