Gandhi Statue Blocks Entrance to Goldman Sachs in Boston

It was quite a sight indeed. A nine foot statue of Gandhi, flanked by police and security guards, was blocking the entrance to the Goldman Sachs offices in Boston on Thursday. Intended as a gift to be placed in the hallway as a warning against the evils of greed, the statue ended up being rejected and then used to close down the entrance to the building. Hanging off the wrist of the statue was a large poster with Gandhi's words: "The World Holds Enough for Everyone's Need, But Not for Everyone's Greed".

Students from the Life Experience School and members of the Peace Abbey in Sherborn, stood their ground as we moved the Gandhi statue inch by inch toward Boston Police officers and Goldman Sachs security guards. Slowly and thoughtfully we made our way from the side walk to the center revolving door at One Twenty-Five High Street in the financial district of Boston. Despite warnings from police to stop advancing the statue toward the doorway, it finally was inserted in place. For the next couple of hours, the traffic of Wall Street greed, as represented by the unethical business practices of Goldman Sachs, had to find another way in.

Entering the main entrance required not only getting around Gandhi and through locked doors, but also stepping over a long, out stretched chain with tags from the Peace Abbey that stated the major religions of the world; Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism Islam, Sikhism, Baha'i, Shinto, Native African Religions, Native American Religions, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity, all abhor greed. The American religion, Capitalism, could make no such claim however; as greed holds sacramental status on Wall Street. Don't forget that we have "IN GOD WE TRUST" on our green backs for one reason and one reason only. Let's stop kidding ourselves and demand the end to unbridled greed on Wall Street, for where Wall Street goes, so goes the world.

Committed and determined, this conscientious band of both able-bodied and disabled peace activists sought (by blockading the entrance to the Goldman Sachs office with the likeness of Gandhi), to demonstrate their utter outrage over the sacking of the economy by the most notorious group of Wall Street barons greed ever created. Many of the protesters had just come from seeing the film "INSIDE JOB" and were now well-versed on how Goldman Sachs and other Wall St.firms destroyed the economy of this country and, sadly, the world.

Through a Ponzi scheme that mixes and matches predatory, subprime mortgage loans and credit card and college tuition debt with commodities and derivatives, Goldman Sachs packaged, sold, insured through AIG, then bet against the very financial products they marketed. Their windfall, and the eventual collapse of the economy, were a certainty, as with all Ponzi schemes. We now have a Wall Street Government that makes a mockery of free enterprise.

During the two hours Gandhi blocked the entrance, hundreds of office workers, tourists and local Bostonians took photos with their cell phones of Gandhi blocking the doorway, and sent them across the internet. A tourist from China, who marveled at such a peaceful protest and the awe-inspiring sight of a statue of Gandhi used for such purposes stood and watched. He then commented to Dot Walsh, Abbey chaplain, (who was addressing passersby), "I'll send this right now to everyone in China", as he snapped a shot of the protest with his cell phone.

In a day and age when instant communication is global, demonstrations such as this one at Goldman Sachs, serves to remind everyone that each day we fail to raise our voices against injustice, we miss an opportunity to reach across the globe with a message of hope and struggle, solidarity and justice. Nonviolent civil disobedience was thought to be necessary at Goldman Sachs when the action was planned but wasn't necessary. A picture, we know, is worth a thousand words, and thanks to cell phone cameras, the equivalent of millions of words went out through the image of Gandhi's anti-greed message at Goldman Sachs.

So everyone got to go home and sleep in their own bed and reflect on what just came down.

Did this action actually change anything, one might ask? The answer is yes; if you consider that most everyone present, to one degree or another, examined the way they viewed themselves against the backdrop of Mahatma Gandhi blocking the doorway to Goldman Sachs.

As fellow activist and Peace Chaplain Dan Dick and I, along with John Bach from Cambridge Friends Meeting, lifted the statue onto the Peace Abbey pick-up truck to return it to Sherborn, I turned to the two police officers who were on detail and said, "you gotta admit that a bank protest is better than a bank robbery." They both grinned, and I added, "but in this case, the robbers run the banks". They smiled and nodded … and we called it a day.

Photos by Dan Dick.