Wall Street is scared shitless.
They’d never admit it, but the way the big Wall Street banks are rapidly relocating their annual shareholder meetings from the concrete canyons of Midtown and lower Manhattan this shareholder season to points south, north and west means that fear is not only visible, you can smell it on them like retched dead sea life.
- JPMorgan Chase moved to Tampa, Florida, home of a new burgeoning police state preparing for rowdy anti-Republican National Convention protests in August.
- Citibank moved to Dallas, Texas, hardly a bastion of organized progressive or radical populations.
- Morgan Stanley is holding its meeting in quiet upstate New York.
- Wells Fargo is staying well clear of NYC in San Francisco.
- Bank of America is bunkering down in Charlotte, NC, home of the other pre-political convention police state.
- And Goldman Sachs, that giant vampire squid sucking on the face of America? They’ve yet to announce the details of their annual meeting. But odds are they won’t be within walking distance of Zucotti Park.
The return of Occupy Wall Street (OWS) has forced the Masters of the Financial Universe’s hand. Up until three weeks ago, pundits in the corporate media joined the political and business establishment in declaring that OWS was dead. The crackdowns coordinated by the Dept. of Homeland Security had systematically ended occupations from coast to coast. Corporate America was hoping to quietly return to the business of raping and pillaging the American public.
But they don’t get it. OWS was only waiting for the Spring. And spring has sprung!
Now it’s on. Sizable shareholder meeting protests are shaping up in Charlotte and San Francisco.
An important lesson for the banks: Last year, JPMorgan Chase moved its meeting from New York to Columbus, Ohio in an attempt to stem protests. But thousands still turned out in protest at the Chase meeting.
It’s not the location that brings people out, it’s the outrage. And people are pissed at the banks for wrecking the economy, kicking people out of their homes, poisoning communities and blowing up Appalachia’s mountains, while taking home big fat bonus checks and laying off tens of thousands of their own employees. This year, these protests are going to be bigger, bolder and more sophisticated in their strategies and tactics.
Watch out Wall Street: You can run, but you can’t hide