So this is just a comprehensive overview of the movement we could use for our background section. I definitely think it can be edited down though and certain parts can be used in other sections.
Occupy Wall Street began on Sept. 17, 2011 in New York City’s Zucotti Park. The movement is an ongoing series of leaderless, grassroots demonstrations to protest economic inequality in America. Their slogan, “We are the 99%”, refers to the gross wealth of the elite 1% of the population and the rest of the country’s citizens. They are fashioning the movement’s revolutionary tactics after the “Arab Spring,” an uprising against police corruption that began in Tunisia in 2010 and subsequently spread to many other countries. The small group of protesters in New York has grown to thousands in over 70 major cities and 600 smaller communities in the U.S. Over 900 cities worldwide have since followed suit.
The Canadian anti-consumerist activist group, Adbusters Media Foundation, sparked the onset of the protests in mid-July of 2011. Adbusters emailed a mass memo to its magazine staff proposing a peaceful demonstration against corporate greed on Wall Street in New York City.
In an interview with the Vancouver Courier, the magazine’s senior editor said, “[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.”
The activist Internet group, Anonymous, helped to spread the word, urging their followers to descend on the financial district of New York in peaceful protest. They encouraged citizens to set up camp on Wall Street until corporations were held accountable for their unlawful actions. They claimed that American corporations, mainly the six major banks of the world, had robbed the majority of American citizens of jobs, income, opportunity, and even health, in order to amass more of their personal wealth. A few of these corporations include Fannie Mae, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Monsanto, the giant agribusiness responsible for genetically modified organisms and herbicides believed to be destroying the environment and universal health.
One of the main demands of the Occupiers is the eradication of politicians receiving corporate funds for campaigns. They want to end the coordination of lobbyists in the political realm. According to opensecrets.org, commercial banks and securities investment firms have spent over $82 billion on campaign contributions, employing over 1,000 lobbyists just this year. Wall Street has spent more than any other sector of the economy on politicians, thereby controlling laws and economy. The effects then trickle down to the living conditions of the American people. “The banks are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to The Nation magazine.
Some have gone further than protesting Wall Street alone. Alex Jones of Infowars.com, a website that promotes civil liberties, has called on America to protest the Federal Reserve itself. “Focus should instead be on the real source of power for the out-of-control bankster class--the private, unaccountable Federal Reserve bank that creates money out of thin air, issues secret loans to insiders and foreign governments and systematically institutes debt on the American people through their undue powers,” said Jones in an Oct. 3 press release.
Despite the complaints of anti-Occupiers that the movement is unfocused and unsure of its own demands, a precise list of proposed demands has been issued and can be viewed at: http://coupmedia.org/occupywallstreet/occupy-wall-street-official-demands-2009. Anyone can submit a vote for each proposal on the list. There is also opportunity for opinions and input to be heard and considered. As the movement remains leaderless and democratic, each person’s vote and recommendations are considered equally.
The movement also adheres to a strict code of non-violence. Occupiers realize that violence can topple the cause in an instant. Police brutality has been noted in many of the protests, but Occupiers are standing firm in their peaceful conviction. “You have refused to give the media the images of broken windows and street fights it craves so desperately. And that tremendous discipline has meant that, again and again, the story has been the disgraceful and unprovoked police brutality, ” wrote anti-globalization activist Naomi Klein in an address to Occupy Wall Street.
The number of Occupiers are growing daily, and the movement shows no signs of slowing down. Even small towns across the country have organized their own protests in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Jacob Richards of Grand Junction, Colo., a town of about 150,000, has organized Occupy Grand Junction, using his home as headquarters for meetings and general assemblies. “We really need folks to step up. This is not a top down organization, the only way anything is going to change is if people start taking agency of their movement,” Richards wrote in a Facebook post on Oct. 19.
Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have largely contributed to the growing popularity of the movement. Mainstream media outlets have been criticized for having curiously limited, as well as biased, coverage of the demonstrations. They seem to be focusing on stereotypical images of dancing hippies or supposedly violent outrage. Without coverage by the citizens themselves, the movement could have taken a notorious turn for the worse.
. The ever-expanding movement remains one of solidarity, non-violence, and equality for 100% of the people.
