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Occupy Wall Street

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Occupy Wall Street
Part of the Occupy movement
Poster depicting a female ballerina pirouetting on the back of the Charging Bull statue on Wall Street; on the street behind her, a line of gas-masked rioters struggle through smoke. Text on the poster reads: "What is our one demand?#OCCUPYWALLSTREET September 17th. Bring Tent."
Adbusters poster for the first protest, September 17, 2011
DateSeptember 17, 2011 (2011-09-17) – ongoing
(13 years, 1 month, 1 week and 1 day)
Location
Caused byWealth inequality, Corporate influence of government, Populism, (in support of) Social Democracy, inter alia.
Methods
StatusOngoing
Number
Zuccotti Park

Other activity in NYC:

  • 2,000+ marchers
    (march on police headquarters, October 2, 2011)[1]
  • 700+ marchers arrested
    (crossing Brooklyn Bridge, October 3, 2011)[2]
  • 15,000+ marchers
    (Lower Manhattan solidarity march, October 5, 2011)[3]
  • 6,000+ marchers
    (Times Square recruitment center march, October 15, 2011)[4]

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a protest movement that began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district. OWS was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters and has led to Occupy protests and movements around the world. The OWS protests are against social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial services sector. Their slogan, We are the 99%, addresses the growing income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. To effect change OWS engages in "direct action" instead of petitioning authorities.[5]

Origins

Occupy Wall Street has roots in the British student protests of 2010, Greece's and Spain's anti-austerity protests of the "indignados" (indignants), as well as the Arab Spring protests.[6] But the more immediate series of events which lead to the protest started with email conversations between Kalle Lasn, founder of the Canadian-based Adbusters Media Foundation and Micah White, Adbuster's senior editor.[7] The two had the idea for an occupation of lower Manhattan in early June 2011. Lasn registered the OccupyWallSteet.org web address on June 9th.[7] Early in June, Adbusters sent its subscribers an email saying that “America needs its own Tahrir,” and according to Micah White the idea "was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world.”[8][7] In a blog post on July 13 of 2011[9] , Adbusters proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, the lack of legal consequences for those who brought about the global crisis of monetary insolvency, and an increasing disparity in wealth.[8] The protest was promoted with an image featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull statue.[10][11][12]

The series of events which culminated in the formation of the New York General Assembly (NYGA) began in June and July when a group called New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts (NYAB), began promoting a “People’s General Assembly” to “Oppose Cutbacks And Austerity Of Any Kind”. On August 2 NYAB met in Bowling Green Park. Activist, anarchist and anthropologist David Graeber and several of his associates also attended the NYAB meeting, but grew frustrated when they found out that the event was not a "general assembly" which rules by consensus created by group discussions. Rather, the event was intended to be merely a precursor to marching on Wall Street with a corpus of predetermined demands such as "An end to oppression and war!" In response, Graeber and his small group began their own general assembly, which eventually drew all the remaining attendees from the NYAB meeting and eventually developed into the New York General Assembly. The group began to hold weekly meetings to work out the issues and direction of the movement, such as whether or not to have a set of demands, the formation of working groups and whether or not to have leaders. [13] Graeber argues that the Occupy movement is based on the philosophy of anarchism.[14] The internet group Anonymous encouraged its readers to take part in the protests.[15] Other groups began joining to assist in organization, including the U.S. Day of Rage,[16] and the NYC General Assembly.[17] The protest itself began on September 17; a Facebook page for the demonstrations began two days later on September 19 featuring a YouTube video of earlier events. By mid-October, Facebook listed 125 Occupy-related pages.[18]

Protesters near the New York police department's headquarters

The original location of choice by the protesters was 1 Chase Plaza, the site of the "Charging Bull" sculpture. Police discovered this before the protest began and fenced off the location. Nearby Zuccotti Park was then chosen. Since the park was private property police could not legally force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the property owner.[19] At a press conference held the same day the protests began, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg explained, "people have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we'll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it."[17]

Because of its connection to the financial system, lower Manhattan has seen many riots and protests since the 1800s,[20] and OWS has been compared to other historical protests in the United States. Writing for CNN, Sonia Katyal and Eduardo Peñalver said that "A straight line runs from the 1930s sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan, to the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins to the occupation of Alcatraz by Native American activists in 1969 to Occupy Wall Street. Occupations employ physical possession to communicate intense dissent, exhibited by a willingness to break the law and to suffer the -- occasionally violent -- consequences."[21] Commentators have put OWS within the political tradition of other movements which made themselves known by occupation of public spaces, such as Coxey's Army in 1894, the Bonus Marchers in 1932, and the May Day protesters in 1971.[22][23]

