The 99 Percenters have brought their protest to the Navy.
Or so it looks. Maybe. A Twitter account, @OccupyNavy, was registered, complete with a profile linking to an organization called Occupy Together, a clearinghouse for all the various “Occupy” protests. There’s also a similar account for veterans, the Air Force, Marine Corps, Army and Coast Guard.
Occupy Together calls itself “a hub for all of the events springing up across the country in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. As we have followed the news on Facebook, Twitter and the various live feeds across the Internet, we felt compelled to build a site that would help spread the word as more protests organize across the country. We hope to provide people with information about events that are organizing, ongoing, and building across the U.S. as we, the 99%, take action against the greed and corruption of the 1%.”
Exactly what Occupy Navy is after is unclear, nor is is known whose interests Occupy Navy has in mind. Is it service members? Or taxpayers who don’t like the national defense budget? Are members looking for cuts in defense spending? Better benefits for service members? More comfortable berthing? Among other economic factors, 99 Percenters have lamented the high national unemployment rate. But so far, Occupy Navy has made no reference to Perform to Serve, enlisted retention boards or forced early retirement for officers that would send sailors into a hardscrabble job market.
If you’re really interested, you can contact Occupy Navy. Per the Twitter feed, they’re looking for someone to run the account. You may have to play catch-up. As of this post, the feed hadn’t been updated in at least five hours and has a total of 22 posts. Occupy Marines had more than 1,600.