Occupy London did some serious occupying yesterday, moving into new quarters at an abandoned UBS building. Protesters have changed the name to “Bank of Ideas” after moving in. Could this be a trend?

“Activists from the Occupy London movement have abruptly changed tactics, following a month of open-air tent protests, by seizing a vacant office complex owned by a major global bank”.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/18/occupy-london-protesters-ubs-bank?newsfeed=true

As long as we’re discussing UBS, here’s an interesting revelation about how companies like UBS evade U.S. laws which allows the 99% to subsidize their profits, compensating for unpaid taxes:

 http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-usa-tax-ubs-idUSTRE7AH1J920...

Here in the U.S. the Day of Action resulted in hundreds of arrests nationwide. Occupation encampments continue to be in a state of flux, but despite a flurry of unfavorable court decisions, more lawsuits were filed, including an unverified report of one involving Occupy Los Angeles. More on this topic later.

A word about Michael Bloomberg:

‘By acting so badly, Bloomberg has made it easy to see who won't be truthful and can't handle open discourse. He's also saved OWS from what was probably its greatest problem, the prospect that it would just fade away as time went on and the days grew colder.’

http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/11/17/the-whole-world-watches-agai...

Bank of America PR department, be advised. Threatening to call police when customers try to close their accounts is not the way to deal with these things. First, if you summon police every time someone decides to quit being a chump, there won’t be enough cops to keep the rest of the neighborhood safe. Is this the image a renowned institution like yours would like to project, sapping resources devoted to public safety because of customer dissatisfaction? Second, when the cops show up they might close their accounts too. And third, the video is going to come back to haunt you because it makes you look like idiots. (Petty, vulgar, mean-spirited idiots, in fact). Here’s an example courtesy of Huffington Post:

“You can't be a customer and a protester at the same time, the manager said.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/16/bank-of-america-protesters-close-accounts_n_1013490.html

Tactical briefing by Adbusters:

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/adbusters-tactical-briefin...