Occupy Wall Street
Encyclopedia
Occupy Wall Street is an ongoing series of demonstrations
initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters
which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park
, located in New York City
's Wall Street
financial district. The protests are against social and economic inequality
, high unemployment, greed, as well as corruption, and the undue influence of corporations—particularly from the financial services
sector—on government. The protesters' slogan We are the 99% refers to the growing difference in wealth
in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.
magazine Adbusters
, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, the absence of legal repercussions for the bankers behind the recent global financial crisis, and a growing disparity in wealth. They sought to combine the symbolic location of the 2011 protests in Tahrir Square with the consensus decision making of the 2011 Spanish protests
. Adbusters' senior editor Micah White
said they had suggested the protest via their email list and it "was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world.” Adbusters' website said that from their "one simple demand, a presidential commission to separate money from politics," they would "start setting the agenda for a new America." They promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull
.
The internet group Anonymous
encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street." Other groups began to join in the organization of the protest, including the U.S. Day of Rage and the NYC General Assembly, the governing body of the Occupy Wall Street group. An Occupy Wall Street page on Facebook
began on September 19 with a YouTube video of the early protests, and by September 22, it had reached critical mass. By mid-October, Facebook listed 125 Occupy-related pages and roughly one in every 500 hashtags used on Twitter, all around the world, was the movement's own #OWS.
Adbusters Kalle Lasn
, when asked why it took three years after the implosion of Lehman Brothers
' for people to begin protesting, said that after the election of President Barack Obama
there was a feeling among the young that he would pass laws to regulate the banking system and "take these financial fraudsters and bring them to justice." However, as time passed, "the feeling that he's a bit of a gutless wonder slowly crept in" and they lost their hope that his election would result in change.
The protest was begun at Zuccotti Park
since it was private property and police could not legally force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the property owner.
At a press conference held on the same day as 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."
The rhetoric, imagery and tactics of OWS are partially inspired by the Arab Spring
protests such as those in Cairo's Tahrir Square
. Immediate prototypes for OWS are the British student protests of 2010, Greece's and Spain's anti-austerity protests of the "indignados" (indignants), as well as the Middle Easts' Arab Spring protests. 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. Occupy Wall Street, in turn, gave rise to the Occupy movement
in the United States and around the world.
breached a sense of propriety. The protesters say that Wall Street recklessly and blatantly abused the credit default swap market, and that the instability of that market must have been known beforehand. They say that the guilty parties should be prosecuted.
Some journalists have criticized the protests saying it is hard to discern a unified aim for the movement, while other commentators have said that although the movement is not in complete agreement on its message and goals, it does have a message which is fairly coherent. Douglas Rushkoff
, writing for CNN, said that even though the protesters are not ready to articulate an exact array of problems or how to solve them,
The 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. Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn has compared the protests to the Situationists and the Protests of 1968
movements. 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
.
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, 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. 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. OWS protesters that prefer a looser, more localized set of goals have also written a document, the Liberty Square Blueprint
, a wiki
page edited by some 250 occupiers and still undergoing changes. Written as a wiki the wording changes, however, 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."
The Guardian interviewed OWS and found three main demands: get the money out of politics; reinstate the Glass-Steagall act; and draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
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. The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate. 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%. In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.
In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%. Financial inequality (total net worth minus the value of one's home) was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%. However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%. During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007, the income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. This is in stark contrast with surveys of US populations that indicate an "ideal" distribution that is much more equal, and a widespread ignorance of the true income inequality and wealth inequality. .
According to a survey of Zuccotti 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.
, in which people from marginalized groups are sometimes allowed to speak before people from dominant groups, with facilitator
s, 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. Volunteers take minutes of the meetings so that organizers who are not in attendance can be kept up-to-date. In addition to the over 70 working groups 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.
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. Sociologist Heather Gautney, also from Fordham University, has said that while the organization calls itself leaderless, the protest in Zuccotti Park has discernible "organizers". Even with the perception of a movement with no leaders, leaders have emerged. Ad hoc leaders discussed whether to leave. They plan for the occupation of other cities and neighborhoods, with an infrastructure to keep the movement beyond just the park. 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.” According to TheStreet.com, some organizers have made more of a commitment and are more visible than others, with a core of about five main organizers being the most active.
