"Abbie Hoffman and fellow Yippies throw dollar bills at stock traders"

[Tom Rinaldo]

"Today (Aug. 24) in 1967, traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange suddenly found a much faster way of making money: picking it up off the floor.

The rain of dollar bills onto the trading floor was a theatrical protest organized by social and political activist Abbie Hoffman and executed by Hoffman and fellow members of the Youth International Party, or Yippies...

...Informing the group that staging any kind of protest would be unacceptable, the head of security asked them for a name before he would allow them to progress further....

...Instead, the group was escorted to the observation gallery above the trading floor, where they immediately began throwing dollar bills at the traders below. Hoffman later claimed they threw more than 300 dollar bills; others estimate the number at around 30 or 40.

The protesters were having a ball, laughing as they flung the money, but the reaction from the traders was mixed. Some laughed and waved, others became angry at the interruption and still others were too busy pocketing the money to display much emotion.

Hoffman, Fourrat and their cohorts were quickly removed from the building in spite of Hoffman’s explanation that they were merely depicting in more concrete terms what the traders were already doing..."
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/930301-196/daily-twip---abbie-hoffman-and-fellow.html


Trust me, those brokers on the floor of the stock exchange in 1967 weren't women getting dollar bills thrown at them. And the central metaphor wasn't "prostitution" or anything related to sex or gender. It was all about GREED and the chase for dollars.

What do they call it when men can get treated one way, but women are supposed to be treated differently?

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. K and R. Hey. There's a grown-up in the house. nt

[LadyHawkAZ]

2. Kick n/t

[hobbit709]

3. I applauded it then and I applaud it now.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. Same here n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

4. More accounts:

"Some of the brokers, clerks and stock runners below laughed and waved; others jeered angrily and shook their fists. The bills barely had time to land on the ground before guards began removing the group from the building, but news photos had been taken and the Stock Exchange "happening" quickly slid into iconic status.

Once outside, the activists formed a circle, holding hands and chanting "Free! Free!" At one point, Hoffman stood in the center of the circle and lit the edge of a $5 bill while grinning madly, but an NYSE runner grabbed it from him, stamped on it, and said: "You're disgusting."

If the prank accomplished nothing else, it helped cement Hoffman's reputation as one of America's most outlandish and creative protestors. Along with Jerry Rubin and others, Hoffman had founded the Youth International Party earlier that year, and the "Yippie" movement quickly became a prominent part of America's counterculture."
http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/17/news/funny/abbie_hoffman/index.htm


In Abbie's own words (recalled years later):

"But once we got into the gallery and we were all spread out, I passed out the money, and people had their own money they kicked in. You know, it was communal money. And at one moment, when they were all busy down there in the pit, ticker-tape going like crazy, we gave the signal, and ran to the railing. Even though there were a couple of guards positioned on the gallery, there was no way to stop eighteen of us coming from different directions, all with money, handfuls of money, going “Take the money! Here’s the real shit!” throwing it over the railing, and screaming and yelling while we’re doing it! So, imagine... they looked up, I mean all these brokers, and they start booing, cheering. A lot more boos than cheers. And the ticker-tape had stopped. I read that the ticker-tape had stopped six minutes. I couldn’t tell that at the time, but the normal hubbub of buying and selling stopped. They didn’t know what to do. Then pandemonium broke out, and they started yelling “Money, money!’ And they start running, they were all over on their hands and knees, gobbling... After we threw the money, the guards were stunned. They didn’t know what to do, we had them outnumbered. They had to send for reinforcements. The guards were saying things like, “You can’t do that, you’re not allowed to do that. That’s illegal, we’re going to get the police.” “What do you mean? People throw away money all the time here! This is the way you do it, isn’t it?’”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/abbie-hoffman-occupy-wall-street_b_993325.html

[Bettie]

5. Because any criticism of

Hillary Clinton is automatically sexist, because....reasons.

[Blue_Adept]

6. So we have to go back fifty years for the context of it

Context that most people - including many adults past the millennial age - won't even get.

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. That was ony the most famous instances.

"Billionaires for Bush" did a lot of similar street theater throughout the entire 2004 presidential campaign. I took part in it (my billionaire name was "Frank Lee Loaded&quot . Fake money was always used creatively as a prop at B4B events (hey, we were poor and couldn't afford to throw around the real stuff).

But that Yippie action (actually "pre-yippie" since the group hadn't fully jelled yet) got world wide press. It made Abbie Hoffman into an international figure. I am sure many millennials have heard of him. If it wasn't for that action, I doubt many would have even if they don't know the specifics of that action.

There are long and deep protest traditions in this nations. "Sit Ins" go back well before virtually any of us were born. The same is true for street theater. Certain themes are classic, but more important, obvious ones to re-use or even re-invent if by chance those doing so are ignorant of aspects of protest history.

But I wold bet you "my bottom dollar" that many people who weren't alive at the time have heard of that NYSE protest with dollars thrown at traders.

To suddenly invent a brand new sexist narrative to explain something that conveys a clear and overt political meaning is irresponsible, and disrespectful of the activists involved.

[beedle]

8. Millennial's probably don't understand the

$1 bill / stripper reference either.

When was the last time anyone actually went to a strip club and stuffed a $1 down a G-String?

Millennials have the Internet, where signing up using a CC is more associated with 'strippers' than is '$1 bills".

Even if they did go to a strip club is that old-saw about $1 bills still happening?

All this tells me is that the Clinton camp is stuck back in the 1980's ... they fail at anything half-way modern.

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. I wish I had some video of that protest

I looked some on Youtube but couldn't find any. I do remember there being media coverage of it at the time though. There were reporters there, I think I saw film and not just photos broadcast. Probably it exists in Network archives and possibly in one or more documentaries of the sixties etc. also.

[arely staircase]

11. And then they levitated the Pentagon. NT

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. I was there for that. Nice try but no cigar. You can't win them all :) n/t