The Occupy Wall Street movement made headlines all over the world last fall as New Yorkers flooded the streets of New York City to protest the dominant influence of America’s top 1 percent, leading millions of people worldwide in subsequent protest in their wake.

Shelly Wolf, an Occupy Wall Street protester and author of “Sexuality and Socialism,” spoke on Monday at Grand Valley State University, where some of students initiated an Occupy GVSU movement in October.

Wolf said she was drawn to the movement because it was for people who are organized socialists, and a few of her friends and associates were some of the first people to start the movement.

“This was a dream come true,” she said. Wolf added that uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt inspired protesters here in the U.S. At the end of 2011, Time magazine named protesters as the people of the year after the global protests and uprisings.

During the discussion, Wolf talked about many topicssuch as unemployment, race and classes in the U.S. Wolf said the Occupy Wall Street movement started in New York because of the wide range of social classes living closely together.

“You have to get your head around New York,” Wolf said, adding that 1.6 million people live below the poverty line in the city. “This is the dynamic in the city of New York.”

Wolf visited many encampments in New York City last fall, but her involvement in the movement has not stopped there. She said she also plans to help organize and attend a summit this spring for Occupy Wall Street protesters.

“(This is) an assault from the ruling class,” she said. Wolf said protesters have to have a debate about what their demands are, but many protesters want to secure health care for all U.S. citizens, increase taxes for the upper class, fight budget cuts to education and make OWS more racially integrated.

The OWS protester added that the American youths have brought a level of audacity to the movement.

“This is just the start of a generation of rebellion,” Wolf said. “You can change the world.”

The movement in New York spread all over the globe, hitting cities like Boston, Los Angeles, Detroit and Grand Rapids.

Organizers of Occupy GVSU maintained a Facebook page to communicate with fellow on-campus protestors, but the site has not been updated since October and retains only 21 members.

Occupy Grand Rapids is still going strong, though, member George Bartnick said.

“This thing is not dead,” Bartnick said. “We have a strong thread.” He said the goal of Occupy Grand Rapids, which started in early October, is to create a society in which everyone has the opportunity to succeed and live a decent life.

Occupy Grand Rapids is now focusing on local issues such as foreclosures and the elimination of “big money” out of politics.

Bartnick said some members of the movement also look to amend the U.S. constitution.

“The elite are taking unfair advantage,” he said.

Matthew Popovich-Judge of the Occupy Grand Rapids movement said the local group will march Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. from Monument Park to Bank of America.

The group is marching “to demonstrate against predatory lending practices, illegal home foreclosures, the financial sector’s role in causing the recession and the tyranny of corporate banking power,” Popovich-Judge said. “We’ll chant and scream, beat our drums and make some noise against these evil corporations that have been given undue control
of our democracy.”

For more information about the Occupy Grand Rapids movement, visit www.occupygr.org.