Occupy supports end their march through downtown at the park. (Photos by Steve Dunkelberger)

What started as a protest stroll along downtown Tacoma’s main drag of Pacific Avenue a month ago in support of the Occupy Wall Street effort in New York has taken on an agenda of its own. Well, sort of. And America has seen this sort of protest movement before.

“The Occupy movement is almost identical to the Populist movement that gave rise in part to the birth of credit unions,” said Jamie Chase, founder of Tacoma firm Credit Union Strategic Planning. “Credit unions are on the rise today, in part, thanks to the Occupy movement.”

The increase in credit union members last month is greater than the increase of members all last year, Chase said.

“People just didn't understand how big the difference is between banks and credit unions until Occupy came along.”

Credit unions’ memberships had been lagging behind population growth for the last decade because they were smaller financial institutions that were lost in the landscape of big-bank marketing, she said. But that has changed in recent years, courtesy of the bank bailouts.

“Edward Filene, who is regarded as the father of the U.S. credit union movement, described the role of credit unions as, ‘people helping people to help themselves,’” she said. "If the 99 percent wants financial equality, it begins with each individual’s choices on how they are participating in society through voting, being a responsible consumer, and speaking out against predatory lending and banking practices taking advantage of the disadvantaged. As they are speaking out, they are sharing the news about credit unions. The Occupy-ers are people helping people in this sense; they are also moving their money and helping themselves. This is a stark contrast to the do-nothing label given to the group by conservatives.”

The General Assembly of the local grassroots Occupy movement has since drafted a statement of purpose in a process that stresses no single leader, figurehead or agenda.

“In solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and countless other Occupy movements across the world, Occupy Tacoma is part of a peaceful and nonviolent movement after the tradition of great activists of our past, fighting to end the corporate abuse of democracy,” the group’s purpose statement spelled out. “Our mission is to identify and implement solutions to rebuild a healthy and thriving community for everyone. We are here to combat both the silence and the propaganda of corporate-backed media. We aim to bring attention to the disastrous impacts of unregulated corporate activity on political and economic systems by exercising our Constitutional rights of free speech and peaceable assembly.”

That Constitutional exercise has involved weekly marches through downtown and minority neighborhoods as well as a three-week old takeover of Pugnetti Park, a patch of land at the corner of Pacific Avenue and South 21st Street. The pocket park was named after the late Don Pugnetti, an editor of The News Tribune who died in 1986 following a long bout with cancer and after being an outspoken supporter for better Interstate 5 access in the city.

Picketers have appeared in front of Chase Bank, Bank of America and non-union businesses such as the Hotel Murano and Tacoma City Grocer with chants that range from “The banks got bailed out, I got sold out,” and “We are the 99 percent,” a populist reference to being among the majority of Americans who do not have the political pull the mega-wealthy 1 percent can buy.

Further illustrating that the Occupy group is more of a clearinghouse of activism and an effort focused on one single cause is the national Bank Transfer Day or Dump your Bank Day earlier this week. That is a day financial reform advocates hope will see customers of large commercial banks transfer their checking or savings accounts to more local credit unions. While not an “Occupy” event, the effort is getting lots of reposts and retweets on Occupy discussion boards.

A Facebook page devoted to the effort has drawn more than 35,000 supporters, many of whom also are listed as Occupy supporters and has local events in the works as well.

A fellow traveler of the Occupy Tacoma movement, accountant turned activist Cat Jeter, has created a spin-off group called Occupy Pranksters as a way to take the movement from the park encampment to the streets because she felt the local Occupy effort has boggled itself down in the symptoms rather than the root cause and the slow moving general assembly process.

“I feel that Occupy Tacoma has lost its focus,” she said, noting that she still supports the group while still starting her own effort.

She hopes the group will serve as a “brain bank” for special-interest groups to tap into for street theater protests, flash mob events and other actions to raise awareness about their causes.

“Look what happened in Libya, in Egypt and in Syria,” she said of those non-violent protests that make up the “Arab Spring” for democratic rule. “I think it is ironic that third-world countries are teaching us about democracy. We will do anything that gets people thinking about an issue they care about.”

She feels that mega-corporations have taken over the political process by pitting sides against each other that would otherwise be able to find compromises.

“We have been convinced that we have no power,” she said.

Corporate spending on elections and lobbyists along with the dwindling middle class has led many families to focus on their paychecks and their families at the cost of political and social issues, she said.

“Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is being threatened here,” she said, noting that food, water and shelter issues are increasingly becoming concerns in America, not just developing nations because America has overspent, over consumed and over reached. Sustaining growth and consumption based on imported goods from corporations that are “too big to fail” cannot continue, she continued. She advocates for local production of goods to curb the trend.

“There is pain ahead, but it is pain for a generation that we are going to have to face to get back to what we can sustain.”

Ryan Way, Tacoman born and raised, has been at “Occupation Park” from the start. He helps host the streaming video web show a few times a day as well as does general organizations work more born out of his personality than being given a title, given the “leaderless” nature of the movement. The simple fact that he has one of the keys to the donated portable toilets makes him an “official” in the movement.

“Of course, we don’t have all the answers yet,” he said while tapping on his computer. “Democracy is a slow process.”

Former Marine turned activist Neal Rogers serves as the defacto security coordinator because of his military training. He manages the watch patrol schedule so that no drugs or booze enters the park and that cigarette smoking is done in designated areas away from the tents and nonsmokers as well as helps in the supply tent.

“I am pleased with the level of support we have gotten here,” he said, noting that local restaurants and businesses have donated food and supplies while random commuters have dropped off various things from the movement’s online “needs list” to support their First Amendment rights of free speech.

“This is what I fought for as a Marine,” he said.

More information about the Occupy Tacoma movement can be found here. There you will find a photo gallery of the encampment as well as a collection of thoughts by the protesters.