Stephen Stills song, For What It's Worth starts with lyrics that are appropriate today - "There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear..." Following the demonstrations across Europe, the labor union uprisings in Wisconsin, Ohio and other Midwestern states and the Arab Spring movement, comes Occupy Wall Street. And although the mainstream media clearly don't know what it's about, ("But they don't have a list of legislative demands!") working people who make up the bottom 99% of America understand it in our bones. This is about the abuse of money and power by the top 1% who control 40% of the wealth in our country. And it's about the failure of the vast majority of our political leadership to represent us, the 99%. And it's about the frightening future that we - and our sons and daughters - face in a world organized to maximize profit for the top 1%, while keeping the rest of us scrambling to piece together a decent living.


You can do more than watch the occupation on TV, you can go to City Hall and be a part of Occupy Como. Union members know better than most that we need some basic change in this country. Join the group at City Hall for however long you have and take them some food, drinks, blankets or cash to keep them going. As the 1970 Gil Scott Heron song says, "The revolution will not be televised."

Occupy Como protest follows national movement

Parker Eshelman 

Protesters hold up signs Monday in front of City Hall at Eighth Street and Broadway, participating in an effort that has lasted more than a week in conjunction with a nationwide protest movement. A group known as Occupy Como has led the local effort, and many who joined in Monday night were specifically focused on protesting the proposed rezoning of Columbia’s Regency Mobile Home Park.

By Andrew Denney

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

For more than a week, anyone passing by Columbia’s City Hall might have noticed demonstrators, ranging from a single person to more than 50 people, chanting and waving signs.
The largest group came last night to speak out on a specific local issue, but a minority of those participating have had a presence there night and day for eight full days. Those demonstrators are the members of a group known as Occupy Como.
The protests are modeled after the significantly larger Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement against corporate greed that has raged in New York City for more than two weeks. Similar movements have sprung up in cities throughout the country, including in Missouri. Social networking websites have added fuel to the cause: Occupy Kansas City has more than 1,500 “likes” on its Facebook page, and OccupySTL has more than 3,000. Columbia’s has more than 1,000.
Jef Hamby, an organizer for the group, said there are about 15 “core” members who have had a frequent presence at City Hall. He said others have joined in from time to time, inflating the number of those in front of City Hall to about 30 on Saturday and more than 50 yesterday.
Sierra Jackson, who said she is preparing to start school at Columbia College, said she ran across the demonstrators Thursday while walking downtown and took a minute to hear them out. She said she has been standing with the group each day ever since.
“I would like it to be one voice, one vote — not a dollar a vote,” Jackson said.
The crowd yesterday was made up mostly of those who oppose a measure to rezone the Regency Mobile Home Park in favor of a student housing complex. From conference rooms inside City Hall, where Columbia City Council members calmly discussed a planned new parking garage during a pre-meeting work session, the shouting and chanting of the demonstrators — and honking from passing motorists — could be faintly heard.
And while demonstrators who came to address the Regency rezoning proposal were focused on a specific civic issue, Hamby said the point of Occupy Como is to bring groups with different ideas and causes together. Hamby said that although those who have stood in front of City Hall since the beginning of the demonstration have differed in their backgrounds and their reasons for being there, there has been a central theme in their presence: that 99 percent of the country’s population is getting left behind by the 1 percent who are at the top of the economic pecking order and who make “all the decisions” for the rest of the country.
Although Occupy Como and other protest groups are in part taking aim at the political elite, the group has adopted bylaws and takes votes on issues. Hamby said the group has adopted principles of Occupy Wall Street and made some rules of its own. Hamby said he did not know how long the group would continue to camp out in front of City Hall.

Reach Andrew Denney at 573-815-1719 or e-mail akdenney@columbiatribune.com.