How fed up are the 99% with income inequality, tax loopholes for the rich and cuts to vital services?

Even the threat of a hurricane couldn’t keep them from descending on Tampa yesterday, the eve of the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Fired up and ready to restore economic balance to the country, activists rallied in Gaslight Park in downtown Tampa with signs, vuvuzelas, music, and chants. Under the threat of looming clouds, they took their messages along barricaded streets to the perimeter of the Tampa Bay Times Forum—the facility where the RNC will kick off later this week.

Hundreds of community members, working families, and activists simultaneously attached protest signs to a chain-link fence overlooking the convention center. The message was loud and clear: “We are the 99% and we are watching.”

Later in the same afternoon, activists joined forces once again to say enough is enough. Community members, faith leaders, working families, and minimum-wage earners marched to Tropicana Field, where the 1% were wining and dining at a ritzy cocktail party—at the expense of tax payers.

“I’m from a two-income family and we are not making ends’ meet. I’ve had to go hungry to feed my children. Everyone I know is struggling,” said Rachel Rai of Springfield, Ill. “The drastic difference between classes is just too much and I’m here to do something about it.”