The dozen or so Occupy Des Moines folks who had planned an “occupation” of President Obama’s Des Moines campaign headquarters found the doors closed on this December Saturday. Read the group’s news release below:
Occupy Des Moines and Veterans for Peace demonstrators declared victory Saturday morning when they arrived at President Obama’s campaign office in Des Moines – normally open for business on Saturdays – only to find it closed down with no volunteers or staff at the office.
“We shut Obama’s office down and no work by the campaign can be conducted today,” said Megan Felt, an Occupy Des Moines protester. “We will maintain our picket outside Obama’s office all day and will greet Iowa CCI’s latino immigrant team when they arrive here at 2:30pm.”
More than a dozen people had pledged to risk arrest at today’s action, which began at 11:30am when Occupy Des Moines and Veterans for Peace descend on the president’s Iowa campaign office on 621 East 2nd Street. Latinos and immigrants with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement will arrive at the office around 2:30pm.
Veterans for Peace is demanding that President Obama “dismantle the empire” and cut military spending in half.
Occupy Des Moines will protest three decisions this week by President Obama to drop his support for a millionaire’s tax – he will instead cut Pell Grant funding to pay for payroll tax cuts rather than force the super-rich to pay their fair share – his refusal to veto a military authorization bill that allows for the indefinite detention of American civilians without trial, and his refusal not to veto a spending bill that will force a decision on an environmentally catastrophic Keystone oilsands pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
Iowa CCI members will demand an end to deportations that break families apart and immigration reform that allows everyday people and hardworking families from across the border a pathway to citizenship.
The coordinated day action with Veterans for Peace and Iowa CCI is part of Occupy Des Moines’ “Occupy Iowa Caucus” campaign . Saturday, December 17 marks the three-month anniversary of the start of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
About O.Kay Henderson
Kay is a founding member of the Radio Iowa network newsroom. In 1994, she became the network’s news director. She’s a featured reporter and commentator on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” and the 2002 recipient of the Shelley Award.
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