Thursday, May 23, 2013

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Occupy Anchorage Protesters Fill Town Square
As protesters go into their fourth straight day of demonstrations in Anchorage's Town Square Park, they said they're still figuring out exactly what they're fighting.
By Kirsten Swann


The Occupy Wall Street movement has finally come to Anchorage, where Brian MacMillan said it started with a single Facebook page.

"All I did was press click, create a page—that’s it,” said MacMillan, one of the forces behind the protest that has dominated Anchorage’s Town Square Park for the past several days.

As Occupy Anchorage protesters went into their fourth day of demonstrations Saturday, they show no signs of slowing down.

But unlike other protests, Occupy demonstrators have many different views on what they’re fighting against. Some said it’s about corporate greed, others said it’s about equality.

"It's taking the money out of politics, and that follows down and trickles down to the greed on Wall Street,” MacMillan said. “It’s the erosion of the middle class."

He said the movement in downtown Anchorage was born of the frustrations of Alaskans from all walks of life, and Saturday was a chance to find out exactly what that meant.

"Today is a day of formulation, today is the day we try to coalesce,” MacMillan said. “We're a group of strangers who are just starting to work together."

Word of the movement is spreading through both social and mainstream media, but MacMillan said he never expected it to grow like it has. While they’re still deciding where to go next, he said it’s not going away.