More immediate prototypes for OWS include the British student protests of 2010, Greece's and Spain's anti-austerity protests of the "indignados" (indignants), as well as the Arab Spring protests.[6] These antecedents have in common with OWS a reliance on social media and electronic messaging to circumvent the authorities, as well as the feeling that financial institutions, corporations, and the political elite have been malfeasant in their behavior toward youth and the middle class.[6][24] Occupy Wall Street, in turn, gave rise to the Occupy movement in the United States and around the world.[25][26][27]

Goals

Some journalists have criticized the protests saying it is difficult to discern a unified aim for the movement, while other commentators, such as Douglas Rushkoff, have said that although the movement is not in complete agreement on its message and goals, it does center on the problem that "investment bankers working on Wall Street [are] getting richer while things for most of the rest of us are getting tougher". According to Rushkoff, "... we are witnessing America's first true Internet-era movement, which -- unlike civil rights protests, labor marches, or even the Obama campaign -- does not take its cue from a charismatic leader, express itself in bumper-sticker-length goals and understand itself as having a particular endpoint".[28]

Some protesters want, in part, more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics.[28][29] Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn has compared the protests to the Situationists and the Protests of 1968 movements[27][30] and addresses critics saying that while no one person can speak for the movement, he believes that the goal of the protests is economic justice, specifically, a "transaction tax" on international financial speculation, the reinstatement of the Glass-Stegall Act and the revocation of corporate personhood.[31]

The General Assembly, the governing body of the OWS movement, has adopted a “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City,” which includes a list of grievances against corporations,[32] and to many protesters a general statement is enough. However, saying, "‘Power concedes nothing without a demand' " others within the movement have favored a fairly concrete set of national policy proposals.[33] One group has written an unofficial document, "The 99 Percent Declaration”, that calls for a national general assembly of representatives from all 435 congressional districts to gather on July 4, 2012, to assemble a list of grievances and solutions.[34] OWS protesters preferring a looser set of goals have written another document, the Liberty Square Blueprint; an early version read: "Demands cannot reflect inevitable success. Demands imply condition, and we will never stop. Demands cannot reflect the time scale that we are working with."[35] The demand for demands itself has been criticized by figures like Judith Butler and David Graeber, who argue that issuing demands is counterproductive for the Occupy movement, as this legitimizes the very structures the movement seeks to challenge.[36][37]

On March 17th, Occupy leaders declared the six-month birthday from the moment their movement started with a bold Twitter message, “In our first 6 months we changed the national conversation. In the next 6 months we will change the world.” [38] [39] The movement was mostly dormant during the winter months but avows renewed enthusiasm, larger demonstrations, and a general strike all leading into the 2012 election season. [40] [41]

We are the 99% slogan

Template:Infobox/OWS Wealth chart "Occupy" protesters' political slogan, We are the 99%, originally appeared on a Tumblr page in late August 2011.[42] [43][44] It asserts that the "99%" pay for the mistakes of the "1%".[6][45] Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center said the slogan is "arguably the most successful slogan since 'Hell no, we won't go,'" of Vietnam war era, and that the majority of Democrats, independents and Republicans see the income gap as causing friction.[46]

The top 1 percent of income earners have more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report.[47] The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate.[48] According to the CBO, between 1979 and 2007 the incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. From 1992-2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%.[49] In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.[50][51][52]

Protester demographics

Early on the protesters were mostly young, partly because social networks through which they promoted the protests are primarily used by young people.[53][54] As the protest grew, older protesters also became involved.[55] The average age of the protesters was 33, with people in their 20s balanced by people in their 40s.[56] Various religious faiths have been represented at the protest including Muslims, Jews, and Christians.[57] Rabbi Chaim Gruber,[58] however, is reportedly the only clergy member to have actually camped at Zuccotti Park. [59][60] [61]

