(PHILADELPHIA) MintPress — As activists with the Occupy National Gathering carried on in Franklin Square, delegates with the 99 Convention ushered in blocks away at the Philadelphia Convention Center, aimed with the intent of injecting the messages started within the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement into mainstream politics.

While the two groups carry a similar list of grievances that cause frustrations, they were all but united in the city, with 99 Declaration delegates expressing concern that activists would disrupt the conference due to differences in opinion when it comes to participation in the political system that OWS activists claim is corrupt and in need of a complete overhaul.

Delegates at the 99 Convention say they’re organized action is intended to counter criticisms in the media and society that the movement isn’t doing enough. Organizing together and forming a body of decision makers is its ways of taking the message, “We are the 99 percent,” to the next level.

Those within the 99 Declaration argue the system is corrupt, but proceed with an understanding that change can only occur through participation in that very governing body.

The 99 Declaration convention was set up through the congressional model of delegate representation, with one female and one man expected to travel to Philadelphia from more than the 800 congressional districts throughout the nation. On Monday, roughly 80 delegates signed in for duty.

As delegates took their seats, organizers handed out a package, complete with the top concerns of those within the 99 Declaration movement — a list compiled through a system of online voting among elected delegates.

On the top of the list was the argument that corporations are not people — a key talking point among many at the Occupy National Gathering across the city. Other concerns, including criminal justice reform and student loan debt relief, were among the top 99 Declaration topics, highlighting the similarity between the National Gathering activists and 99 Declaration delegates.

Making change by entering the political scene

While the issues of concern are similar, the methods of change are not.

“We’re picking up where Occupy Wall Street left off,” said 99 Declaration conference chairman Alex Easton Brown. He sees the movement within politics as necessary to bring about change. He hears what the OWS activists are saying, and he largely agrees. Now, according to Brown and fellow 99ers, it’s time to get organized and enroll in the political game.

The 99 group plans to spend Monday and Tuesday discussing issues, with delegates volunteering to join a committee focussed on the top 20 concerns. From there, committees will draft declarations, which will then be presented to the entire group of delegates for a vote. If the vote is approved, the declaration stands.

Brown said the group is taking two approaches from there. For “action” items, the 99ers will be petitioning the government through legal avenues with the help of attorney Michael Pollock, the man responsible for funding the convention. He’s also the name behind the arrest of roughly 700 activists on the Brooklyn Bridge in October 2011, as he offered legal assistance to protesters. While it was a welcome relief for OWS activists at that time, the group split for Pollock when he said he wanted to take the message of Occupy to the next step, infusing it with mainstream politics.

For non actions, Brown said a simply declaration with be filed with members of Congress, in the hopes that their concerns will be regarded in the political system.

Occupy says no to Congress, yes to streets

Roughly 200 National Gathering activists took the streets Monday in Philadelphia as the business world wrapped up its workday, disrupting traffic and spreading a message of solidarity with Communication Workers of America, Chapter 13000, a union representing Verizon and Comcast workers in the city.

Interspersed in chants for fair wages and collective bargaining, Occupy activists shed light on their displeasure of Citizens United, which deemed donations of money on behalf of people as the free speech of citizens. Activists see the corporations as the ruling factor on American democracy — in both the Republican and Democratic campaigns. Donating millions to political parties is nothing short of a buyout of politicians, they claim.

While that’s a view shared by the 99 Declaration, delegates largely don’t see marching and occupying areas as the sole method for change.

Activists, on the other hand, say disrupting the flow of American life can lead to education of their message within mainstream society, if that message is effectively communicated.

“The way I see things is that a lot of people have the same goals. And just as Chris Hedges said last night, mainstream wants this to happen and everyone is figuring out a way to understand the symbols and the language and the solutions,” said Brandi Williams, an Occupy activist from Fort Collins, Colo. “And so to me, the 99 declaration seems like they’re just another road to the same destination as what natgat is trying to do — it’s just different philosophies and different ways of getting there.”

The presence of Occupy activists certainly couldn’t be ignored Saturday afternoon, as protesters descended on the plaza in front of Verizon’s headquarters in Philadelphia, across from an outdoor restaurant seating tourists and resident enjoying a dinner in the warm summer sun.

To view pictures from the Occupy National Gathering, click here.