Occupy UC Davis peeps have been blockading the entrance to the US Bank on the UC Davis campus for months now. Likely afraid that John Pike might come back from his forced leave of absence and pepper spray the entire building -- branch manager and all -- thereby rendering it uninhabitable, the authorities refrained from forcefully evicting the Occupiers.
Despite sustained efforts at intimidation by bank managers, private security guards, UC Davis police and administrators, the bank blockade stood its ground, even when faced with arrest threats, student judicial sanctions, and physical confrontations.
Occupiers at the entrance to US Bank on the UC Davis Campus. This was not an official action of Occupy UC Davis, it was an autonomous action that just kept going, and going, and going.)
AND NOW US BANK HAS GIVEN UP:
On March 12, the parasitic US Bank notified its hosts customers that, as of Feb. 28, it had officially closed its UC Davis branch.
It's even official. From a letter sent out to its customers, dated March 12th:
On Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 our branch on the University of California Davis campus... was officially closed.
I'm not sure how you officially close an office as of February 28th when it's already March 12th, but whatever.
What's the group's next goal? Seems like they might want to get a credit union to take over that space to serve the UC Davis community, but if they're thinking of that at all they've also got much bigger fish in mind. According to their press release:
We celebrate this victory by planning our next action and restating our intention to remove the chancellor and police from our campus...
That will take some doing. But it seems like they are up for the struggle.
The official UC Davis Occupation has not been idle, either. Two weeks ago they hosted part of the staging for Occupy Education, as 5000+ people descended on Sacramento. There was a large welcoming event / rally on March 4th as the fifty people who walked from Oakland and Berkeley to publicize the Occupy Education event made it into Davis on Sunday night. Then hundreds of not thousands were transported across the Delta to Sacramento the next morning.
And today and tomorrow, Occupy UC Davis is participating in Global Days of Action to Shut Down Monsanto. The action began at 6:30 AM. According to a Facebook posting
Hey everybody we are here at Monsanto in the city of Davis. We have officially SHUT down the building! Please come out and support!!!!
According to a recent tweets:
Aster Zephyr Isis
#OccupyMonsanto two-day #strike #blockade this Friday and Saturday in Davis! There will be tents and food set up for travelers. #OO #OSF
OccupyUCDavis
from Occupy Davis email update: "There are already at 7:30am Friday about 70 people protesting in front of Monsanto on 5th street. Join us"
According to their statement:
The Objective: To bring local awareness to the corporation Monsanto’s control and involvement with the toxins in our food and water supplies and the ties they have in the government. We must start acting locally and thinking globally to bring down this tyrant of the food industry. We are in worldwide solidarity with the Millions Against Monsanto (www.MillionsAgainstMonsanto.org ) and several other groups, organizations, foundations, and individuals who feel that something must be done to stop the evil practices of the Monsanto Corporation.
It's probably raining in Davis now, it's not very warm, and the forecast is for more rain, so getting seventy people out there that early is pretty impressive.
10:06 AM PT: Occupy Seattle bank shutters just got a non-guilty verdict!
http://www.portlandoccupier.org/...