Seasoned protesters and first-time activists alike brought the “Occupy” movement to Eugene Saturday, setting up camp indefinitely in the downtown area to send a unified message for change to the nation’s corporate elite.
“To be an effective member of a community you have to move with it,” University freshman Coby Wikselaar@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Coby+Wikselaar@@ said of participating.
Aligned with similar protests being held in cities around the world, organizers of Occupy Eugene identify the demonstration as a “nonviolent movement for accountability in the United States government.”@@http://www.myeugene.org/2011/10/14/occupy-eugene-to-march-through-streets-as-part-of-global-protest-photos/@@
“This movement’s about uniting 99 percent of this country to fight,” Eugene resident Dennis Antonson said,@@http://www.facebook.com/people/Dennis-Antonson/1033085403@@ referring to the movement’s goal.

“The current political model dictates that a small group of people govern an entire population,” Antonson said. This only works, he says, “if the people accept being governed.”
The Occupy movement began with a call from Adbusters magazine,@@http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/10/14/occupy-canada-adbusters.html@@ an anti-corporate magazine based out of Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada, for citizens to gather in Zuccotti Park in New York City to voice their criticism of issues such as economic inequality and corporate greed. On Sept. 17, Occupy Wall Street began.
Relying heavily on social media to unite supporters, the movement quickly spread to other American cities and soon became international. By the beginning of October demonstrations in support of Occupy Wall Street had popped up everywhere from Rome to Hong Kong.
As of Sunday, 1,861 cities were listed as participants on the Occupy website, Meetup.com.
In Eugene, Saturday’s activity began with a march of 2,000 people from the Wayne Morse Freedom of Speech Plaza at East 8th Avenue and Oak Street  in downtown Eugene across the Ferry Street Bridge. Following the march, a smaller group — around 100 to 150 people — returned to the intersection to set up camp in the park blocks.
Demonstrators say they intend to camp in the area for as long as the city allows it.
“This is what I do now,” said Big John, a member of the group. Big John has been unemployed for four years and said he was immediately motivated to get involved. “I was itching to get down here. So many things are messed up, so many people are out of work.”
The activists themselves are organized. They plan to hold general assembly meetings daily and have established specific committees covering everything from community outreach to finances. First-aid tents and a makeshift kitchen have already been set up with food and supply donations flowing in steadily from the community.
However, the movement itself in Eugene and other cities has still not formalized specific demands, nor have they established leaders. Some say the movement is too broad and unorganized to cause any real change.
“There needs to be more cohesion with this movement and a little bit better leadership,” a Eugene community member who wished to remain anonymous said at Saturday’s march.
Demonstrators, however, presented a more positive look on the movement’s apparent lack of focus.
“That’s the beautiful thing about it, that we don’t have set demands,” Antonson said. “It has room to grow.”
For other demonstrators, the purpose of getting involved was not to make demands but to bring awareness and to spark civil action they say is necessary to enact future changes.
University students involved in the activism, for example, voiced optimism that the movement could bring new focus to the rising costs of higher education.
“Students shouldn’t be priced out of an education,” University sophomore Jeremy Hedlund said.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=student&d=person&b=name&s=Jeremy+Hedlund@@
“When other countries get to the level of debt that we’re at, they do something,” Hedlund added, noting recent social movements in countries like Chile and Spain in which students have taken over their universities and have stalled classes demanding education reform. “We should take the power back and do something.”