Protest divides over its name

The Albuquerque chapter of the movement that protests corporate greed and socioeconomic imbalance split last week over disagreements regarding the name of the movement.

The movement was originally named Occupy Burque. It then became Occupy Albuquerque and then changed to (un)Occupy Albuquerque when some members of the movement said the term “occupy” is offensive to indigenous people.

Some members of the movement have branched off to once again be known as Occupy Albuquerque in order to keep its name as close as possible to Occupy Wall Street, the movement both Occupy and (un)Occupy Albuquerque are in solidarity with.

(un)Occupy Albuquerque protesters continue to meet at Yale Park on UNM campus. Occupy Albuquerque meets at Studio 504 on Yale Boulevard.

“The main disagreement is over the name,” (un)Occupy protester James Ran said. “We just felt like (un)Occupy was honoring Native Americans and we wanted to keep it, while the other movement wants to relate to what is going on nationally a little more.”

Ran said the organizations continue to work together toward the same goals.

“We are still working together, and coordinating our efforts and we plan to have events together in the future, but for right now, we are going to be visible at Yale Park, and they are going to be doing other things elsewhere,” he said.

Occupy protester Erica Estes told KOB both groups are hoping to prevent foreclosures. Estes said the Occupy movement sees itself as more aggressive than (un)Occupy.

“We want to have a system in place so that within half an hour we could have 30-50 people show up to house, anything from linking arms to prevent the authorities from entering,” she said.

The (un)Occupy protesters are collecting comments from students at Yale Park to present to the New Mexico Legislature, meeting with local residents experiencing a home foreclosure and generating a list of possible foreclosures, which they say they plan to protest.