According to The Wall Street Journal, "A few weeks ago, the Alliance for Global Justice, a Washington-based nonprofit, agreed to sponsor Occupy Wall Street and lend it its tax-exempt status, so donors could write off contributions. That means the Alliance for Global Justice's board has final say on spending, though it says it's not involved in decisions and will only step in if the protesters want to spend money on something that might violate their tax-exempt status." As of late October it was reported that the OWS Finance Committee works with a lawyer and an accountant to track finances; the group has a substantial amount of money deposited at the Amalgamated Bank nearby, after first making deposits at the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union. In late October the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street registered for tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3) Occupy Wall Street accepts tax-deductible donations, primarily through the movement's website.
in Midtown, said that he was running a five-star restaurant in the park. 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.
The protesters constructed a greywater
treatment system to recycle dishwater contaminants. The filtered water was used for the park's plants and flowers. Many protesters used the bathrooms of nearby business establishments. Some supporters donated use of their bathrooms for showers and the sanitary needs of protesters.
New York City requires a permit to use "amplified sound," including electric bullhorns. Since Occupy Wall Street does not have a permit, the protesters have 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 has provided a further unifying effect for the crowd.
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. The items were powered with gas generators until the New York Fire Department removed them on October 28, saying they were as a fire hazard. Protesters then used bicycles rigged with an electricity-generating apparatus to charge batteries to power the protesters' laptops and other electronics. According to the Columbia Journalism Reviews New Frontier Database, the media team, while unofficial, runs websites like Occupytogether.org, video livestream, a "steady flow of updates on Twitter, and Tumblr" as well as Skype
sessions with other demonstrators.
In October a makeshift tent was erected, formally calling itself :The People's Library, and began offering free wi-fi internet to protesters and containing over 5,000 books. The library operated 24/7
and used an honor system
to manage returns. It offered weekly poetry readings on Friday nights, provided a reference serviced frequently staffed by professional librarians, and procured materials available through the interlibrary loan
system. However, the library was removed on November 15 when the park was closed to overnight use and it was reported that many of the books were destroyed. The library's cataloging system is accessible online at LibraryThing
, which donated a free lifetime membership.
On October 6, Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, issued a statement that "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."
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. 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, under rules set by the private park’s owner—and many protesters spent the night sweeping and mopping the park. The next morning, the property owner postponed its cleaning effort. 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.
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. 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."
found that 30 percent of American voters have a favorable view of the protests, while 39 percent do not. The same poll found that among independent voters, 29 percent have a favorable view opposed to 42 percent who have an unfavorable view.
The age group that most strongly supports OWS are 50 to 64, rather than under 35. OWS has the strongest support among those making $50,000 to $70,000 a year, rather than under $30,000, with 27% of people making over $75,000 a year backing the movement. Managers and other professionals support the movement more than blue-collar workers, and men over over 50 show the strongest support.
An NBC
/Wall Street Journal survey released October 12 found that 37 percent of respondents "tend to support" the occupy movement, while 18 percent "tend to oppose" it. An October 13 survey by TIME
magazine found that 54 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of the protests, while 23 percent have a negative impression. An October 18 Gallup poll
found that 22 percent of Americans agree with the protest's goals, while 15 percent disapprove and the remaining 61% say they don't know enough to decide. Gallup found that Democrats, Independents and Republicans all follow the news about OWS in equal numbers, and those who closely followed OWS were more likely to approve of its goals and methods. An October CBS News
/New York Times polls found 43% of Americans agree with Occupy Wall Street while 27% disagree. An October Rasmussen
poll found an almost even split, shows that 33 percent of Americans have a favorable view, while 27 percent are unfavorable and 40 percent have no opinion. An October United Technologies/National Journal Congressional poll found that 59 percent of Americans agree with the movement while 31 percent disagree.
