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'Occupiers' march through Oxford

Protestors march through Oxford and Miami University’s campus in support of the nationwide “Occupy” movement Thursday afternoon. The protestors were demonstrating against high tuition and high unemployment, amongst other issues.
Protestors march through Oxford and Miami University’s campus in support of the nationwide “Occupy” movement Thursday afternoon. The protestors were demonstrating against high tuition and high unemployment, amongst other issues.

Justin Reash, Community Editor

Protestors march through Oxford and Miami University’s campus in support of the nationwide “Occupy” movement Thursday afternoon. The protestors were demonstrating against high tuition and high unemployment, amongst other issues. (JULIA ENGELBRECHT | The Miami Student)

Amid the nationwide "Occupy Wall Street" movement sits Oxford, Ohio. Nov. 17 marked the day of action for many chapters of the Occupy movement, including Oxford's. The "MU Occupy" chapter took to Uptown Park today in a show of solidarity for the movement nationwide. Starting at noon, a group of six protestors held signs, spoke aloud about their cause and were even waving an American flag. The "MU Occupy" chapter has worked through Facebook and other social networking sites in the lead up to this rally, according to Miami University sophomore Alex Finch.

"Occupy Oxford is a show of solidarity with all the other occupy movements," Finch said. "It's a broken system. I don't want to graduate and not have a job."

The group was also trying to raise awareness of how bad the economy actually is, especially for students.

"There are lots of things that apply specifically to students, I mean student loans how overpowering that system is, and how students are graduating with $60,000 in debt and can only find a job flipping burgers at McDonalds," Justin McCollum of Hamilton, Ohio said.

Finch said the movement isn't just students.

"It's not only students," Finch said. " If you look at the town of Oxford and see how many people are below the poverty line, which are thousands, it's people who are trying to make their living and haven't been able to find jobs in years".

According to McCollum, the movement is also about how rights for Americans have been eroding slowly but surely over time.

"We don't have control over our government, and for a long time, people have been saying, ‘oh it's been good' but I completely disagree," McCollum said.

McCollum went on to explain that he would reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which effectively introduced modern banking reforms, that was repealed in 1999.

"Basically, it prohibits banks from engaging in negative transactions that are bad for the investors but good for the CEOs", McCollum said. "I want to see it reinstated so that high-frequency trading will be stopped".

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Montana Luken is also from Hamilton and came to Oxford to support the movement. According to Luken, the biggest issue facing young adults is the high cost of college education.

"The schools raise tuition rates which causes you to pay back loans, which makes college a for profit system," Luken said. "The lack of access is part of the reason that the American workforce is less valuable then it used to be."

As the Occupy movement enters into its second month of existence, it is hard to discredit the amount of manpower it has generated, especially as seen through the "MU Occupy" chapter's demonstration.