Occupy Wall Street



Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a series of mass protests in New York City based in Zuccotti Park in the Wall Street financial district. The protests were initiated by a call by the Canadian activist group Adbusters. They mainly protested social and economic inequality, corporate greed, corporate power and influence over government (particularly from the financial services sector), and of lobbyists. The participants' slogan "We are the 99%" refered to the difference in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. The protests, planning sessions, and its electronic communications were monitored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as events posing a risk of "domestic terrorism." Information gathered was shared during the period of the protests with businesses, local governments and universities.

The original protest began on September 17, 2011, and by October 9, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities in the U.S. Internationally, other "Occupy" protests have modeled themselves after Occupy Wall Street, in over 900 cities worldwide.

Background


In mid-2011, the Canadian-based group Adbusters Media Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, address a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global financial crisis. < According to the senior editor of the magazine, “[they] basically floated the idea in mid-July into our [email list] and it was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world, it just kind of snowballed from there.” They promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic. Also in July, they stated that, "Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America." Activists from Anonymous also encouraged its followers to take part in the protest which increased the attention it received calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street."

Adbusters', when asked why it took three years after ' implosion for people to storm the streets said:

Although it was originally proposed by Adbusters magazine, the demonstration has no clearly identifiable leadership. Other groups began to join the protest, including the NYC General Assembly and U.S. Day of Rage. The protests have brought together people of many political positions. Professor Dorian Warren from has described the movement as the first anti-authoritarian populist movement in the United States. A report in  said that protesters "got really lucky" when gathering at Zuccotti Park since it was private property and police could not legally force them to move off it; in contrast, police have authority to remove protesters without permits from city parks.

Prior to the protest's beginning on September 17, New York City mayor said in a press conference, "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." The protests have been compared to "the movements that sprang up against corporate globalization at the end of 1990s, most visibly at the World Trade Organization summit in Seattle," and also to the World Social Forum, a series in opposition to the World Economic Forum, sharing similar origins.

We are the 99%
The term, "We are the 99%" is a political slogan, Internet meme and implicit economic claim used by demonstrators involved in the "Occupy" protests. It is intended as a statement of a trend, since the 1970s, for wealth and income to become concentrated within the top 1% of the United States population. According to the, between 1979 and 2007, incomes of the top 1% of Americans have grown by an average of 275%, versus just 40% for the 60 percent of Americans who are in the middle of the income scale.     Since 1979, average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households decreased by $900, and that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. Over the last 30 years, the top 1% bore a smaller percentage of the tax burden and the 400 taxpayers with the highest incomes saw their income increase by 392% and their tax rate go down 37%.

Demographics
The protesters include persons of a variety of political orientations, including liberals, political independents, anarchists, socialists, libertarians,  and environmentalists. At the protest's start, the majority of the demonstrators were young, mostly because the social networks through which the demonstrators spread their message are primarily used by younger people. However, as the protest grew the age of the protesters became more diverse. Religious beliefs are diverse as well, with both Muslim and Jewish services and events held at the OWS location. . On October 10 the Associated Press reported that "there’s a diversity of age, gender and race" at the protest. Some news organizations have compared the protest to a left-leaning version of the Tea Party protests. Some left-leaning academics and activists expressed concern that it may become co-opted by the Democratic party.



According to a survey of Zucotti Park protesters 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. 27.3% of the respondents called themselves Democrats, 2.4% called themselves Republicans, while the rest, 70%, called themselves independents

On Oct. 10 and 11, the polling firm interviewed nearly 200 protesters. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, 98% would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and 31% would support violence to advance their agenda. Most are employed; 15% are unemployed. Most had supported Obama; now they are evenly divided. 65% say government has a responsibility to guarantee access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement. They support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, and are divided on whether the bank bailouts were necessary. In the Wall Street Journal, Douglas Schoen wrote that the protesters have "a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas." However, other authors said Schoen misrepresented his results. When asked, "What frustrates you the most about the political process in the United States?," 30% said, "Influence of corporate/moneyed/special interests." Only 6% said "Income inequality" and 3% said, "Our democratic/capitalist system." When asked, "What would you like to see the Occupy Wall Street movement achieve?," 35% said "Influence the Democratic Party the way the Tea Party has influenced the GOP" and 11% said, "Break the two-party duopoly." Only 4% said "Radical redistribution of wealth."