An October Quinnipiac University poll of New York City voters found that 67 percent of New Yorkers approved of the movement with 23 percent disapproving. The results also found 87 percent of New Yorkers find it OK that they are protesting. Despite media criticism that the protesters views are incoherent, the poll also found that 72 percent of New York City voters understand their views. A NY1-Marist Poll released November 1 showed 44 percent of New York voters supported the Occupy Wall Street movement, while only 21 percent supported the Tea Party.
of ABC News pushed Obama to explain the fact that his administration hasn't prosecuted any Wall Street executives who didn't play by the rules, he replied, "One of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehman's and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn't necessarily illegal; it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless." On October 18, when interviewed by ABC news, he said "in some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them."
On November 22nd, President Barack Obama was "#As a form of protest
" at a speech in New Hampshire by a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters as a series of call-and-response quips ensued, "Mr. President: Over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested while banksters continue to destroy the economy. You must stop the assault on our First Amendment rights. Your silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable. Banks got bailed out. We got sold out." The crowd quickly drowned the protesters out with chants of “Obama!” Obama then responded, "I appreciate you guys making your point. Let me go ahead and make mine." Later in the speech, Obama said “families like yours, young people like the ones here today — including the ones who were just chanting at me — you’re the reason that I ran for office in the first place.”
Vice President Joe Biden
likened the protest to the Tea Party's similar anger at the banks, saying, "Look guys the bargain is not on the level anymore in the minds of the vast majority of the American (people) the middle class has been screwed."
Nancy Pelosi
, said she supports the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement. Pelosi said she includes herself in the group of Americans dissatisfied with Congress
and stated, "I support the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way (that) is not relevant to their lives."
Independent
Senator Bernie Sanders
of Vermont, who caucuses
with the Democratic Party
, appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann
and supported the protests saying, "We desperately need a coming together of working people to stand up to Wall Street. We need to rebuild the middle-class in this country and you guys can't have it all."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
(R
-Va
), in a speech to a Values Voter Summit, characterized the movement as "growing mobs" and said that Obama's "failed policies" and rhetoric "condon[ing] the pitting of Americans against Americans" were to blame. In response, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
accused Cantor of "unbound" hypocrisy, given the Majority Leader's support of the Tea Party protests, adding, "I don't understand why one man's mob is another man's democracy." Carney characterized both movements as examples of American democratic traditions.
The Democratic co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus
, Representatives
Raúl Grijalva
and Keith Ellison
, announced their solidarity with the movement on October 4. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
is asking for 100,000 names on its website which will subsequently be added to 100,000 letters to Speaker of the House John Boehner
and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressing support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, the middle class, and opposition to tax loopholes for millionaires and big oil.
Ron Paul
(R-TX) stated, "If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed—I would say, 'good!'" In a GOP debate, mentioning the ongoing “Occupy Wall Street” protesters, he stated that crony capitalists are those “that benefit from contract from government, benefit from the Federal Reserve, benefit from all the bailouts. They don’t deserve compassion. They deserve taxation or they deserve to have all their benefits removed." When protesters conducted a 'mic check,' at one of Ron Paul's rallies, he replied, "If you listen carefully, I'm very much involved with the 99. I've been condemning that 1% because they've been ripping us off. The people on Wall Street got the bailouts and you guys got stuck with the bills and that's where I see the problem is."
2012 Republican presidential candidate
Herman Cain
accused the movement of being "anti-capitalist
" and argued "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cain also expressed his belief that Occupy Wall Street was "planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration," but admitted that he "[didn't] have facts" to back up his accusation.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich
was quoted as saying at the 2012 Bloomberg/Washington Post Debate, "Let me draw a distinction. Virtually every American has a reason to be angry. I think virtually [every] American has a reason to be worried. I think the people who are protesting in Wall Street break into two groups: one is left-wing agitators who would be happy to show up next week on any other topic, and the other is sincere middle-class people who frankly are very close to the Tea Party people who care. And actually... you can tell which are which. The people who are decent, responsible citizens pick up after themselves. The people who are just out there as activists trash the place and walk off and are proud of having trashed it, so let’s draw that distinction." On November 21, Gingrich was quoted as saying to the protesters that they should "Go get a job right after you take a bath."
