The Occupy Wall Street protest movement, which had spread to several major U.S. cities in recent weeks, found an international offshoot in London called OccupyLSX. As Suzy Khimm reported
:
The U.S. anti-corporate movement has inspired an offshoot occupation in London. It will kick off this Saturday with a rally headed to the London Stock Exchange, as Dealbook notes today. OccupyLSX describes itself as part of a global movement against “corporate greed” and inequality, and UK Uncut — a group of activists who’ve fought austerity measures — has already signed on to support it.
There have been recent popular uprisings in London, like this summer’s riots that many have linked to economic discontent and anti-austerity measures. By contrast, the OccupyLSX movement has already distinguished itself as an organized, civil society protest with a clear purpose. Unlike their New York counterparts, the OccupyLSX organizers say they want a specific agenda, vowing to build “a future free from austerity, growing inequality, unemployment, tax injustice and a political elite who ignores its citizens, and work towards concrete demands to be met.” It’s not the only popular U.S. movement to go global in recent months: a Tea Party offshoot sprung up in Australia last year.
OccupyLSX cites its Facebook page as a display of its growing support: As of Thursday morning, it had about 4,600 people saying they’d show up. That’s a small crowd, as far as these sorts of demonstrations go, but piggybacking off the U.S. movement, OccupyLSX is anticipating the media attention: Their Web site already lists dedicated press contacts.
Some banks have asked their employees to steer clear of the “Occupy” protests, which had PostLeadership’s Jena McGregor asking what a bank CEO should do in the face of these protests. As she explained:
Who knows just what bank CEOs think of the growing Occupy Wall Street movement? BlackRock CEO Larry Fink says the protests are understandable. Goldman Sachs chief Lloyd Blankfein has cancelled a speech at Barnard College, where students were planning events to coincide with the CEO’s talk (company spokespeople say he had a scheduling conflict). One major bank CEO apparently asked a New York Times reporter if he should be scared. And Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit said at a breakfast event Wednesday morning that “trust has been broken between financial institutions and citizens” and he’d be happy to talk to the Occupy Wall Street protesters “anytime they want.”
It’s fascinating to think just how such a conversation might play out. (Protesters: “You make millions despite running a bank that needed a bailout!” Pandit: “But my salary was just $1 a year until I got a little raise to $1.75 million!”) But how should it? If you were the CEO of a major bank and there were crowds of protesters outside your door, what would you say?
Pandit’s not, after all, likely to say that he’d stop paying out bonuses to his employees. He’s probably not going to stop giving political contributions to push his cause (even if some CEOs are doing so). And something tells me he’s not going to start agreeing that some of his current or former compatriots should be in jail.
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