They’re young, they’re Republican – and they love Wall Street.
Members of the New York Young Republicans plan to storm Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan on Sunday for a “Re-Occupy Wall Street” demonstration to protest actions by hedge funds and other financial institutions to stop Reddit-driven populist purchases this week. Undermine GameStop stock.
“What we’ve seen in recent days has been absolutely despicable. It has angered a lot of people, ”group chairman Gavin Wax told The Post. “We have the elites and the substrate of everyone else who should not sit at the big boys’ table to make the big boys money.”
GameStop, a dusty retailer of video games and electronics, saw its stock rise by more than 1,700 percent as amateur day traders put money into the stock to protest Wall Street short sellers who wanted to capitalize on the company’s failure. The movement was initially organized by the Reddit page WallStreetBets.
As the stock soared and hedge funds suffered billions in losses, multiple trading apps were relocated to avoid additional sales of the stock. One – aptly named RobinHood – has been hit by a class action lawsuit.
“I think they should be prosecuted. Many of these guys go to jail. Text messages and emails must be seized. It was coordinated. There must be repercussions, ”Wax said of the institutional attempt to shut down amateur traders.
Wax’s GOP rally is ironically trying to reclaim some of the energy from the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests – with mostly leftists turning the park into a quasi-homeless encampment that shook the city for months.
A hastily assembled Eventbrite invite calls on YR members and fellow travelers to gather at the park in the afternoon. “Bring plates and dress warm,” is the invitation.
But Wax said it wouldn’t be an overnight stay like it used to be.
“We have a job on Monday,” he said. ‘It will be nice and orderly. We are going to bathe. “