U.S. Chamber Holiday Party Occupied as Citizens Rolled Out the 99% Red Carpet

Photo by David Sachs/SEIU
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Yesterday evening, attendees of the U.S. Chamber’s annual holiday party got a taste of the Occupy movement as they entered the event. As they walked down a red carpet that led to the front door of Chamber Headquarters, chanting protestors greeted them on both sides and closer the door, the red carpet turned into a “human red carpet” with occupiers laying underneath it and “99%” written all over it. “The idea…was to force Washington's well-heeled partiers to tread upon the less fortunate,” according to the AP.

As Think Progress pointed out, the action caused top Chamber lobbyist Bruce Josten to stand outside the building “at the foot of the carpet most of the time, welcoming his frightened, amused, and befuddled guests, easily distinguishable from the activists by their business attire.”  Or as Josh Harkinson from Mother Jones described him: “the one wearing a three-piece pinstripe suit and tassle loafers, greeting people and encouraging them to brave the crowd.”

But protestors were not just there to rain on Josten’s platinum parade - they were really there to make it known that the Chamber exists to serve the 1% - and what better time to do so than at the Chamber’s lavish holiday party.  As International Business Times reported, “[the] U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the nation's largest corporate lobbying group, whom Occupy protesters believe have an unethical amount of influence on elected officials and the U.S. political system.”  Perhaps, as CEOs, lobbyists, lawmakers, hill staffers and other special interests walked through the Chamber’s front door, they were forced to think about the millions of unemployed, struggling Americans who got into that bind as a direct effect of much of the profit-driven, economy-collapsing decisions made by the very corporations who sponsored the party inside.  Maybe it sunk in that the U.S. Chamber has provided these corporations a perfectly anonymous way through which to launder their unpopular, anti-99%, anti-middle class political agendas.  How’s that eggnog tasting now?