OntheWilderSide

Long Island May Day and/or Occupy participation which onthewilderside heard about:

Mt. Sinai/Brookhaven – Occupy May Day Tearwater Tea
(Ian and Kimberly attended this one) Went well. Stories read to children. Held banners on side of road. Literature table with issues like Move To Amend. Big banner read “Celebrate Peace And Justice” “99%”. There are inspiring and adorable photos at our Flickr account: here.

A 99% style protest happened in Bay Shore in front of Chase Bank. Organized by Seema.

There was an Immigrant Rights Rally connected to May Day in Hempstead.

I heard that Stony Brook University had a student/faculty speak out at 5:30

About 20 Long Islanders connected to Occupy Huntington and other Long Island occupations went as a group to the NYC event.

On FaceBook, early in the evening, Rose posted photos and video of Rose and Karen (from Suffolk Peace Network and other groups) in NYC.

A Long Island group lent its website to a May Day/NYC notification project

Please do send over any other Long Island actions you know of from yesterday. And/or reports on any of the above. We will do our best to post them if they don’t make it through the spam filters. Or write to us at: kimberlywilder06 AT yahoo DOT com

Some Press Coverage for Long Island occupiers:

from Newsday:

Christopher Moylan, 55, of Centerport, an English professor at the New York Institute of Technology who said he was a member of Occupy Huntington, said about 20 of its members were at a Bryant Park rally at midday.

“What I want to see happen is real tax reform — both on the corporate level and on an individual level,” Moylan said. “The influence of money on politics is obscene. It’s going to leave a lot of us out of the picture.”

from Long Island Press in the afternoon of May 1st:
Occupy Long Island Joins NYC May Day Rally

Quote from Charlotte Koons:

…Charlotte Koons, of Occupy Huntington, decided to celebrate her 78th birthday with other Occupy Wall Street protesters, and to “bring the occupy Long Island spirit to Bryant Park.”

She wanted to bring attention to the cuts in education and foreclosures in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Quote from Judy, a teacher:

…message to her fellow Long Islanders: “most of them are the 99 percent they have to remember that when it comes time to vote.”

And from an anonymous man from Rocky Point:

A member of Occupy Long Island, who didn’t want to give his name, said he thought May Day was an important day for the middle class, especially Long Island.

“People on Long Island have left the Island,” the Rocky Point man said. “[The] decline of the middle class has become more obvious.”

Another article at Long Island Press:

…Around 4 p.m., The Workplace Project, an immigration advocacy group, held their march in Hempstead. Though in support of Occupy Wall Street, the group is not aligned with that cause.

The march began at The Workplace Program’s Hempstead office. Supporters marched with Spanish-language picket signs, banged on their drums and shouted their message through megaphones.

Leading the group was Monica Diaz of The Workplace Project, who said that the main objective of the march was “to bring to light what the daily struggles are, and to bring voice to secluded workers in different industries, who are being abused in this country.”…

Filed under: activism, Anti-War, ian wilder, immigration, kimberly wilder, local, long island, Long Island news, Long Island Politics, News, Occupy Wall Street, progressive politics, social & economic justice, US Politics, war Tagged: | Charlotte Koons, Chase Bank, Chase Bank in Bay Shore, Christopher Moylan, Immigrant Rights March, immigration issues, long island, Long Island immigrants, Long Island May Day, Long Island occupiers, Long Island peace, May Day Hempstead, May Day on Long Island, Monica Diaz, move to amend, Occupy Huntington, Occupy Long Island, Occupy Wall Street, Stony Brook University, Tearwater Tea Party, Workplace Project