On October 10 the Associated Press reported that "there’s a diversity of age, gender and race" at the protest.[55] Some news organizations have compared the protest to a left-leaning version of the Tea Party protests.[62]According to a survey of occupywallst.org website visitors[63] by the Baruch College School of Public Affairs published on October 19, of 1,619 web respondents, 1/3 were older than 35, half were employed full-time, 13% were unemployed and 13% earned over $75,000. When given the option of Democrat, Republican or Independent/Other 27.3% of the respondents called themselves Democrats, 2.4% called themselves Republicans, while the rest, 70%, called themselves independents.[64] A survey by Fordham University Department of Political Science confirmed and detailed this with political affiliations 25% Democrats, 2% Republican, 11% Socialist, 11% Green Party, 12% Other, and 39% who reported no party affiliation.[65] Ideologically the Fordham survey found 80% self-identifying as slightly to extremely liberal, 15% as moderate, and 6% as slightly to extremely conservative. Racially, the majority of participants are Caucasian, with one study based on survey responses at OccupyWallStreet.org reporting 81.2% White, 6.8% Hispanic, 2.8% Asian, 1.6% Black, and 7.6% identifying "other".[66][67]

Participation and organization

Protesters engaging in the 'human microphone'

The New York City General Assembly (NYCGA), held every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 7pm, is the main OWS decision-making body and provides much of the leadership and executive function for the protesters.[68] At its meetings the various OWS committees discuss their thoughts and needs, and the meetings are open to the public for both attendance and speaking. [69] The meetings are without formal leadership, although certain members routinely act as moderators. Meeting participants comment upon committee proposals using a process called a "stack", which is a queue of speakers that anyone can join. New York uses what is called a progressive stack, in which people from marginalized groups are sometimes allowed to speak before people from dominant groups, with facilitators, or stack-keepers, urging speakers to "step forward, or step back" based on which group they belong to, meaning that women and minorities may move to the front of the line, while white men must often wait for a turn to speak.[70] Volunteers take minutes of the meetings so that organizers who are not in attendance can be kept up-to-date.[71][72] In addition to the over 70 working groups[73] that perform much of the daily work and planning of Occupy Wall Street, the organizational structure also includes "spokes councils," at which every working group can participate.[74]

Even with the perception of a movement with no leaders, leaders have emerged. A facilitator of some of the movement's more contentious discussions, Nicole Carty, says “Usually when we think of leadership, we think of authority, but nobody has authority here,” - “People lead by example, stepping up when they need to and stepping back when they need to.”[75] According to Fordham University communications professor Paul Levinson, Occupy Wall Street and similar movements symbolize another rise of direct democracy that has not actually been seen since ancient times.[76][77]

Funding

During the beginning weeks of the park encampment it was reported that most of OWS funding was coming from donors with incomes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, and the median donation was $22.[56] According to finance group member Pete Dutro, OWS had accumulated over $700,000.[78] During the period that protesters were encamped in the park the funds were being used to purchase food and other necessities and to bail out fellow protesters. With the closure of the park to overnight camping on November 15, members of the OWS finance committee stated they would initiate a process to streamline the movement and re-evaluate their budget and eliminate or merge some of the "working groups" they no longer needed on a day-to-day basis.[79][80]

Met with increasing costs and significant overhead expenses in order to sustain the movement, an internal audit from the fiscal management team known as the "accounting working group" revealed on March 2nd, 2012 that only $44,000 of the several hundred thousand dollars raised still remained available. The report warned that if current revenues and expenses were maintained at current levels, then funds would run out in three weeks.[81][82] Some of the movement's biggest costs include ground-level activities such as food kitchens, street medics, bus tickets, subway passes, and printing expenses.[83] [84] On March 3rd, a group of business leaders including Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield, Danny Goldberg, Norman Lear, and Terri Gardner[85] have created a new working group, the Movement Resource Group, and with it have pledged $300,000 with plans to add $1,500,000 more. [86] [87] The money would be made available in the form of grants of up to $25,000 for eligible recipients.

Zuccotti Park encampment

Zuccotti Park with the "Occupy" encampment's 'People's Library' offering free wi-fi internet to protesters and containing over 5,000 books. It also offered weekly poetry readings on Friday nights, provided a reference service frequently staffed by professional librarians, and procured materials available through the interlibrary loan system.

