Occupy movement

In September 2011, after a dare was made by Adbusters magazine to bring a tent and occupy Wall Street, a group of protesters in New York took over Zuccotti Park in the center of Wall Street to protest against the ills of society—corruption, greed, economic and social inequality, excessive unemployment, and more. According to the insider account, Thank You Anarchy, Notes from the Apocalypse, on Saturday, August 13, 2011, around sixty New Yorkers gathered for the third meeting of the “general assembly of nyc” with no reporters, no police officers, and no photographers. One of the first incidents involving the movement happened when a local took photos of the group, claiming that they were violating the freedom of public space by not allowing anyone other than their group in the park. The protesters accepted the photographer and a reporter after debating the nature of public space, whether the meeting was public or private.

Background

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of rising feminist consciousness, and the women’s movement eschewed formal leadership because the personal was the political. The same approach took place in the gay rights movement, where in a noncoercive, leaderless environment, gay men and lesbians empowered themselves. By the late 1990s, protest networks arose worldwide against the Group of Eight (G8), the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank during a time of neoliberalism, uneven development, and heavy debt. Antiglobalization movements relied on free flows of information, free movement of people, and free trade. In the United States, local groups staged protests, conferences, and community work. There were no organized leaders but instead a set of antiauthoritarian and antidiscriminatory procedural principles. The Occupy movement took a similar form, with local organization and virtual communities tied by one message: We are the 99 percent, and we will not tolerate the corruption and greed of the 1 percent.

When the global economy suffered and the US housing market crumbled in the late 2000s, the divide between the superrich (“the 1 percent”) and everyone else became as marked as at any time since the Gilded Age at the turn of the twentieth century. Economic inequality had arisen over the course of the preceding few decades, becoming an issue at the forefront of protest movements such as Occupy and the Arab Spring, which gained global attention via social media. Operation Empire State Rebellion fizzled in early 2011, but the Bloombergville occupation of city hall lasted three weeks. A separate mass action in Washington, DC, Seize DC, took place in September.

Overview

The Occupy group members were predominantly young, and they identified themselves as students, teachers, organizers, and artists. Some were foreign and had experience in overseas prodemocracy movements. The older contingent included a Vietnam War veteran. The facilitators were anthropologist David Graeber and filmmaker Marisa Holmes. The first meeting lasted five hours, with discussions of slogans such as “We are the 99 percent” or “We are your crisis.” The consensus was that the movement would eventuate in massive crowds around Wall Street, forcing the overthrow of the corporation-run system and leaving only under duress.

Some of the issues brought up by members of the movement were the creation of green jobs, the growth of nonprofit industries, the creation of socialized medicine, the return of the airwaves to the public, and improved food and educational systems. The bottom line for Occupiers was that the system is broken and only bottom-up efforts can fix it. According to Occupy spokesperson Sumumba Sobukwe at the second anniversary gathering in Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2013, the issues were the removal of the influence of money from politics, stopping police brutality, and curbing corporate control of America. The anniversary also featured a rally by the United Nations in support of a Robin Hood tax, an assessment on financial institutions of 0.5 percent to raise billions for financing infrastructure and education. Another issue was the detention of citizens without due process. During the event, the creation of the alternative banking study “Occupy Finance”was announced.

Those involved in the Occupy movement camped in Zuccotti Park in the financial district for nearly two months in the fall of 2011. The group was thousands strong and lived there until they were arrested, while protesting the deregulation of high finance, the deterioration of the safety net, excessive campaign financing, climate change, and mass imprisonment. For believers, the time in the park was about forming a community and a movement for change.

After the occupation of Zuccotti Park, thousands of people were mobilized and inspired to take action but were unsure what to do next. The Occupy movement grew through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Movements were organized in a reported 951 cities in eighty-two countries after Occupy Wall Street, including a Madrid street protest by the Indignants. Cities included Bogota, Hong Kong, Sydney, Frankfurt, London, and Rome. Within two years, the movement died down after governmental and police opposition.

While active, the Occupy movement faced criticism that it lacked racial diversity, cohesion, clear or appropriate goals, and leadership. Robert Jensen of the University of Texas stated that the movement lacked structure, which he indicated could be an asset. He noted that those who wanted clarity of demands or goals were potentially identifying areas where they could co-opt the movement or apply it to conventional politics.

Occupy backers countered the argument that the movement was doomed because it lacked leaders and, unlike the Tea Party activists, had no political power, by contending that the Occupy message concerning the increasing income disparity between the 99 percent and the 1 percent changed the national dialogue. Movement leaders took credit for the impact that Mitt Romney’s 47-percent speech had on his presidential candidacy and other political successes such as the New York City mayoral victory of Bill de Blasio and the blocking of Larry Summers from the Federal Reserve chair. Arun Gupta, cofounder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal, stated that the movement wanted to remain free of affiliation with either political party. Gupta noted that tying the movement to a party would tie it to a set ideology and that the movement’s members were not ideologically uniform and might splinter or separate.

A 2012 Gallup poll published by USA Today showed that most Americans were not familiar with Occupy or its goals. The unfamiliarity existed despite 56 percent saying they were watching the movement closely and 18 percent stating that they watched it very closely. Movement goals garnered 22 percent approval and 15 percent disapproval, with 63 percent not knowing enough to have an opinion. By 2013 activities by the Occupy movement had waned.

Bibliography

Adler, Margot. “The Occupy Movement at 2: Many Voices, Many Messages.” All Things Considered. NPR, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.

Byrne, Janet, ed. The Occupy Handbook. New York: Back Bay, 2012. Print.

Castells, Manuel. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. London: Polity, 2012. Print.

“Occupy Protests around the World: Full List Visualised.” Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2011. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.

Guatney, Heather. “What Is Occupy Wall Street? The History of Leaderless Movements.” Washington Post. Washington Post, 10 Oct. 2011. Web. 28 Nov. 2013.

Schneider, Nathan. Thank You, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse. Berkeley: U of California P, 2013. Print.

Van Gelder, Sarah, ed. This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99 Percent Movement. New York: Berrett-Koehler, 2011. Print.

Wyant, Carissa. “Occupy Movement Unites Diverse Participants with Common Goals.” Mintpressnews.com. Mint Press, 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 Nov. 2013.