Polson Students Among Those At Occupy Branford Event, Showing Solidarity For National Protest Movement

The turn out was a little less than organizer would have liked to seen, but seemed to accomplish its goal of getting people together to start talking about issues of government disapproval and to show their solidarity for Occupy Wall Street – a protest against corporate control of government that has been going strong since Sept. 17 in New York.

The handful of younger people who showed up were students at in Madison. When asked by Schwartz what the organizers could do to get more young people out, Coco Charles, a student a Polson, said they should try to reach her peers through avenues like Facebook. The organizing group of Occupy Branford, the Shoreline 99 Percent, said they now have Facebook presence.

Most of the more than 70 attendees were from Branford and Madison and participated in rallies and protests in the 60s and 70s. This movement, many noted, was something they had been waiting for.

Branford's Pat Kaplan said, "It's taken 50 years for the rest of the country to recognize what we did in the 60s – that greed and corruption is ruining the country."

The evening was highlighted by people taking a few minutes to air grievances before the crowd (see video). Branford's Barry Glynn who has been out of work three years said his former line of work – running call centers, – has been shipped overseas. The business, he said, won’t be coming back.

He called the Occupy movement the new tea party. "The difference is we don't have dingbats for political candidates," Glynn added.

The event concluded with the group sharing ideas about future events including the upcoming Occupy New Haven event, which will take place this Saturday, Oct. 15 on the New Haven Green at noon.

If you want more coverage of the event, check out the New Haven Register story here.