Although part of the same national movement, Jack Sigel on Monday provided a stark contrast to the growing, sometimes contentious Occupy Chicago protest in Evanston’s big-city neighbor.
The Evanston resident stood at the corner of Orrington Avenue and Church Street, clutching a cardboard box on which a simple message was printed in all-caps font: “OCCUPY EVANSTON – PEOPLE OVER PROFITS.”
More than a dozen miles south of Sigel’s set-up, a couple hundred demonstrators banged drums, cheered as passing car horns blared and chanted their frustrations at the Federal Reserve Bank towering behind them.
The difference isn’t lost on the one-man Occupy Evanston. Sigel believes the movement – already a countrywide fascination – will spread to Chicago’s closest suburb and its 8,000-strong University.
“I’d be surprised if it could happen everywhere else and around the world but not here in Evanston,” Sigel said Monday afternoon, his third nonconsecutive day on site after first demonstrating Thursday and Friday.
Graduate student Debbie Goldgaber agreed it’s only a matter of time before Evanston hosts its own Occupy movement. Goldgaber was one of hundreds of Occupy Chicago protesters arrested over the weekend for defying Grant Park’s curfew rule.
Goldgaber said she is currently coordinating a “general assembly-style” event that would involve various student organizations Friday at The Rock. The on-campus rally would highlight mounting student debt, a key tenet of the Occupy mission, she added.
“It’s really just to facilitate undergraduate organization,” Goldgaber said. “It’s not just to force it. We are willing to help them out.”
Some protesters said Monday that Occupy Chicago could successfully – and soon – branch out to Evanston.
Chris Skowronski, a 41-year-old countertop builder from Elmhurst, said the Occupy motive is universal – everyone’s “tired of getting screwed” by corporate America.
“It’s going to get bigger,” he said. “It’s affected everybody – no matter what you’re making.”
Skowronski’s own income was recently slashed in half after he was laid off as a machinist and that job was relocated to China. Now, he said he “works for the 1 percent,” referring to the top income bracket against which Occupy participants are railing.
“I make their kitchens,” Skowronski said, smirking.
Another Occupy Chicago demonstrator, Matthew Eng, echoed Skowronski’s claim that the Occupy purpose resonates everywhere.
Eng, a 23-year-old Notre Dame University worker, said he could “for sure” envision suburban Occupy efforts in the near future. He pointed to his workplace’s location, South Bend, Ind., as a prime example of the Occupy movement’s reach.
There, 10 to 15 regular protesters have gathered each day since earlier this month, Eng said. Despite the small turnout, the South Bend endeavor symbolizes how “just having someone there” advances the overall cause, he added.
But Eng said an effective protest is less about numbers and more about netting material and emotional support, ranging from tent donations to simply supportive motorists.
Plus, expressing a clear purpose is of paramount concern to Eng.
“Have more regulation on banking,” he said when asked about his core goal. “The main reason I’m here? The gap in income inequality. And how to fix that.”
Meanwhile, Sigel is showing no signs of backing down from his post in downtown Evanston.
As a board member of Chicago Area Peace Action, he said he is seeking further support from his colleagues and will most likely receive it some time this week.
“I think there’s so much going on,” Sigel said. “So many people are interested in this. It gives so many people a sense of empowerment that it’s only a matter of time before more people get out here.”
Susan Du contributed reporting.
