Community Corner
Occupy Somerville Demonstrators Meet, Discuss Next Steps [Video]
With no camps planned, Occupy Somerville represents an effort to channel the Occupy movement's energy into political and community organization.
It you're expecting members of the Occupy movement to pitch their tents in Davis Square and stay for the winter, don't hold your breath.
Participants in the Occupy Somerville initiative held a general assembly in the square's Statue Park Wednesday night, and the overall consensus was the group needs to focus its time and energy working on issues it deems important—increasing the amount of affordable housing in the city, fighting against home foreclosures, working to make public transportation more accessible and improving labor standards, for instance.
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"With all the enthusiasm and energy I see in this movement, I can't think of a bigger waste of it than to see it stuck in one park when it could be out on the streets affecting change," said Mike Cassesso, who attended Wednesday's assembly.
The loosely organized Occupy movement, of which Occupy Somerville is a part, stemmed from Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, where protesters, among other things, camped out in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, near the city's financial center. Similar Occupy sites sprung up across the country, including here in Boston, for about 70 days. .
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With Dewey Square no longer the focal point of Boston's protests, smaller, local initiatives like Occupy Somerville could represent the next phase of the Occupy movement, as demonstrators team up with local political and community organizers to take more tangible action.
"To me, part of taking it to the next level is localizing, de-centralizing," said Ethan Contini-Field, a Somerville resident, at Wednesday night's assembly.
Occupy Somerville has already conducted one activity in the city. On Saturday, the same day police cleared protesters out of Dewey Square, marching to the Davis Square branch, where some in the group closed their accounts.
Save Our Somerville, a group that works to give voice to the disenfranchised, has been a leader in forming the Occupy Somerville movement. Wednesday night, Save Our Somerville's Matt McGlaughlin said, "I kind of took the initiative just to get the ball rolling … now that the ball's rolling, hopefully other people will take the lead."
As for next steps for Occupy Somerville, the 50 or so who turned up at Wednesday's assembly agreed to meet sometime after the new year, and that meeting could be held indoors. They also agreed to form "working groups" composed of people interested in confronting certain issues. McGlaughlin, for instance, wants to form a group that will address issues of affordable housing and foreclosures. Another group might focus on organizing "visibilities," events that attract attention from the public and media.
The group agreed to organize these next steps mainly via email.
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