Prior to being closed to overnight use, somewhere between 100 and 200 people slept in Zuccotti Park. Initially tents were not allowed and protesters slept in sleeping bags or under blankets.[88] Meal service started at a total cost of about $1,000 per day. While some visitors ate at nearby restaurants, according to the New York Post many businesses surrounding the park were adversely affected.[89][90] [91] Contribution boxes collected about $5,000 a day, and supplies came in from around the country.[89] Eric Smith, a local chef who was laid off at the Sheraton in Midtown, said that he was running a five-star restaurant in the park.[92] In late-October kitchen volunteers complained about working 18 hour days to feed people who were not part of the movement and served only brown rice, simple sandwiches, and potato chips for three days.[93]

Many protesters used the bathrooms of nearby business establishments. Some supporters donated use of their bathrooms for showers and the sanitary needs of protesters.[94]

New York City requires a permit to use "amplified sound," including electric bullhorns. Since Occupy Wall Street did not have a permit, the protesters created the "human microphone" in which a speaker pauses while the nearby members of the audience repeat the phrase in unison. The effect has been called "comic or exhilarating—often all at once." Some feel this provided a further unifying effect for the crowd.[95][96]

During the weeks that overnight use of the park was allowed, a separate area was set aside for an information area which contained laptop computers and several wireless routers.[97][98] The items were powered with gas generators until the New York Fire Department removed them on October 28, saying they were a fire hazard.[99] Protesters then used bicycles rigged with an electricity-generating apparatus to charge batteries to power the protesters' laptops and other electronics.[100] According to the Columbia Journalism Review's New Frontier Database, the media team, while unofficial, ran websites like Occupytogether.org, video livestream, a "steady flow of updates on Twitter, and Tumblr" as well as Skype sessions with other demonstrators.[101]

Zuccotti Park, cleared and cleaned on November 15, 2011

On October 6, Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, issued a statement saying: "Sanitation is a growing concern... Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every weeknight [but] because the protesters refuse to cooperate ... the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16 and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels."[102][103]

On October 13, New York City's mayor Bloomberg and Brookfield announced that the park must be vacated for cleaning the following morning at 7 am.[104] However, protesters vowed to "defend the occupation" after police said they wouldn’t allow them to return with sleeping bags and other gear following the cleaning, and many protesters spent the night sweeping and mopping the park.[105][106] The next morning the property owner postponed its cleaning effort.[105] Having prepared for a confrontation with the authorities to prevent the cleaning effort from proceeding, some protesters clashed with police in riot gear outside City Hall after it was canceled.[104]

Shortly after midnight on November 15, 2011, the New York Police Department gave protesters notice from the park's owner (Brookfield Office Properties) to leave Zuccotti Park due to its purportedly unsanitary and hazardous conditions. The notice stated that they could return without sleeping bags, tarps or tents.[107][108] About an hour later, police in riot gear began removing protesters from the park, arresting some 200 people in the process, including a number of journalists. While the police raid was in progress, the Occupy Wall Street Media Team issued an official response under the heading, "You can't evict an idea whose time has come."[109]

File:Police stuggle with barricades.jpg
New York Police and OWS protesters

On December 31, 2011, Protesters started to re-occupy the park. At one point, protesters started to push police barricades into the streets. Police quickly put the barricades back up. Occupiers then started to take down barricades from all sides of the park and stored them in a pile in the middle of Zuccotti Park.[110] Police called in re-enforcements while at the same time more activists entered the park. Police tried to enter the park, but were pushed back by protesters. There were reports of pepper-spray being used by the police. About 12:40 a.m. after the group celebrated New Years in the park, They exited the park and marched down Broadway. Police, in riot gear, started to clear out the park around 1:30 a.m. According to New York Times, the park was cleared out by police by 2:30 a.m. Sixty-eight people were arrested in connection with the event, which was over within several hours.[111]

Since the closure of the Zuccotti Park encampment, some former campers have been allowed to sleep in local churches, but how much longer they will be welcomed is in question and even former park Occupiers debate whether or not they can continue to provide funds and meals for homeless protesters. Since the police raid, New York protesters have been divided in their opinion as to the importance of the occupation of a space with some believing that actual encampment is unnecessary, and even a burden.[112]

Security concerns and crime

On October 11, it was reported that OWS protesters staying in Zuccotti Park were dealing with a worsening security problem with reports of multiple incidents of assault, drug dealing and use, and sexual assault.[113] Demonstrators complained of thefts of assorted items such as cell phones and laptops; thieves also stole $2500 of donations that were stored in a makeshift kitchen.[114] In November, a man was arrested for breaking an EMT's leg.[115]

