Local Author Suggests Goal for Protesters

On the heels of arrests and legal battles at the original Occupy Wall Street protest in New York, as well as the ongoing struggle between police and occupiers in Oakland, concerns over the viability of the Occupy movement nationwide have begun to surface. Local homeless advocate and author Richard Troxell has some suggestions for protesters in Austin and around the nation he says will give their movement staying power. 

“Power is going to speak to power,” says Troxell, who is a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless and author of Looking Up at the Bottom Line: The Struggle for the Living Wage.  

“They need to pull out the list – maybe a five-point list – and their list should be short and succinct, concrete and it should offer solutions. The issues will speak for themselves – they just have to start it there.”

Troxell says the Occupy movement is spotlighting the issue of economic inequality – something he’s spent years of his life researching. 

“We have a very serious problem that’s eroding the socio-economic base of this country, which is affecting the entire middle class of this country.  We have to work together for positive answers to these very serious questions so that everybody feels that their needs are being met.”

KUT News will have the latest on the Occupy Austin protesters tomorrow morning during Morning Edition.