Occupy Chicago protesters undeterred by arrests
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Xinhua, October 18, 2011
Occupy Chicago participants said on Monday they were only "mobilized" by the recent arrests of 175 protesters, adding that despite the police action, they planned on continuing to "occupy" the city throughout the winter.
"(The arrests) just mobilized every group that is listening to our call, and every single marginalized person that is clamoring to hear our message. It mobilized nearly every single labor union in the city of Chicago and state of Illinois to fully back not only the Occupy movement in this state, but across the entire country," Occupy Chicago organizer Daniel Williams told Xinhua.
In addition to the recent arrest threat, increasingly cold weather is also a factor facing the Chicago protesters who demonstrate 24/7. However, Williams said that despite these issues he and the other Occupy participants did not plan on abandoning their corner across the Federal Reserve Bank any time soon. Williams says the group is committed to "occupy" throughout the winter months, adding that they were even planning on staying through May when Chicago hosts the 2012 NATO and G8 summits.
The dedication shown by Occupy protesters has inspired more people to join their cause, such as newly unemployed Cliff Vorrer. His first day at the protests, Vorrer said that he hoped more people would join the movement and that they could work together to change the current American policy he feels is hurting the country.
"More people should be out here, people should take part to change things to what they want them to be," Vorrer told Xinhua. "We're the first generation that's not going to have a higher standard of living or education as their parents, and for my kids I don't want that. And I really feel after working in the corporate world for years that corporations are full of great people -- they're just governed by bad ideas that are destroying our country."
On Saturday evening, 2,000 Chicago residents with similar feelings marched downtown in a protest against corporate greed, ending the demonstration in the city's Grant Park. Protesters then began setting up tents in an attempt to establish an overnight base camp for the movement, such as in New York City's Zuccotti Park. After repeated warnings, at 2 a.m. Oct. 16 Chicago police began arresting the demonstrators for violating a law prohibiting staying in the park past its 11 p.m. curfew.
Today marks the one-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street protests which have since spread to dozens of other U.S. and international cities.
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