The growing Occupy Boston protest movement against perceived corporate abuse and financial institution greed is gaining wider support from Boston’s business community – and from some unlikely quarters, including at least one Federal Reserve employee.
Members of the movement that began on Wall Street have been gathered across from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston for nearly a week, shouting objections to a financial system they see as structured to make the country’s rich even richer, while much of the other "99 percent" of Americans see their homes foreclosed on and struggle under the burdens of debt.
And their protests are being heard, and supported.
Out of 15 or 20 passersby a reporter tried to speak with about the protests, five stopped to chat, and all were in support of the movement’s efforts. One would not give his name because he works as an analyst for the Boston Fed, but said he was "very glad" to see so many young people sitting up and paying attention to what he called such "important matters" as the nation’s economy, the "detrimental effects" of so much power and wealth held in the hands of the "super-rich," and the future economic status of the nation.
"It’s good to see them paying attention to things like the economy and their own finances rather than sitting around and watching sports," said the Fed analyst.
Josh McKane, who said he works in education in Boston, said he was encouraged by the fact that so many people across the country are railing against the causes of rising unemployment in the nation.
"The country has been taken over for years by corporate America," McKane said. "A lot of people are unemployed while the fat cats at the top of these companies are still getting richer."
In the back of the Dewey Square encampment, the group has set up a media tent, where Rockelle Debeaunay, a homeless transgender woman, serves as press contact. She said that, in her opinion, the major corporations in the country are not creating enough jobs in response to the recession, so it’s time for the federal government to step in. Ideally, government officials and the heads of major companies would sit down and devise a plan to create new jobs for the country’s unemployed, even if that means a company’s CEO or other high-ranking employee doesn’t get a bonus.
Additionally, she said the billions in bailout dollars the government gave to the banks and bankers that caused the economy’s downfall in 2008 should have been allocated to helping "the 99 percent of us that aren’t millionaires" to pay off their mortgages or to pay off student loans, "as opposed to being given to the money-grubbing, backstabbing, greedy corporations and bankers."
Shawn Worster, who identified himself as an environmental consultant, said one of the greatest things about this country is the freedom it affords members of the movement to protest publicly like they are.
"People have died so we have that freedom," Worster said. "And you might not agree with the message, but it’s something we need as a country, and someday you yourself will need it."
