Occupy LA protestor Morris Griffin calls for investment in “manufacturing, green energy, and livable wage jobs.” Paul Laverack / El Nuevo Sol.
By PAUL LAVERACK
EL NUEVO SOL
Morris Griffin, a protestor at Occupy Los Angeles interviewed on Day 50 of the occupation – November 19, 2011 – demonstrated the creative nature of solutions to social problems which have emerged from the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Griffin laid out the basics of his plan to allocate state lottery money – which he claimed is presently being misdirected – into a massive public & private employment project, which would provide living-wage jobs to thousands of California citizens.
Everywhere one looked in the Occupy Los Angeles encampment, there were people with interesting, innovative ideas for alleviating the economic crisis. Whether or not they would stand ultimate scrutiny by a panel of experts was, considering the short duration of the encampment, less important than the simple fact that the discussion – among citizens rather than elites or technocrats – was engaged in earnest. An environment like Occupy LA was fertile ground for a thousand such ideas to sprout.
While Los Angeles police mowed through the City Hall lawn in the early hours of November 30, expelling all the protestors and arresting 290 of them, it remains to be seen where or when the Occupy Wall Street movement will spring up anew.
Tags: big money griff encampment living wage morris griffin occupy la occupy los angeles occupy wall street protest social movement state lottery
