November 2 at Occupy Rochester started off a beautiful day. After the arrests on Friday night, our leaders united with organized labor, political groups and even religious groups to put together an impressively diverse march, and finally show ourselves as representing more of the 99% than ever. The march went off perfectly, with no police interference to speak of; even the obnoxious nanny-cam staring down at the park from South Clinton finally left, towed away by a city public works truck a few minutes before the GA started.
Calling the march to order!
WE ARE THE 99%! WE ARE THE 99%!
There were close to 500 of us leaving Washington Square, and we only gained people as we marched through downtown
Even businessmen joined in…
Act now, why wait?
Taking the steps of City Hall, to give our demands to Mayor Richards to keep the park
He gave a rousing speech on how badly we need national health care, and just how achievable it really is!
Paul Mabells’ speech on ending the Federal Reserve and banks’ control over fiscal policy
Jake Allen on the importance of labor and workers’ rights to the 99%
Well fired up by all these speeches, we marched back to Washington Square for our second GA, and working on the future direction of Occupy
I had some very strong opinions about where I thought Occupy Rochester should go, made even stronger by the success of this march, starting with an end to playing chicken with the RPD over a patch of grass that is insignificant in the end, and going from there out into the community to make ourselves heard directly, and make a difference in people’s lives. They wouldn’t even let me finish my speech though — the park was our singular goal, at least for now. I deferred to them, hoping to see just about anything but what happened next…