Occupy Wall Street-type groups sprouting across Alabama (al.com)

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Occupy Wall Street-type groups sprouting across Alabama
Published: Thursday, October 06, 2011, 10:01 AM
Updated: Thursday, October 06, 2011, 3:20 PM
By Chris Pow, al.com al.com

Just as the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York have gained the support of major labor unions and gotten the attention of major media outlets, spinoff groups have begun organizing in Alabama as part of Occupy Together, an unofficial hub for communities that have picked up the movement.

Today and through the weekend, groups in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, Tuscaloosa and Auburn are planning to gather to meet and hold their own protests, getting the word out through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and their own websites. Across the world, meetups have been scheduled in nearly 500 communities.

While all of the Alabama groups claim to "stand in solidarity" with the Occupy Wall Street protestors who first set up stakes in Manhattan nearly three weeks ago and began to attract organized labor support this week, most are acknowledging that the concerns of those involved are varied, but mostly focused on issues of economic inequality.

The faces of the "occupy movement" are mostly young and the messages sometimes idealistic, railing at the financial establishment but lacking in focus. In its early days, mainstream media hardly knew how to cover the events where demonstrators called for an end to corruption in the banking industry, among a host of other criticisms.

more: http://blog.al.com/tuscaloosa/2011/10/occupy_wall_street_protests_sp.html
http://www.occupytogether.org /







More than 170 attend Occupy Birmingham rally at Railroad Park
Published: Thursday, October 06, 2011, 10:47 PM
Updated: Friday, October 07, 2011, 4:28 AM
By Martin Swant --- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- More than 170 people attended Occupy Birmingham's rally in Railroad Park tonight, many of whom said they were upset with a number of issues, including economic inequality in America and the influence of large corporations.

The Occupy Wall Street movement began Sept. 17 in the nation's financial district and has spilled over to other cities.

The Birmingham movement, which is "in solidarity" with the protests in Lower Manhattan and elsewhere, was founded Sept. 27, said Allyn Hudson, a member of Occupy Birmingham.

He said the movement has grown rapidly since its first meeting, when seven people attended. By Wednesday night, Occupy Birmingham had 140 on its active roster. Hudson said he counted 176 at the Railroad Park event.
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One man recited a quote by the late Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, the civil rights icon who died on Wednesday. The crowd then shouted it: "We got a fire no man can put out."
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more: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/10/more_than_170_attend_occupy_bi.html