Muskegon-based Occupy protesters work to reach, educate general public (video)
Published: Monday, December 05, 2011, 10:12 AM Updated: Monday, December 05, 2011, 12:38 PM
Signs line trees that border the Occupy Muskegon camp. Members have occupied the camp at the corner of 6th and Clay for more than one month.MUSKEGON — Protests used to be easy to describe.
Those who rallied against wars, social inequality or women's rights were explicit in identifying the problems and offering solutions.
Occupy Muskegon, as protests go, is difficult to get a handle on.
The group's membership is purposely leaderless. Its mission statement is long and considered a working draft. The members' actions have been law-abiding and their protest site is on private property in a inconspicuous location.
Not exactly the typical handbook for protesters.
And now a splinter group has formed from the original — Occupy The Lakeshore — intended to occupy Muskegon County and Northwest Ottawa County. The group held its inaugural general assembly Saturday at Harbor Unitarian Congregation facilities, 1296 Montgomery, in Muskegon.
Sparked by Occupy Wall Street in New York, Occupy Muskegon and Occupy The Lakeshore are among similar efforts that have emerged in various cities around the world.
EnlargeMembers of the Occupy Muskegon camp move around the fire on Wednesday, November 23, 2011. Members have occupied the camp at the corner of 6th and Clay for more than one month. (Muskegon Chronicle/Greg Lindstrom) Photo available for sale, please call 231-725-6368.Occupy Muskegon Camp gallery (7 photos)
Dean Vanderstelt, media representative for the new Occupy The Lakeshore, served in a similar capacity for Occupy Muskegon. He said the two groups have different philosophies on how to occupy.
The Occupy Muskegon group remains camped out at 557 W. Clay, a private residence at Sixth Street and Clay Avenue owned by former Muskegon City Commissioner Scott Sieradzki. The group has been there about seven weeks.
Occupy The Lakeshore plans to not have a site in order to direct more resources toward public awareness and political activism, Vanderstelt said.
Anna Kathryn Sluka, a member of Occupy Muskegon, said she hopes the two groups can come together. “We don't need our Occupy movements here segregated,” Sluka said, adding she would work to bridge the gap between them. “It's absurd.”
Both groups have similar goals to eliminate social and economic inequality, address civil and human rights issues, and eliminate special influences on government by the wealthy and corporations.
“We, the 99 percent, are protesting social and economic inequality, corporate greed and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on our government,” says the Occupy Muskegon website,www.occupymuskegon.net.
Dan Mills, 57, of North Muskegon, said Occupy Muskegon is attempting to help others, “not to help themselves.”
Occupy The Lakeshore's Facebook page is succinct: “We are the 99 percent and so are you.”
The members of Occupy Muskegon say the occupation of their “camp” on Sieradzki's private property demonstrates the group's resolve and support for the Wall Street protesters and others in the movement.
Jon Hume, a 33-year-old member of the group, said the members have been volunteering, feeding and clothing people, and the Sieradzki property provides a place for people to stay if needed.
Higinio Ochoa, 30, has his head shaved by Jon Paul Hume, 33, at the Occupy Muskegon camp. According to Hume, he will occupy the area "until it stops, 'til things change."Occupy Muskegon also recently began making more of a concerted effort to be more visible to the general public. Members have rallied in front of banks, carried signs near the Veterans Memorial Park on the Causeway during rush-hour and made public comments during Muskegon County and city of Muskegon governmental meetings.
Occupy The Lakeshore members say they plan to focus from the outset to educate the public about the movement and invite others to join.
“The elimination of the requirement for an occupation site will allow this movement to focus all its energies and resources on outreach, education and direct actions, areas we feel have a much higher payoff,” Vanderstelt said.
Nationally, a majority of the general public seems to not understand the specific goals of the Occupy movement. A USA Today/Gallup Poll recently found that 56 percent of Americans say they neither support nor oppose the movement or have no opinion.
The Occupiers
The Chronicle talked to a couple members of the two local Occupy groups to find out who they are and why they joined the effort.
• Roger, 64, of Norton Shores (Occupy Muskegon) — Roger said he spent 30 years working as a federal employee, mainly in the Immigration and Naturalization Service, before retiring. He earned a degree from McGill University in Canada and served in the Army during the Vietnam War.
Roger refused to provide his last name because he said he was a whistleblower and didn't want someone looking him up online.
“I've seen a lot of things in my lifetime and I know when things are broken,” Roger said. “I don't think people realize how bad things are and how corrupt our government has become” at the top in the federal Legislative and Executive branches.
Political apathy is not an option, Roger said.
• Virginia Chester, 39, of Grand Haven (Occupy The Lakeshore) — Chester said she had watched the Occupy movement from afar and agreed with many of the positions taken, so she decided to join. She said she experienced “corporate greed” and understood the problems it causes.
Members of the Occupy Muskegon camp move around the fire.“I worked in a corporate environment for many, many years and the corporate greed really hit me,” Chester said.
Chester said she also worked for eight years as a temporary employee through an agency for a corporate office. She said she was kept as a temporary worker so the company wouldn't have to pay her benefits.
Her information technology job eventually was eliminated and she currently is unemployed.
• Anna Kathryn Sluka, 24, of Muskegon (Occupy Muskegon) — Already convinced that changes were needed to create jobs and lessen the economic disparity, Sluka said she travelled to New York City with a friend to join the original Occupy Wall Street movement. She said she witnessed the passion the New York protesters displayed and joined, eventually becoming one of the first females arrested.
“I'm tired of seeing people losing their homes, losing everything,” Sluka said. “I want the world my father grew up in the '50s and '60s. He would talk about how Muskegon was the place to be.”
Sluka, the daughter of a former Fruitport schools teacher and Spring Lake public librarian, said she is considering attending Northern Michigan University in Marquette to become a substance abuse counselor. She earned her associate's degree from Muskegon Community College.
She currently performs odd jobs, including painting and baby-sitting, to earn money.
James, center left, 27, and Danny, center right, 18, who would not give their last names, spray paint a jacket with the words "Occupy Muskegon" while other members camp move around the fire last month. Occupy Muskegon members have been camping at the corner of 6th and Clay for more than one month.• Catherine Manigold, 52, of Grand Rapids (Occupy The Lakeshore) — She said she wanted to be part of the movement after discussing the political climate with Vanderstelt and watching movies, including those by Michigan documentary filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore.
Manigold, a mother of two daughters, ages 23 and 21, said two of the issues she wants to see addressed are campaign finance reform and the disparity in wealth. She called it “the control of government by the wealthy.”
Despite an Occupy Grand Rapids group, Manigold said she chose Occupy The Lakeshore in hopes of helping the movement grow on a more regional basis, with the potential of more voices generating more impact.
Occupy Muskegon and Occupy The Lakeshore conduct general assemblies on a weekly basis to make decisions. Occupy Muskegon hosts its general assemblies at noon on Saturdays in Hackley Park. Occupy The Lakeshore members are considering various locations for its general assemblies, the first of which was Saturday at Harbor Unitarian Congregation facilities. Future assemblies might be announced on the group's Facebook page or a to-be-launched website.
The general assemblies are designed to provide all an opportunity to discuss and decide, using a “horizontal democracy approach,” the direction and actions of the movement, members said.
“Things are not right,” Sluka said. “This movement gives people hope.”
E-mail: egaertner@muskegonchronicle.com
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