 "Photo: Matthew Phillips/Echo A&E editor")
 "Photo: Matthew Phillips/Echo A&E editor")
The revolution will be improvised. Sunday, nearly one hundred "Occupy Durham" protestors gathered at CCB Plaza downtown. The demonstration was held in solidarity with "Occupy Wall Street."
Tuesday afternoon, the protestors complied with the city's orders to remove their tents from the plaza, although on Sunday they said they would remain in place for the foreseeable future.
"We are here to establish a new era of constructive participation," said a community organizer from the unified communities working group.
"We are here for each other," he said. "We sent a clarion call to all in our communities that now is the time.
"In the spirit of genuine democracy, we will defer decision-making to no hierarchy or any establishment of leadership, but will build upon the consent of this assembly."
"Occupy Wall Street" — now a global movement — started with a brief statement in the Canadian-based Adbusters magazine, "See you on Wall Street. Sept. 17. Bring Tent." Adbusters is an anti-consumerist publication with a large readership in North America.
Since then protestors describing themselves as the 99 percent have flooded into New York City's Zuccotti Park as well as other major cities.
The 99 percent label is a reference to the holding of the majority of the world's wealth by 1 percent of the population.
"Occupy Durham" protestors had various reasons for assembling. Some cited corporate greed; others were disenfranchised by the monetary influence of the election process.
Chapel Hill resident Alissa Ellis voiced opposition to the local election influence of Republican Art Pope.
"He [Pope] has co-opted a process that is sacred, people should have access to participate. One individual should not be able to fill the legislature. He owns our representation," said Ellis.
As previously reported by Campus Echo, Pope is head of the Pope Foundation, a financial backer of the rescinded proposal to form a Constitutional Law Center at NCCU.
Students from local universities were also in attendance. "I've been following ‘Occupy Wall Street' and am really intrigued by how it has spread. It's cool people are coming together," said N.C. Central University graduate student Princess Ojiaku.
She said she has concerns about government policy involving scientific advancement, "There are intersections of science and policy. As technology advances there are more conflicts."
Ojiaku is tentatively planning to pursue a doctorate level degree, in part because of the poor job market.
"It's not fair what the banks are not being held responsible for. They keep doing it without repercussions," said Kadeem Peace, a Durham Technical Community College student hoping to transfer to NCCU.
Other activist organizations had representatives in attendance including North Carolina Peace Action, the Triangle Committee to Stop FBI Repression, Democracy North Carolina and the Committee to End Corporate Personhood.
A representative from the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations addressed the crowd. The AFL-CIO is a national federation of unions with membership in the millions.
"The AFL-CIO stands ready to assist you in your endeavors," said triangle labor counsel union rep Michael Gravinese.
Sunday's "Occupy Durham" demonstration followed "Occupy" protests Saturday in London, Rome, Boston, Chicago, Toronto and other major European and North American cities. In New York thousands gathered in Times Square, spurred on by the global social unrest.
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