Occupy movement holds training near Detroit, Ann Arbor
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — When the 2012 version of “Occupy Wall Street” emerges from hibernation, it will be after having been to school.
A coalition of liberal, union, and progressive organizations hoping to capitalize on the success of last year’s Occupy movement held a series of “99% Spring Action Training” sessions in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas Saturday.
A “training” held in a meeting room at a Communications Workers of America hall on Southfield Road near 10 Mile Road, attracted 27 people interested in participating in “nonviolent direct action” to transform the Occupy movement’s ambiguous goals into something concrete.
Mother-and-daughter team Anne and Jessie Mannisto, from the Detroit suburb of Northville, attended together after Jessie, 29, was invited in an email from MoveOn.org, the main sponsoring organization.
Anne Mannisto, 63, an assistant library director, said she sees the goal of 99% Spring as promoting equality and contrasted the movement with the Tea Party, which she criticized as focused on the national debt and “totally misinformed.”
“I want to see the tax code reformed, the wealthy to pay their fair share. But I want to see a bigger mind-set change,” Ms. Mannisto said. “Deficit reduction is not the biggest problem facing this country. Inequality is the bigger problem.”
