By David Greene

This past Saturday, demonstrators from the nascent Occupy the Bronx movement joined forces with old guard grassroots organizers from the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition to collectively call out big banks for their role in creating in the country’s economic crisis.

But first, each group held their own separate assemblies on opposite ends of Fordham Road.

Occupy the Bronx, born out of the five-week-old Occupy Wall Street movement, returned to Fordham Plaza for the second week in a row. The occupiers downtown and in the Bronx appear focused on a fostering a new economic system that would more equitably distribute wealth and resources.

Assemblyman Jose Rivera stood quietly on the sidelines for the second week in a row, filming demonstrators with his video camera.

“Upon hearing about Occupy Wall Street, I went downtown to Zuccotti Park to see for myself what was going on there and I met some familiar faces from the Bronx,” Rivera said, adding the protesters “don’t need to be discouraged, they need to be encouraged to get involved in the issues that affect us every day.”

The crowd gave a warm welcome to New York-based attorney William F. Pepper, who was friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the height of the Civil Rights movement and, at the request of Dr. King’s family, would later represent James Earl Ray, King’s alleged assassin.

Pepper, who alleged a government conspiracy in Dr. King’s death, is also a key member in the, “9/11 Truth movement,” that charges government involvement in the September 11th attacks.

In his remarks to the assembled crowd in Fordham Plaza, Pepper talked about an effort to put the money going to fund the Vietnam War effort back into domestic programs. “The goal was to occupy the nation’s capital and attempt to get Congress to return to the budget all of the money that was being spent on the war,” he said.

He attributed the failure of that effort to King’s death. Because the Occupy movement has no official leader, Pepper said “neither the government or the media can focus on an individual leader.” For this reason, Pepper predicted that the movement would not be silenced.

As, “Occupy Fordham,” broke up into smaller working groups, more than 300 Bronxites gathered at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church on University Avenue and Fordham Road, where the Coalition held its annual public meeting. It was attended by several elected officials including Comptroller John Liu, Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, Councilman Oliver Koppell and State Senator Gustavo Rivera.

Talk at the meeting focused on a lack of institutional support for under-performing public schools, the contamination problems at PS 51’s former Bedford Park building (and the DOE’s lack of response to parents’ concerns), the need to redevelop and get good jobs out of the vacant Kingsbridge Armory and their support for the so-called Living Wage bill in the City Council.

Regarding the closing of several under-performing schools, including Samuel Gompers High School, Arroyo said she felt just as ill-informed as parents. “A young woman said before that parents are the last to know,” Arroyo said. “Well I have news for you, City Council members are the last to know what the plans (are) of the Department of Education.”

Assemblyman Dinowitz continued on the topic of what to do with under-performing schools, “It’s more than just saving our schools,” he said. “Saving our schools suggests that we want to keep what we have and make sure they don’t go completely down. [But] we want to make sure we have schools of excellence in our communities.”

After the meeting Gustavo Rivera stressed the need for unity. “I just believe if we’re going to actually get something done on any of these issues, the best way to do that is to work together.”

Rivera, who said he’d joined demonstrators at Zuccotti Park two weeks earlier, talked about the Occupy movement in general “I agree with their basic point, that there has been nobody found responsible — the people that helped destroy our economic system — and that the rest of us are paying for it,” he said.

Following the Coalition’s meeting, a diverse crowd of about 100 demonstrators marched east across Fordham Road and met up with a crowd of about 100 occupiers, protesting outside of three banks on Fordham Road.

Many in the crowd would later board two charter busses and head to a larger rally at Union Square. Others took the train.