Demands and goals
Although the movement is not in complete agreement on its message and goals, it does have a message which is fairly coherent, according to :

Initially journalists such as Shannon Bond for the had said it was hard to discern a unified aim for the movement. As of late October, Adbusters has been trying to "rally it around a single, clear demand" for a Robin Hood tax, with a global march in support of the tax planned for October 29th. They have also called for the the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act. The movement has been compared to the Situationists and the Protests of 1968, although according to Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn, this time the "stakes are much higher". Activists have used web technologies and social media like, , , and to coordinate the events. Indymedia have been helping the movement with communications, saying there have been conference calls on  with participants from up to 80 locations. Shannon Bond reports the movement has been trying to create more efficient forms of organization, but that no universal consensus for doing so has yet emerged.

Leadership
According to communications professor, "Occupy Wall Street" and similar movements, symbolize another rise of direct democracy where people collectively make decisions for themselves without having elected leaders that has not actually been seen since ancient times. According to Fordham University sociologist Heather Gautney, while the organization calls itself leaderless, the protest in Zuccotti Park has discernible "organizers."

New York City General Assembly


The New York City General Assembly (NYCGA) is OWS' main decision-making body. A general assembly is a form of horizontal decision making developed in Spain by the indignados. 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. The meetings are without formal leadership, although certain members routinely act as moderators. Volunteers take minutes of the meetings so that organizers who are not in attendance can be kept up-to-date. A number of innovative mechanisms such as hand signals and the progressive stack are utilized in order to facilitate participation: "We abide by two important principles. The first is that we take progressive stack. This means the stack taker will reorder the list of people who want to speak by prioritizing traditionally marginalized voices. The second principle is a self-imposed principle called step-up, step-back. Take note of the privilege in your life and if you have been traditionally encouraged to make your voice heard in society, we invite you to step back, and if you have been traditionally discouraged from making your voice heard, we invite you to step up.""Fingers up, wiggling means “I feel good.” Hands horizontal, fingers wiggling, means “I feel okay.” Hands down, fingers wiggling, means “I do not feel good.” A “C” means point of clarification, when you have a question that pertains to what’s being said. Finger pointed up means point of information, that you have pertinent info about what’s being said. Finger up, pumping, means speak up. A triangle means point of process, when there’s something conflicting in the process and it needs attention. A block signal, an X with your arms is very serious. Use during a proposal when you have moral ethical or safety issue with what’s being proposed. You are also able to stand down if your block is something you’re willing to forgo to allow the process to continue. Fingers rolling means wrap it up. Use this with compassion."

External links and further reading

 * "On Playing By The Rules – The Strange Success Of #OccupyWallStreet" Post by David Graeber on NakedCapitalism.Com October 19, 2011
 * "Brown Power at Occupy Wall Street! 9/29/11" Guest blog by Hena Ashraf on racialicious.com, October 3, 2011, originally published on henaashraf.com
 * "SO REAL IT HURTS: Notes on Occupy Wall Street" blog post by Guest Contributor Manissa McCleave Maharawal on racialicious.com October 3, 2011
 * "My hope for #occupy wall street" guest blog by Allison Burtch on Femisting.com October 4, 2011
 * "The (Un)Official Occupy Wall Street Photographer's 15 Favorite Frames" Slideshow of David Shankbone images on Good Culture, Good.is October 28, 2011
 * Angela Davis, Occupy Wall St @ Washington Sq Park, Oct 30, 2011. General Strike November 2
 * Opinion pieced by AdBusters principles in The Washington Post "Why Occupy Wall Street will keep up the fight" by Kalle Lasn and Micah White, November 18, 2011
 * "Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy: New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissent" article by Naomi Wolf in The Guardian 29 December 2012
 * "FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring" The Partnership for Justice Fund] December 22, 2012
 * "Mapping the Left": Progressive Politics in the United States by Ethan Young, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, New York Office, November 2012