Occupy Philly Spreads the Word

Members of Occupy Philly’s outreach team met at Love Park this afternoon.

Though the roughly eight people gathered were not yet sure where they intended to occupy, they were passionate about spreading the word.

“We want people to join the Facebook group, we want people to follow us on Twitter and come to the meetings,” said Steve Ross. “We are the best-organized outreach arm of the Occupy movement in the country.”

“In general, organization is our weakness and chaos is our strength,” said another member, Jacob Russell. “But we want to rouse people’s curiosity. Come to the meeting and you decide what we are and where we will occupy.”

Holding clipboards and distributing flyers, members were firm that they wanted to amass as many people as possible before settling on a location and ethos.

“We want it to be a democratic decision-making process, a consensus that connects back to our Quaker roots,” said Ben Walls.

“Opposition to the financial system due to the concentration of wealth at the top is definitely one of our principles,” he added

Members were sure that, wherever the sleep-in ends up, it will be well-attended. “This is going to be the biggest thing to happen in Philadelphia in a long time,” Walls said.

“There’s no stop time and no stop date,” said Ross. “We will continue until our demands are met or we are in jail. And when we are in jail, people will come and replace us.”

Occupy Philly will hold a general assembly meeting this Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 North Broad Street.