Interview

An interview with Jonathan Leavitt, a community organizer in the Burlington area

What is the Occupy Wall Street Movement?

JL: The Occupy Wall Street movement is the rising up of people who are fed up with corporate greed who have finally come together to build a movement to try and change the way the country functions. It is the 99% finally taking a stand against the 1%.

Why did you help start the Occupy Burlington movement?

JL: It was important to me to show solidarity to the movement in New York, but it is also very important to show that the corporate greed has affected people all over the country, not just people in New York City. People in Vermont have lost their homes and jobs while CEO’s and Bank continue to make huge amounts of money off the suffering of others.

Do you believe that this movement will create the change the protesters want to see in the country?

JL: It will be hard to achieve everything but I believe that with the way the movement is growing and gaining strength around country that eventually the government will have no choice but to make changes to the system.

Do you feel that they Occupy Wall Street movement should try and mobilize behind a political party like the Tea Party did several years ago?

JL: I don’t think that the movement should try to get behind any political party because both parties have had the chance to make change and neither one has. To create the change that the country needs, this truly needs to be a movement of the people of all walks of life and political beliefs, joining a political party might limit the people who joined the movement.  

How would you answer critics of the movement who accuse the protesters of not having clear demands or any solutions to the problems they are protesting?

JL: I believe that there are pretty clear demands being made, people want the corporate greed that is hurting this country to stop. They want jobs that can support their basic needs and they want the banks and financial institutions that caused the economic collapse to be held accountable. To answer the second part, I believe that the protesting began out of generally anger of the people and the longer the protests continue the more defined the demands and solutions will become.

With the growing support of the Occupy Burlington movement, what is the next move for it?

JL: There is a general assembly meeting on Sunday (October 16) at 12:30 in City Hall Park to decide how to proceed with the Burlington movement. That is what is so great about this movement there is no leader, the people truly decide what their next move will be.