Occupy JP to hold ‘Hard Times’ march Dec. 4

Occupy JP will hold its first public event on Sunday: a Centre Street march called the “Economic Hard Times Tour of JP.”

The march, which begins at 1 p.m. in Monument Square, will involve handing out informational leaflets about budget cuts to social services and how they impact Jamaica Plain, said Occupy JP spokesperson Michael Russell.

The march will stick to Centre Street, but Russell could not say exactly how far it will go or how long it will last.

Occupy JP is a local version of the Occupy Wall Street movement intended to sustain the economic protest by rooting it in neighborhoods. Key organizers of Occupy JP also were involved in the ongoing Occupy Boston protest downtown.

Occupy JP members also will join in a downtown march on Saturday to support the rights of undocumented workers. That march is organized by another neighborhood-based Occupy group, East Boston’s Ocupemos El Barrio.

There was confusion earlier this week about whether Occupy JP would be holding an actual “occupation” on the lawn of First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist, also in Monument Square. The church said no such protest had been discussed or permitted. Russell clarified to the Gazette that the lawn demonstration was actually intended to be unoccupied tents in a “symbolic” display. He said it is unclear why Occupy JP members thought permission for that was in place when the church says it was not.

For more information on Occupy JP, see occupyjp.org.

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