Occupy Boston Is Gaining Momentum

Occupy Boston has announced a nationwide student walk-out today at noon.The official Occupy Boston site posted that students from various colleges in Boston- including MIT, Northeastern and Boston University- are planning to leave class and march in solidarity with the movement. A special branch of the Occupy Boston site has also been launched called studentsoccupyboston.com.

Morgan Packer is a fourth year student at Northeastern University. While she does not expect to participate in the walk-out, she says she’s sure many of the students at her school will. She says, “I feel like a lot of kids are going to use this as an excuse to cut class. I bet half of them don’t even know what the movement is even protesting.” Emerson College senior, Quin McKinley, works on a food truck in Dewey Square where Occupy Boston has erected a makeshift tent city. She says the protest seems to be based more on the social than the political: “it’s a lot of young people just hanging out in Dewey Square. It doesn’t seem like they have any set goals. Do they even know exactly what they’re protesting?”

While the movement has been called disorganized, one thing it doesn’t seem to lack is momentum. The Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Boston fervor is definitely not waning; in fact, it seems to be a catching fad. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Occupy Wall Street protests have sprung up in Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington. Even smaller cities are staging similar protests. In Spokane, WA, the Occupy Spokane movement emerged in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street last week. Local TV stations reported that Occupy Spokane continued into its sixth day of protesting in downtown Spokane on Sunday. CNN also reported today that several unions have endorsed the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York.

It seems Occupy Wall Street is not losing steam but only fueling into a national anti-corporate movement. For Occupy Boston organizer, Keegan O’Brien, this is the larger goal of the Occupy Boston movement. He says, “Our intention from the get-go was to get more people involved: more minorities, more students, more people of the working class. We want to grow the movement so we can make bigger change.” The question is, how much longer will these protests have to go on until changes are actually made?

(Photo Credit: Boston.com)