The 99 percent hit the streets Oct. 6 in solidarity with Occupy Nashville , and they’re mad at corporations, politicians, the Federal Reserve, Supreme Court decisions, and anything else frustrating working-class Americans.
The all-day demonstration started at noon in downtown Nashville’s Legislative Plaza and ended uptown in front of Centennial Park around 6:00 p.m. Official numbers aren’t available yet, but participants and on-lookers estimated about 200 people in the ranks of protesters.
Occupy Nashville, like many other “Occupy” protests springing up in cities all over the country, has taken its cue from the original Manhattan sit-in protest, Occupy Wall Street, which is now in its third week.
“We’re opposing Wall Street,” said Jase Short, a senior of philosophy at Middle Tennessee State University. “We’re opposing this regime… where people are in crisis and they get no support from the government… but the very very wealthy and the very powerful banks get bail-out after bail-out of our money. They get all kinds of support and then we’re left with nothing.” The fact that the these protesters—or the “99ers,” as rally-criers called themselves—are mad at the “1 percent” of Americans who control majority of the wealth in this country is obvious. What’s not as obvious is what the mission or the goals of the Occupy movement is. Local protesters all had their individual bones to pick, and Occupy Nashville organizers are trying to achieving commonality through the founding of the Nashville General Assembly.
“[A general Assembly] is what democracy really should look like, where every single person votes,” said Seth Limbaugh, 21, a Art Institute graduate and Occupy Nashville organizer. “Its… a way to discuss ideas, organize [Occupy Nashville] and be sure everyone has an equal share and an equal say in what’s going on. There is no one collective leader.”
According to Limbaugh, Nashville’s General Assembly is working on a list of demands that correlate to Occupy Wall Street and the rest of the national Occupy movements. Yet despite the need for a singular and collective message, individual ideologies between fellow protesters and organizers are vastly different. One Occupy Nashville organizer, Andy Woloszyn, 23, a senior of English and Philosophy at MTSU and a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, believes that the real problem is capitalism.
“What I really came out here to support is in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street,” Woloszyn said, “which is basically an anti-capitalist movement.”
Protesters varied in age from small children holding signs with their parents to senior citizens. One protester proudly proclaimed that at 79 years old it was her first time protesting. Protester Janice Dorris, 62, said she thinks people are tired of what’s going on in the federal and state governments. Dorris is unemployed and lost her home because of it.
“I was evicted from my home when I became unemployed,” Dorris said, “I’m living on my sister’s couch until I can get into a retirement center.”
One protester, George Menzies, a senior of computer information systems at MTSU, said he thinks people across party lines are sick of being “beat out of their money” by corporations and D.C.
“There are a whole bunch of Americans… who are just fed up with the system,” Menzies said. Even with the somewhat disjointed message from constituents, organizers say this trial-by-fire is what’s going to develop a cohesive demand. Keith Caldwell, 44, an Occupy Nashville organizer and a community organizer for Urban Epicenter said the lack of focus this early in the movement is to be expected, but that as goals develop they need to push for new legislation.
“People are reaching a level of frustration that we’re going into the streets non-violently and exercising our Constitutional rights to have a voice,” Caldwell said. “We see this as people becoming submerged in a [social movement], and what it means to the human spirit to stand up to the corporation and to withdraw consent from oppressive structures.”
