The Bloody Butcher of Wall St and the Bull

On February 27, Occupy had a National Day of Action – Occupy Our Food Supply – to protest growing corporate control of the world’s food. The action in New York City included a march, a seed exchange, street performance, and guerilla planting. I’d like to focus solely on the performance, which I’m calling “The Bloody Butcher of Wall Street and the Bull,” for the purposes of this blog.

Pure agit-prop, “The Bloody Butcher” relied on pure symbolism and didactic dialogue. The symbolism rested in the characters and the three places where the play was performed: Liberty Square, in front of the New York Stock Exchange, and in front of the bronze Wall Street Bull. The symbolism of the Butcher figure and the NYSE were clear – they represented the malevolent influence of Wall Street on us the 99%. Liberty Square is the symbolic home and birthplace of the Movement that counters this influence. The Bull, however, has taken on a new complexity of symbolism. It has been used by the Movement since before the beginning in its role as the symbol of Wall Street, but now it is also used to represent stock animals in reference to the way they are abused by agribusiness.  

You can watch the day's proceedings at http://www.lenk.tv/. This particular performance is saved in the Lenk-Atlantic channel at the end of "1-Occupy Our Food Supply" and the beginning of "2-Occupy Our Food Supply".