As demonstrators in cities and countries around the world take to the streets in the name of Occupy Wall Street, not one but two Occupy movements are taking shape here on the Island, one virtual and one decidedly not.

The first began last weekend with a Facebook page called “Occupy Martha’s Vineyard.” Within a few days, the page had attracted 189 friends, several of whom have posted stories of their personal economic struggles as a way of connecting with the movement.

Standing in solidarity with movements worldwide. — Alison Mead

The second — Occupy Wall Street Martha’s Vineyard (OWS MV) — coalesced on Thursday morning when about 20 protestors and several dogs braced the rain and wind to stand under the Oak Bluffs sign on the big bridge. The organizer of Thursday’s event, Sam Low, called that gathering a sort of “kick off” event to get a local Occupy movement going.

“I’ve been following this whole movement from the beginning and have become more and more entranced with it as a grassroots movement centered around many different issues,” said Mr. Low, a photographer and freelance writer who now lives year-round in Oak Bluffs.

What began four weeks ago on New York’s Wall Street as a loosely organized protest against wealth inequity and corporate influence in government has been growing in strength and purpose over the last month. Rallies in cities throughout the U.S. and abroad have taken up the broad themes of the original protestors.

Mas Kimball and Sam Low at the big bridge. — Alison Mead

Mr. Low, who had started a Facebook group on Income Inequality about six months ago, was moved by the Occupy protests he saw in the media to organize a group here.

“We may be isolated physically from the mainland, but one of the reasons for starting the process is to allow us to also join in.”

A similar impulse seems to have sparked the Occupy Martha’s Vineyard Facebook page, which so far is entirely on line. The purpose, according to the page, is “to give a voice to those that might otherwise remain silent. A lot of people think the Islanders have no struggles. They think it’s all wealthy millionaires . . . there is poverty here and I’d like to start a discussion about it and how it relates to what’s going on with our corrupted government . . . how has this impacted the Islanders?”

Occupy Martha’s Vineyard invited “friends” to share their individual stories as they relate to the movement. A post on their page asked, “How many of you would be willing to share what’s going on in your life . . . the struggle just to put food on the table . . . the high unemployment . . . the great divide between the super wealthy and the working poor on the Island. Is there anyone out there? You can be anonymous . . . there has to be a level of trust here.”

Several posts quickly appeared on the Facebook site.

Jessica wrote, “I am 36 years old. I just got fired from my job because I had to have surgery. I am a mother of five and a full-time college student. If I go to work somewhere else to support my family, I do not qualify for Medicaid. If I do not go to work, my children will not have lights. Did I mention I am not well yet. I know people have to make hard decisions everyday. I have no problem with that or working hard, but I do not believe as Americans we should have to choose between having health care and taking care of your family. The way things are set up people have to lie or get divorced to get medical care. Why not just take care of our people? Then, they can go on with marriage and working without consequence. I am one of the 99 per cent.”

And in the true spirit of social media, Delilah responded. “The same thing happened with my husband and (me). He was ordered by his doctor to go on temporary medical leave due to a slipped disk he needed surgery on. Two days after he went on leave they fired him,” she wrote.

While Occupy Wall Street Martha’s Vineyard and Occupy Martha’s Vineyard have yet to connect and become one group, their solidarity is apparent online. Mr. Low posted a flyer on the other’s Facebook site inviting all to join Thursday’s demonstration.

Mr. Low’s idea is to gather Island residents under each of the six town’s signs and take a picture of the protest. A flyer he created stated, “This is a small but hopefully significant way of showing support. Imagine residents from thousands of towns doing the same thing.” Mr. Low says it’s a simple way to get people involved. “You can imagine if people did that all overit’s easy to do.”

Solidarity on a regional level is also apparent in the posts on the Facebook page from a variety of Occupy groups, including Occupy Boston and Occupy Cape Cod. Almost as soon as Occupy Martha’s Vineyard created their profile, Occupy Cape Cod reached out by posting, “If you send us your event info we will repost it on our sites and add it to our journal. If you have any pictures of any of your events forward them and we’ll add them to the Cape Cod album.”

Occupy Cape Cod has an active Twitter following and has been organizing demonstrations in Falmouth and Hyannis. State Senator Dan Wolf gave a rallying speech to 75 Occupy Cape Cod demonstrators at a protest in Hyannis last week.

Some Islanders are participating in demonstrations off-Island as well. West Tisbury resident Jonah Lipsky, who attends Bennington College in Vermont, has been active in the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York.

“It is awesome,” he said. “People are no longer stopped by apathy — people are coming into the streets to protest in a nonviolent way. They are protesting so many things. From the outside, it may appear to be disorganized or lack a central demand. It IS organized. Very organized.”

Most of those who braved the bad weather Thursday to protest were over 50.

Among them was Mas Kimball of Oak Bluffs, who said he recently became involved in the Occupy Boston movement as well as Occupy Together, a Web-based international movement. “I see that politics is really broken in our country and something has to happen . . . hopefully this is the beginning,” he said. Mr. Kimball, who came to the Island to retire, is the chair of MV Democrats and worked on the Obama campaign in Florida.

Oak Bluffs resident Genevieve Abbott attended the demonstration because she wanted to “show solidarity” for New York and Boston. “We can’t easily get off-Island and join these people.”

“Many of us are deeply concerned with issues such as the increasing inequality in income,“said Mr. Low. “I don’t think this is a class issue. The inequality of income has become so extreme. Very few of us who live on the Vineyard are in the one per cent or even the 10 per cent.”