Issue and opponent: In his autobiography, Abbie Hoffman stated that his group and he were not protesting anything, special when they pulled their prank on the New York Stock Exchange. For the sake of this analysis of their Dilemma Action, however, their focus was on the traders on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Hoffman’s protest style is called guerilla theater or street theater.
Dilemma Action: Before the day of the protest, Abbie Hoffman arranged a tour of the New York Stock Exchange under the alias George Metesky and gathered three hundred, one-dollar bills. On August 24, 1967, Abbie Hoffman and fifteen fellow protesters entered the New York Stock Exchange. Before the group walked through the door, Hoffman passed handfuls of dollar bills to his fellow protesters. Even though the group described themselves as hippies they adorned nice, tailored suits. The New York Stock Exchange security guard stopped the group because the guard did not want the group to get close to the floor of the Exchange. There were concerns that the group would be a group of demonstrators and no demonstrations were allowed to happen near the floor of the Exchange. To allow the group to pass the guard, Hoffman stated that the group was Jewish and not demonstrators; a participant explained how this made the guard uncomfortable by the prospect of being deemed anti-Semitic, so he let the group enter. As they walked to the gallery that overlooked the trading floor, Hoffman and the other protesters rushed towards the railings and threw all the money over the edge. The money floated down right on top of the heads of the traders. One participant described the action like this, “At first people on the floor were stunned. They didn’t know what was happening. They looked up, and when they saw money was being thrown, they started to cheer, and there was a big scramble for the dollars.”
Outcome: The stock ticker on the floor stopped for six minutes as the group of traders scrambled for the money on the floor. After they threw the money, security moved fast to round up Hoffman and his group and escorted them out of the New York Stock Exchange. The press was not allowed on the floor of the Exchange, so a large crowd of reporters was standing outside waiting for the group exit; there was such a large group because Hoffman had preemptively called the media a day before the prank. In front of all the reporters, Hoffman burned a five-dollar bill solidifying his point of view. Burning a draft card meant you refused to participate in the war, but burning money meant you refused to participate in society. Hoffman wanted to express his frustration at America’s actions in Vietnam and society’s obsession with wealth.