Police Commissioner Paul Browne complained that protesters delayed reporting crime. He stated that it was OWS protocol not to report such incidents to the police until there were three complaints against the same individual.[116] The protesters denied a "three strikes policy", and one protester told the New York Daily News that he had heard police respond to an unspecified complaint by saying, "You need to deal with that yourselves".[117]

After several weeks of occupation, protesters had made enough allegations of sexual assault and gropings that women-only sleeping tents were set up.[118][119][120][121] Occupy Wall Street organizers released a statement regarding the sexual assaults stating, "As individuals and as a community, we have the responsibility and the opportunity to create an alternative to this culture of violence, We are working for an OWS and a world in which survivors are respected and supported unconditionally... We are redoubling our efforts to raise awareness about sexual violence. This includes taking preventative measures such as encouraging healthy relationship dynamics and consent practices that can help to limit harm.”[122]

The Department of Homeland Security considers Occupy Wall Street a threat, stating "mass gatherings associated with public protest movements can have disruptive effects on transportation, commercial, and government services, especially when staged in major metropolitan areas". The DHS keeps a file on the movement and monitors social media for information, according to leaked emails released by Wikileaks.[123]

Notable responses

On October 5, 2011 members of the National Nurses United labor union march to Foley Square in support of OWS

During an October 6 news conference, President Obama said, "I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country ... and yet you're still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place."[124][125]

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that while there were "bad actors" that needed to be "found and plucked out", he believes that to aim at one industry or region of America is a mistake and views encouraging the Occupy Wall Street protests as "dangerous" and inciting "class warfare".[126][127] Romney later expressed sympathy for the movement, saying, "I look at what's happening on Wall Street and my view is, boy, I understand how those people feel."[128]

House Democratic Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi said she supports the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement.[129] In September, various labor unions, including the Transport Workers Union of America Local 100 and the New York Metro 32BJ Service Employees International Union, pledged their support for demonstrators.[130]

See also

Related portals:

References

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  2. ^ "700 Arrested After Wall Street Protest on N.Y.'s Brooklyn Bridge". Fox News Channel. October 1, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
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  20. ^ Wall Street: 300 Years of Protests OCTOBER 11, 2011 - By History.com Staff
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  60. ^ Rabbi Gruber widely quoted in media reports about the 11/15/12 police raid on Zuccotti Park from www.haaretz.com
  61. ^ Photo of Rabbi Gruber at Foley Sq., immediately following NYPD clearing of Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15, 2012. From www2.macleans.ca
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  92. ^ Protest mob is enjoying rich diet By REBECCA ROSENBERG, New York Post, October 19, 2011
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  96. ^ "A general assembly of anyone who wants to attend meets twice daily. Because it's hard to be heard above the din of lower Manhattan and because the city is not allowing bullhorns or microphones, the protesters have devised a system of hand symbols. Fingers downward means you disagree. Arms crossed means you strongly disagree. Announcements are made via the "people's mic... you say it and the people immediately around you repeat it and pass the word along. "Wall Street functions like a small city, Associated Press, October 7, 2011
  97. ^ "Behind the sign marked “info” sat computers, , generators, wireless routers, and lots of electrical cords. This is the media center, where the protesters group and distribute their messages. Those who count themselves among the media team for Occupy Wall Street are self appointed; the same goes with all teams within this community." ""I later learned that power comes from a gas-powered generator which runs, among other things, multiple 4G wireless Internet hotspots that provide Internet access to the scrappy collection of laptops." "Occupy Wall Street’s Media Team, Columbia Journalism Review's New Frontier Database, October 5, 2011
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  108. ^ CNN Wire Staff (November 15, 2011). "New York court upholds eviction of "Occupy" protesters". www.cnn.com. Retrieved November 15, 2011. A New York Supreme Court has ruled not to extend a temporary restraining order that prevented the eviction of "Occupy" protesters who were encamped at Zuccotti Park, considered a home-base for demonstrators. Police in riot gear cleared out the protesters early Tuesday morning, a move that attorneys for the loosely defined group say was unlawful. But Justice Michael Stallman later ruled in favor of New York city officials and Brookfield properties, owners and developers of the privately-owned park in Lower Manhattan. The order does not prevent protesters from gathering in the park, but says their First Amendment rights not do include remaining there, "along with their tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner's reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park." {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 208 (help)
  109. ^ "You can't evict an idea whose time has come."- official statement of Occupy Wall Street Media Team, posted November 15, 2011, 1:36 a.m. EST
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Further reading

Occupy websites
Related websites