OCCUPY DETROIT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, November 09, 2011
CONTACT: Lee Gaddies, 313-585-8440, lee337@comcast.net
Diara Lo, 313-903-6006, cr8nit@gmail.com
Web: www.occupy-detroit.us; Twitter: @occupydetmi
Occupy Detroit and local students protest student loan debt and the presence of Chase Bank at WSU
Today Occupy Detroit joined with students, citizens and activists to protest the defunding and financialization of higher education in the United States and elsewhere.
In inclement weather, about 25 Occupy Detroit protestors marched from their base at Grand Circus Park along Woodward Avenue, escorted by up to six police cars, about 1.5 miles to the campus of Wayne State University. There they were joined by student demonstrators, where together they demanded cancellation of student loan debt, and a system of free education. These demands, it was pointed out, stand in stark contrast to the current system in which most students face increasing tuition and increasing debt, which has now reached a total of $1.0 trillion in outstanding student loans, along with diminishing employment prospects after graduation due to the greed and anarchy of Wall Street.
From the center of the WSU campus, about 50 protestors and observers marched to the University Administration Building and picketed the Chase Bank branch located on the ground floor of that building. The fact that a major contributor to the disasters of the financial crisis and the crass profitization of higher education, Chase Bank, had a cozy spot within the University Administration Building was a symbolism lost on no one at the protest. The protesters recognized that banks and financial operations essentially dictate the funding of education, and have thereby converted education from a critical social and human right, to a mere profit extraction operation which denies millions a chance at a decent education, and imposes a life of debt servitude on most students.
The protest ended at about 2:30 pm., with the promise that more would come.
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WE ARE THE 99%
By Consent of the
Media Workgroup,
Occupy Detroit
November 09, 2011
Grand Circus Park/CUMC
23 E. Adams
Detroit, Michigan 48226
http://www.occupy-detroit.us
http://www.occupy-detroit.us/donation/
