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Pete Bigelow · ‘Occupy’ Protests Gain Traction Throughout Midwest
October 11th, 2011
Four weeks ago, a small group of demonstrators began protesting the grim state of the U.S. economy in New York City with little fanfare.
Now, a growing movement based on the Occupy Wall Street protests has spread throughout the country, including demonstrations in several Midwest cities.
Separate groups protesting the role of big banks in the U.S. foreclosure crisis marched Monday and Tuesday through Chicago, meeting at the Art Institute of Chicago, where the Mortgage Bankers Association was holding its annual conference.
“People are mad as hell at these financial organizations that wrecked the economy, that caused this whole mess,” Catherine Murrell, a spokeswoman for Stand Up Chicago, a coalition of approximately 20 Chicago community organizations, told the Chicago Sun-Times. “They broke the economy. They played with it like it was a toy.”
Protestors held training sessions on how to deal with the police, distributed press releases and chanted throughout the day Tuesday, according to our partner station WBEZ. On Monday, approximately 7,000 people participated in the protests, disrupting traffic across the city.
Elsewhere in the Midwest, protests were smaller, but sustained. In Columbus, Ohio, about 100 protestors marched in front of the Statehouse on Tuesday morning, railing against corporate greed, student-loan debt and the media. The group intended to show solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
In Madison, Wisc. protests occurred over the weekend. A crowd estimated in the dozens marched throughout downtown, settling in Reynolds Park until Sunday evening. In Milwaukee, religious leaders gave the movement traction in their Sunday sermons.
“I’m not against capitalism, but a capitalist society run amok takes care of the people at the top, and the people at the bottom are crushed,” Rev. Willie Brisco told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Protests were in the planning stages in Detroit on Sunday. The South End, the student newspaper at Wayne State University, reported that hundreds of people met at the Spirit of Hope Church on Monday night to plan protests slated to begin on Friday. Event organizers said that approximately 1,000 people attended the meeting.
