Joshua Wayne-Dolin has been occupying Charleston since the local movement began in
mid-October. Wayne-Dolin said he was
with the New York protestors in spirit.
“We stood in solidarity with them last night and watched a
live stream as they got raided,” Wayne-Dolin said. “They used a sound cannon on
them. Through the live stream it showed
that nobody was violent, yet they used a riot control weapon. But our hearts go out to them for that and we
want to support them.”
Several Occupy Wall Street protestors were arrested for
refusing to leaves a New York park Monday night. Instead of going away, Occupy Charleston
protestors say they will expand their base.
The movement made an appearance at Gov. Earl Ray
Tomblin’s inauguration Sunday, and had planned to be in attendance at Sen.
Joe Manchin’s Marcellus shale field hearing Monday before being turned away.
That’s because many of the protestors did not have identification on them.
Maggie Fry, 32, said it makes sense for the
Occupy Movement to assist in other local causes.
“The folks who attended the inauguration, some people went
because they had problems with Tomblin, some people went because they had
problems with the political process in general, and some people went because of
mountain top removal,” Fry said.
“We’re doing all kinds of things, educating
ourselves and trying to build alliances with people and fighting for things all
over the state and the city.”
Wayne-Dolin said he sees a connection between the government
and corporations the organization started out protesting.
“Occupy has a few main goals like keeping corporate money out
of political decisions, but we like to incorporate some of the more local goals
that go around Charleston because that’s what each occupation is for,”
Wayne-Dolin said.
“Wall Street is fighting for one main right, and we stand in
solidarity with Wall Street, but we need to focus on some of our own local
issues.”
Fry said the range of opinions within the group is rather
vast.
“We have plenty of campers who are against mountain top
removal. We have some campers who are
against other campers being against mountain top removal,” Fry said.
“This is a
place where you come with ideas of change that you want and you learn about
others ideas of change. We’re all
allowed to have affiliations.”
The Charleston movement had to change locations
earlier this month after the city shut off power in Davis Square. Now the campers are set up off the I-64 exit ramp to Capitol Street. They’ve set up on private property.
Larry Metheney, secretary treasurer for the West Virginia AFL-CIO said he’s happy to have the
protestors there for as long as they want.
“It looks like we’re getting ready to hold a revival, and in
a sense we are,” Metheny said. “We’re going to see a revival of the labor
movement. We’re going to see a revival
of the grass roots movement in the community. We’re going to see a revival of saying that we should see shared
prosperity in this country.
“The days of the rich getting rich and the poor getting
poorer are going to change. We’re going
to seek to modify the laws of this country to be more reflective of its
population.”
Metheney said the protestors are welcome on the property
through the winter.