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Occupy Wall Street Comes to Brooklyn

On Saturday, the movement will reach America's fourth largest city with a morning event at Grand Army Plaza.

Peter Rothberg

October 13, 2011

As a lifelong Brookynite, I was especially pleased to see the Brooklyn Borough President break with many of his mainline Democratic Party brethren in greeting this Saturday’s borough debut of the Occupy Wall Street movement with open arms.

The voluble Marty Markowitz isn’t sure whether he’ll be showing up at the 11:00am rally on Saturday at Grand Army Plaza but he told the Brooklyn Paper that "It was only a matter of time before the … rallies made their way to Brooklyn. There is no doubt that Americans — those in the ’99 percent’ — are hurting, and we can all agree that some of the issues being raised by these protests are concerns we can all rally around."

Six weeks ago, on September 17, the Occupy Wall Street movement protesting economic injustice began, with little attention and derisive media coverage. Now, in its fourth week, Occupy Wall Street has spread well beyond New York City’s financial district to more than 400 cities and towns in the US and dozens of solidarity movements around the globe.

On Saturday, October 15, the movement will reach Brooklyn, America’s fourth largest city, with a morning event at historic Grand Army Plaza. OccupyBrooklyn has a Twitter feed, a blog, and a Facebook page for info. Details on what to expect are slowly coming together but this event looks to be less an actual occupation, as in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park, and more of a solidarity action. Organizers are holding an open meeting, TONIGHT Thursday night, October 13, at 7:00pm at the Commons Brooklyn to discuss, among other things, whether the movement should attempt to take up indefinite residence in the borough.

Any nominees for Brooklyn’s Zuccotti Park?

Peter RothbergTwitterPeter Rothberg is the The Nation’s associate publisher.


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