SOUTHFIELD, Mich. -- When the 2012 version of "Occupy Wall Street" emerges from hibernation, it will be after having been to school.
A coalition of liberal, union, and progressive organizations hoping to capitalize on the success of last year's Occupy movement held a series of "99% Spring Action Training" sessions in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas Saturday.
A "training" held in a meeting room at a Communications Workers of America hall on Southfield Road near 10 Mile Road, attracted 27 people interested in participating in "nonviolent direct action" to transform the Occupy movement's ambiguous goals into something concrete.
Mother-and-daughter team Anne and Jessie Mannisto, from the Detroit suburb of Northville, attended together after Jessie, 29, was invited in an email from MoveOn.org, the main sponsoring organization.
Anne Mannisto, 63, an assistant library director, said she sees the goal of 99% Spring as promoting equality and contrasted the movement with the Tea Party, which she criticized as focused on the national debt and "totally misinformed."
"I want to see the tax code reformed, the wealthy to pay their fair share. But I want to see a bigger mind-set change," Ms. Mannisto said. "Deficit reduction is not the biggest problem facing this country. Inequality is the bigger problem."
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The session lasted three hours and was based on a 60-page booklet called "The 99% Spring Training Guide." The booklet traced the history of democracy and civil-rights movements, starting with the Boston Tea Party, through union sit-down strikes of the 1930s, to Occupy Wall Street.
The class discussed ways to publicize a cause, including online petitions, letters faxed -- not mailed -- to members of Congress, and comments in social media.
Several upcoming opportunities to put their training to use came up, including "Tax Day" rallies at post offices on Tuesday and a protest at the April 25 shareholder meeting in Detroit of General Electric Co., which reportedly paid no income taxes in 2010.
Jessie said her agenda includes reversing the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling, which allows corporations, including labor unions, to spend unlimited funds to influence elections.
"We need campaign-finance reform before anything else," Jessie said. She said the training was focused on learning to hear other people's voices and included lessons in how to defuse situations that could become physical.
The class instructor, Carlos Whitmore, a Farmington Hills, Mich., real-estate agent, said he believes the upcoming protests and actions can have immediate impacts.
A Vietnam veteran who said he's put four children through college, said he became politically active in 2006 when he saw people were being misled into taking out risky mortgage loans.
"The focus is getting a better share of the resources that the nation offers. People want a job. People want their homes," Mr. Whitmore said.
One thing he wants is to require banks to go beyond reducing interest rates for people facing mortgage foreclosure to reducing principal.
"That's the only thing that's going to really give the consumer something back from this debacle we've been through," Mr. Whitmore said.
He bemoaned congressional inability to compromise on tax and budget issues.
For class participant Clara Dawkins, 66, of Southfield, Mich., the goal is to start standing up against what she sees as things going the wrong directions, such as banks devaluing homes and pensions being taxed in Michigan. Ms. Dawkins said she is a retired Detroit police officer and was sergeant-at-arms for the Detroit City Council.
"People aren't aware of things that are done by government that affect them until they pass," Ms. Dawkins said.
There were to be 925 such training sessions around the country, according to MoveOn.org. In Toledo, a 99% Spring Action Training is planned for noon Thursday at Monroe Street United Methodist Church. Preregistration is required.
Contact Tom Troy at tomtroy@theblade.com or 419-724-6058.
First Published April 15, 2012, 5:05 a.m.
