When the battle cry of the Occupy Wall Street movement arrived in Ottawa Oct. 15, Carleton student Aidan Macdonald was there.
Macdonald is one of several thousand people across the world participating in the Occupy the World movement.
It’s a movement of people fed up with our capitalist system that creates class gaps and corporations that put dollars before people, said Macdonald, a second-year master’s student in political economy.
“I think the protest takes some inspiration from the Middle East civilian uprisings,” he said, referring to the Arab Spring protests from early 2011.
The people believed their opinions and well-being was being ignored by the governments in charge and demanded either better from their government, and in most cases, new government entirely.
Similar motives can be found in the Occupy movement. The people feel capitalism is “designed to exploit us,” as Macdonald said, and are demanding the government make changes.
Macdonald said he was anxious for the movement to reach Canada and Ottawa specifically. While he’s not a rookie as far as protests are concerned, he said he considers this to be the most important and uniquely-structured protest he’s been involved in.
Having spent most of his Saturday at the general assembly in Ottawa’s Confederation Park, Macdonald had nothing but positive things to say about Occupy Ottawa.
There was “a lot of representation of people in the general assembly from different sectors of society,” Macdonald said. “It’s exciting to see so many people with different interests uniting to protest with a common purpose.”
Macdonald also expressed positivity towards the way the assembly is conducted.
“The assembly was direct democracy,” he said. “It was people working together out of consensus, trying to build a common purpose.”
After observing the general assembly in action, Macdonald joined the march to the United States embassy the following day. As interesting as it was for him to see the general assembly, he said he considered the march to be the highlight of his day.
When asked about the criticisms of the movement in Canada, Macdonald was quick to point out that “Canada and the United States have similar capitalist-style systems that place the burden of every crises on the lower class while the rich keep on prospering.”
Macdonald said he’d like to stick with the movement, participating as often as he can for as long as the movement continues.
“I was there [Oct. 16] as well, and I plan on going back,” Macdonald said.
On the subject of the movement’s future, he said, “That’s what makes Occupy the World so exciting. Unlike a rally, which happens and is then finished, the cities taking part in Occupy the World are feeding off each other giving it the potential to keep on growing.”
