Dressed as zombie bankers, college students representing Occupy Boston marched through the streets of downtown Boston on Monday chanting, “Money’s for jobs and education, not for banks and corporations.”
As part of the Colleges Occupy Boston movement, the protesters dressed in zombie makeup and wore business suits to the Halloween-themed walkout they organized as a call for affordable higher education.
About 200 students, who had walked out of class, met at the Boston Common gazebo to protest the increasing amount of student debt.
The Occupy Boston website calls out to local colleges for change claiming that, “…universities are acting more and more like corporations, handing
out big salaries and bonuses to administrators while workers on campus
struggle to make a living wage.”
During the march, participants stopped at the home of M. Lee Pelton, president of Emerson College. Emerson College students said that their purpose was not to “demonize” their president, but rather to ask for his support in reducing the costs of higher education.
The Occupy Boston movement, which celebrated its one month anniversary on Sunday, is not losing any momentum, participants said.
“What drew me in was the student debt issue, but what’s kept me around is the community that the movement has created,” said Kate Wheeler, a freshman at Lesley University who camped out at Dewey Square for two weeks before packing her bags.
She said the people at Dewey Square want to talk less about the snow they had over the weekend, and more about the issues at hand. Demonstrators said that the forthcoming winter will not dampen their efforts to see some change across the nation.
The two-hour march ended with a “die-in” where protesters feigned death and laid down in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
Occupy Boston demonstrators said that they see their agenda as a small part of a bigger effort.
“A little anarchy is always good,” said Boston University College of Arts and Sciences junior Leandra Solis, a member of the BU Occupies Boston group. “People became complacent after the 70s, and more than anything else, this movement is beneficial because it’s making people think and is motivating them to become active participants in our democracy.”
Demonstrators said they were also showing their support for Scott Olsen, an Occupy protester who was hospitalized after a protest in Oakland that ended in what they called a “police attack.”
“This rally is a youthful expression of our intolerance for injustice,” said Karen Briggs, a student at Lesley University. “Occupy Boston has become known for being more serious and getting right down to the issues, but this march shows we can have a fun side, while remaining earnest about those issues most important to us.”
The final chant, “Education is a right, not just for the rich and white,” echoed off the walls of the Federal Reserve Bank and throughout Dewey Square.