This morning, I took part in an action with SEIU against David Rubenstein. Kati Sipp has already put SEIU's official shout-out up here. The story has already broke here and in The New York Times. The Inqy isn't quite right. Police did show but no arrests were made. The action's organizers had every intention of leading us out either before or when the police showed. Cops in Philadelphia are very respectful of protest of all kinds (I'm sure this isn't always true, but it has been for me). As long as you do what they say when they say it, I've never known anyone to get arrested. And, by that time, you've made your point so there is no reason not to go.

Rubenstein is a billionaire investor at the helm of the private equity firm, The Carlyle Group. Carlyle recently purchased Manor Care, the nation's largest nursing home chain. The work of a private equity firm is not, of course, quality services, quality work, honoring a mission or any other socially responsible business motive. The work of a private equity firm is to squeeze as much cash out of its investments as it can. At times, this might mean making a company do its job better, but it might also mean selling it off in pieces. Or kicking out Unions. Or scaling back services even more but in not quite measurable ways.

In the case of Nursing Home Care, of course, poorer services means a lower quality of life and shorter life expectancy for seniors. SEIU has an official campaign website for the issue.

I came along to the action as a friend of the Labor Movement and not as any sort of leader or Organizer. I was with the flyering group on the floor and joined in with the people unfurling the banners in the balcony when they chanted:
"Better Staffing, Better Care!
"No more money for The Billionaires!"

The event took place at The Bellevue. Click read more for the juicy details! You never know how a disruptive action is going to go. This one definitely stands out as one in which the unexpected happened. We went to disrupt a speech Rubenstein came to give for students at the Wharton Business School at UPENN. The plan was to go in, chant a little, unfurl a big banner from the balcony, pass out some flyers and leave. They also had a spokesperson ready to ask Rubenstein a question if we managed to get that far.

I was amazed by how easily we got in. It was no problem at all. It was a conference that people paid to be part of and there seemed to be a lot of nervous looking people walking around looking for shady types. As far as I'm concerned, we hid in plain sight and it would have been pretty easy to tell that we were there to make a hulaballoo. No one said anything to us until we went in.

I went in on the ground floor and started passing out fliers while the banner unfurled. Then, the SEIU member spokesperson got up with a bullhorn and support from staff to begin criticizing Carlyle and expressing SEIU's doubts about its stewardship of their employer. Meanwhile, all of us on the floor faced some pretty serious heckling from the rich suits.

I can understand why they would be irritated with us for disrupting the event. Many people find that unsettling, but we were met with a dismissive fury that I only ever meet when I confront an anonymous rich person. The disdain for us, for working people, was evident on so many of their faces. Some of them lashed out at me and yelled at me. Many of them hissed and clapped at Rubenstein's snarky comments.

In truth, I don't begrudge Rubenstein a little snark. Snark is the privilege of having the mic and we all use it when the floor is ours. In a way, I was somewhat impressed that he chose to use his time, while waiting for the police to take us out, to engage the SEIU member spokesperson.

He went too far, though.

He and the spokeswoman interacted for longer than anyone thought we would be able to. At a certain point, we had passed out so many fliers that everyone seemed to have one or already taken the opportunity to crumple it up and throw it back at us. So I went to the back and stood with other Labor folk and snapped some of the photos you see here. By this time, he started picking on the member-spokeswoman. At one point, she stumbled a little bit in what she wanted to say and he quipped:

"I'd be happy to pay for you to get some remedial English lessons."

A white billionaire male on a stage in a fancy building saying this to a working woman-of-color was just a little too much. And, in the anonymity of the rich and familiar crowd, the other rich men laughed and clapped at this racially charged remark.

It's moments like this when I remember that fights for economic equity are about equity. They are about justice. A fair deal. About the proper valuation of work attentively rendered. Sometimes, though, for me, the fight for equity is also about the fact that rich people can be just awful, that their sense entitlement can be too much and I like it when they feel uncomfortable, even for a moment, even with a complimentary supply of gourmet muffins to comfort them.

The Philadelphia Unemployment Project & This Too Will Pass