Occupy Spring Rally will be Monday April 16 from 11-1 at Rep. Fred Upton's office on Ship St. in St. Joe, Michigan

Occupy Southwest Michigan and Occupy Niles is an otherwise unaffiliated group of concerned citizens like you and me, who have come together around one organizing principle: We will not remain passive as our institutions of government become the means of enforcing the will of only 1-2% of the population who control the magnitude of American wealth.

Occupy Niles is an exercise in participatory democracy. We feel we can no longer make our voices heard as we watch our votes for change usher in the same old power structure time and time again. Since we cannot longer trust our elected representatives to represent us rather than their large donors, we are creating a microcosm of what democracy really looks like. We do this to inspire one another to speak up. It is a reminder to our representatives and the moneyed interests that direct them: we the people still know our power.

We are holding at least weekly rallies, at which citizens can come and voice their concerns. We have a participatory democracy system at the rallies where we vote as a group to list grievances.