What began as Occupy Wall Street, spread to Washington, D.C., and Boston, and created a league of smaller organizing efforts now has a voice in Charlottesville. OccupyCville plans to assemble tonight by the Free Speech Wall on the Downtown Mall for a "general assembly" meeting. The group—or, those individuals running the OccupyCville site—write that it "aim[s] to be a local resource by connecting these larger movements to the Charlottesville community."
"We are not affiliated with any group but rather stand to carry the message and philosophy of Occupytogether.org, occupywallst.org, and occupydc.org," state the OccupyCville authors.
Other local residents have brought their community’s concerns to those larger cities to join organizing efforts. Charlottesville author and After Downing Street co-founder David Swanson spoke with the Washington Post about his Occupy D.C. organizational efforts. Swanson continues to blog about the D.C. occupation at his site:
"Our chants were clear enough for easy comprehension by just about anyone over the age of 3 other than perhaps CNN producers: ‘How do we fix the deficit? End the wars! Tax the rich!’"
Swanson also wrote that he has a charge pending against him:
"If you have a charge pending as I now do, it can be harder to get released at all if arrested again. So, a strategy that involves arrests, or an effort to fill the jails, can result in a reduction in available people for further actions."
Charlottesville Independent City Council candidate Brandon Collins also recently attended Occupy D.C.
"While I certainly agree that the true path to social transformation is through organizing to get the things we want, I am still committed to engaging the electoral process…to win!" he wrote.
Share your thoughts on the Occupy movement, locally and nationally, below.
