'Occupy' movement makes its way to the Valley

WASILLA — There was a new sign over Wasilla’s door Saturday: “Occupied.”

It was one of many waved by a handful of passionate protesters at the corner of the Parks Highway and Crusey Street bringing the national Occupy Wall Street movement to the Valley.

Brian Edwards of Wasilla said the movement is a peaceful revolution aimed at corporate greed and government inequity.

“I’m here just supporting what’s happening nationally and globally with the occupy movement,” he said, adding that the movement’s mission “is evolving, it’s developing. It’s masses of people reaching a point of frustration with corporate greed, with money in politics.”

The effort began Sept. 17 when a loosely organized group protested in New York City, reports The New York Times. In the weeks since, other demonstrations have popped up across the country.

Locally, residents are not feeling the same financial pinch as people living in the Lower 48, but the principal is worth speaking out for, Edwards said.

“Up here, I think we’re pretty well insulated,” he said. “Our economy’s a little bit better, the unemployment rate is not as high, so I think things here are better. But things aren’t looking as well for a lot of people in this country.”

Alaska’s jobless rate was 7.6 percent in September, compared to 9.1 percent nationally, according to the state labor department.

Some people have labeled the occupy movement as promoting communism or socialism, while others call it a revolution. It’s none of those things, said Lisa Dupont, a Valley resident who also attended a protest in Anchorage last week.

“I think that as this point, people feel like the system is broken and the government is not representing the people, it’s representing the corporations,” she said. “By a mass movement like this, people protest the system and force change.”

Comparing protesters to communists “is ridiculous, and it’s just propaganda,” she added. “We’re anti-corporation, not anti-capitalism.”

While the protesters drew support from many passing motorists, Tim Pope of Wasilla stopped to challenge their message.

“It’s anarchism!” he shouted. “Let’s just have no government!”

He said the problem isn’t corporate greed, it’s the people in power.

“Who’s running the government right now?” he said. “Obama is running the government right now! The corrupt Obama and the Democrats are running the government. Let’s get government out of the way.”

Pope also questioned the messages painted on large cardboard signs, slogans like: “Indict corporate crooks,” “proud to serve the people, not the system,” “corporations are not the people” and “if you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”

“Your signs don’t make any sense. They don’t,” he said. “I don’t understand this. That’s just it, I don’t understand. I see all this stuff in New York, let’s get government out of the way. So, bigger government is the key? That’s what we want?”

Protester Bill Fikes responded that the occupy protesters want to take corporate interests out of government.

That struck a chord with Pope.

“I agree with that, but who makes jobs?” he said. “Industry. We have so many things that are stopping industry from making jobs, correct? If we get the EPA out of the way … I don’t want an oil well every 50 feet, but …”

While the movement has a definite business focus on corporations, it’s also an indictment on the apathy of Americans who put up with corruption, said Patti Fisher.

“I want to see more than 8 percent of the people vote in an election,” she said. “It was 8 percent out where I live in Meadow Lakes. The apathy is there and all of the sudden people are beginning to wake up and realize they’re being used and trodden upon. Wall Street is sitting on money and not investing in America. They’re not turning it around, loaning it out, getting money flowing.”

Corporation lobbyists are writing legislation that’s being voted on in Congress, said Rebekah Griffin, a Hatcher Pass area resident. That trickles down to be crippling for small, local businesses.

“People really need to wake up, we’re being sold out — and our children certainly are,” she said. “Crime does not pay. It’s breaking our backs, especially small businesses.”

Griffin also has a theory about why some call protesters communists. “They’re afraid of the movement, that’s why.”

Economically, the current system of government and large corporations involvement in government isn’t working, Edwards said.

“I think that the wealth and power is so concentrated at the top, it makes our economy unstable,” he said. “If we don’t distribute the power more equally, if we don’t protect the middle class, we don’t have a stable long-term system.”

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.