BRUNSWICK
On Tuesday, Bowdoin College students representing the Occupy Wall Street movement will host a teach-in to discuss the significance of the national protests, which began in New York more than two months ago.
The national protests have taken on “We are the 99%” as a rallying cry, arguing against economic injustice and the consolidation of wealth by corporate leaders.
Robbie Benson, the Bowdoin College group’s lead organizer, said Tuesday’s panel will be the first official Occupy event on campus.
“We’re trying to create a discussion on campus and engage one another,” Benson said. “We’re asking what (the protesters) are trying to achieve and we’re trying to get like-minded people in the same room to ask what we want to do and how we can move forward with this.”
Benson said a visit to the Boston Occupy encampment in early October inspired him to discuss the movement with friends on campus. From that conversation, Benson said, the group decided against occupying a location on campus and began outlining plans that evolved into Tuesday’s forum.
“ We thought the way to move forward is to get people talking and debating and asking questions,” Benson said, “and this is the best way: By bringing professors and activists in and having us in one central location.”
On the panel
Benson said Tuesday’s panel will include professor Kristen R. Ghodsee, director of the Gender and Women’s Studies Department, who will speak about the socioeconomics of the movement; visiting assistant professor Nicholas Toloudis, who will speak about the protest movement in a historical context; and Lisa Savage, coordinator of the Maine chapter of the activist group Code Pink, who will speak about activism in Maine and the Occupy Maine protests that began in Portland.
Benson said he hopes bringing the discussion to campus will raise awareness of “gross inequality in this country.”
“ We’re in a position to change that,” Benson said. “My classmates at Bowdoin are going to be the leaders of the future, and we can’t sit on the sidelines while there is so much pain in this country.”
One aim of the group is to “change the dialogue” at the elite liberal arts school, Benson said.
Asked about being a student at one of the nation’s most expensive colleges while supporting protests of plutocracy, Benson invoked images of the Civil Rights movement. “It wasn’t just African-Americans marching — there were white Americans and people from all social classes,” Benson said. “ If something is wrong or unjust, you don’t need to be the one who the injustice is being perpetrated to — everyone can stand up and say something is wrong.”
Tuesday’s teach- in will begin at 4 p.m. at Smith Auditorium in Sills Hall and will continue “until it ends,” Benson said.
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