#OccupyBoston Shows Determination After #OccupyWallStreet Camp is Cleared

BOSTON - Members of the Occupy Boston group came out in force on Tuesday to march in protest to New York police clearing their sister camp at Wall Street. A banner carried by leaders of some 200 marchers read: "11/15 at 2 a.m. without notice, NYPD raided OWS!"

The march followed a course from Dewey Square up to the Commons and the Massachusetts Statehouse, over to Government Center plaza, straight through the food court of Quincy Market and back to the greenway. Along the route, tourists and bystanders took video, wait staff crowded pub doorways to see the spectacle and police patiently kept pace on the sidelines. Marchers chanted slogans like, “Hey Menino you should know: Hell no, we won’t go!” as they walked past diners who took little notice through windows of eateries like Emmets Pub. If the disruption annoyed or disgusted anyone, they only said so privately.

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On the Statehouse steps, protesters crowded in and used the people’s mic to share personal stories about why they chose to participate in the Occupy movement:

“I am here…because I write poetry…and this is the first time…in twenty-five years…that I feel alive…with all of you!”

“I have been here 30 days….I met with daycare workers today…and a mom who puts pillows around her kids…while they sleep at night…to protect them from bullets…went without wages for six months.”

“I am here…because I want an economy…not fueled by oil!”

“I am here…because I am a union worker! [shouts and applause]…this is a long time coming…your struggle…is my struggle!”

“I am here…because our government gives money to banks…while I am, and many are…homeless and hungry….where’s our bailout?”

Finally, a young man who takes a turn explains that he is broke and reliant upon a medication that keeps him alive, and that he has seen the cost for his prescription go up ten times its original price. “I am here,” he said, “because I’m scared. Thank you all for being here. I feel supported.”

All of this marching and testimony took place under the din of numerous helicopters stationed overhead, positioned with the help of rotating spotlights placed at both the Statehouse and the Federal Reserve Bank. The commotion drew one woman out of her home on Beacon Hill. She declined to give her name, but said she and her husband decided to take their Weimaranar for a stroll to see what all the fuss was about. They followed the march to Government Center, and she stopped once to figure out how to take a picture with her flip phone. When asked if she would join the protest, she said of course not, that she was certainly part of the one percent. “I have a son who works for Barclays,” she declared.

Inside Quincy Market, wary food service workers watched in silence as the throng move past. None responded to the protesters invitation to join in, although one fry cook banged a spatula on his hood in support and a single cashier flashed the peace sign. At the end of the market, marchers crowded under the domed seating, shouting, “We are too big to fail!” as teens looked on, giggling, and an off duty maintenance worker who was eating, bobbed his head and rolled his eyes to the chanting. One security guard looking on did not intend to intervene, saying, “Fuck it, I’m part of the 99 percent. You got that much commitment, keep going!”

Marchers directed their chanting at passersby who stopped to take photos and a small crowd gathered outside The Black Rose on State Street. To them marchers shouted, “Off the sidewalks, into the streets!”

The march stopped suddenly at the greenway intersection with Milk Street, when marchers sat down in the street and repeated with people’s mic a letter directed at Diana Taylor, girlfriend to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and board member at Brookfield Properties, the owner of Zuccotti Park, that demanded the removal of the Occupy encampment. As demonstrators rose for the return march to the Boston camp, they chanted “Shame, shame, shame!”

With a final stop on the grass near Atlantic and Congress, where just one month prior 141 Occupy protesters were arrested by Boston police, the group ended with the chant, “New York is Boston, and Boston is New York!” before heading back to begin another General Assembly.

Text by Annie Shreffler. Photos by Dory Dinoto.