In New Mexico, the ’99 percent’ movement tries to ‘Unoccupy Albuquerque’

From the New Mexico Independent - By Nicolas Mendoza - In response to concerns over the term “Occupy Albuquerque”, the protest movement has renamed itself “(Un)occupy Albuquerque.” The decision was made in a general assembly meeting of protesters othe University of New Mexico campus. As the New Mexico Independent reported last week, some of the ’99 percenters’ objected to the association of the word ‘Occupy’ with what one Daily Kos contributor called “…five-hundred years of forced occupation of [Native American] lands, resources, cultures, power, and voices by the imperial powers of both Spain and the United States. A big chunk of the 99 percent has been served pretty well by that arrangement. A smaller chunk hasn’t.” The ‘Occupy’ movement has emphasized its opposition to those in the top 1 percent of the country’s income distribution, as well as the financial sector, which in recent decades has drastically increased its share of the total national income. But this emphasis has meant that many other societal tensions and grievances that have traditionally preoccupied left-wing and anti-establishment movements, such as those of the Native American community and other racial minorities, have not been a significant focus of the ’99 percenters.’ Read more

In New Mexico, the ’99 percent’ movement tries to ‘Unoccupy Albuquerque’