2012 Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney
did admit that there were 'bad actors,' and the need for them to be 'found and plucked out.' Yet, he believes 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." 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."
2012 Republican presidential candidate
Buddy Roemer
expressed support for the movement, saying, "We have almost permanent unemployment. They say it’s nine percent, but the real unemployment rate is more like 16 percent. These are people there are no jobs for, or they have to work part time to try to make ends meet. It’s disturbing. The Wall Street protest is unshaped, unfocused, but there’s a lot of power in it."
On October 18, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson
visited with the protesters in New York, expressing his support for the movement, stating, "I just have to express my solidarity with everyone there that expresses the notion that we have a country that doles it out unfairly. Corporatism is alive and well in this country."
In an interview with The Washington Post
, Former Democratic U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
endorsed the movement on October 5 stating, "This is like the Tea Party—only it's real... By the time this is over, it will make the Tea Party look like ... a tea party." Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and Secretary of State
Colin Powell
declared that the demonstrations of the OWS movement were "as American as apple pie," adding "“This is something that our political leaders need to think about. It isn’t enough just to scream at our Occupy Wall Street demonstrators — we need our political system to start reflecting this anger back into how do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?”
, including the Transport Workers Union of America
Local 100 and the New York Metro 32BJ Service Employees International Union
, pledged their support for demonstrators.
Union leaders say that unions and OWS can offer mutual support, with OWS gaining from the union's money, stature, and large membership, and the weakened labor movement absorbing the protesters vitality. The Industrial Workers of the World
announced on September 28, 2011, that its General Executive Board (GEB), and the General Defense Committee (GDC) had issued statements of support for Occupy Wall Street. After numerous arrests of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, police commandeered city buses to pick up detained protesters and union drivers later sued the New York Police Department. Union President John Samuelsen said, "We're down with these protesters. We support the notion that rich folk are not paying their fair share. Our bus operators are not going to be pressed into service to arrest protesters anywhere". On October 4, representatives from more than 14 of the country's largest labor unions joined the protesters for a mass rally and march. In early November, National Nurses United
(NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the nation, expressed support for OWS and rallied in front of the White House and Department of Treasury. Karen Higgins, co-president of NNU, said, "A real finance tax would generate $350 billion a year in the U.S. alone and bring relief to families out of homes, friends out of work, patients out of care, communities running out of time. The tax starts a revenue flow back to the 99 percent."
Noting the growing union support, an article in the progressive-leaning Mother Jones magazine said that union support could splinter and derail the protests rather than sustain them because while unions are tightly organized, hierarchical, and run with a clear chain of command, Occupy Wall Street is the opposite in that they are "a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system with roots in anarchist thought." However, the article went on to suggest that if the unions and OWS joined together they could work to create a progressive movement that "effectively taps into the rising feeling among many Americans that economic opportunity has been squashed by corporate greed and the influence of the very rich in politics." As the success of the movement has become apparent, union organizers have begun to embrace some of their social media skills, bold tactics, and the simplicity of the 99% slogan. Damon Silvers, the AFL–CIO's policy director, said, “We think the Occupy movement has given voice to something very basic about what’s going on in our country right now. The fact that they’ve figured out certain concepts and language for doing that, we think is really important and positive.” The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) has endorsed the movement saying, "We recognize the need to work together and learn from each other. The vitality, energy and dialogue growing from the Occupy Wall Street movement show the potential to organize, build power and win justice for the middle class.”
said, "[P]eople are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what’s happening. They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington. And at some level, I can’t blame them. Certainly, 9 percent unemployment and very slow growth is not a good situation." Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard W. Fisher
said that he was "somewhat sympathetic" to the views of the protesters, and added, "We have too many people out of work. We have a very uneven distribution of income
. We have a very frustrated people, and I can understand their frustration."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
commented about protester's blame of the Fed saying: "“The concerns about the Fed are based on misconceptions, A very simplistic interpretation of that [criticism] was that we were doing that because we wanted to preserve banker salaries. That was obviously not the case.” Bernanke has stated that policies aimed at boosting the economy will continue.
criticized the initial media response for failing to adequately cover the protests. The protests began on Saturday, September 17. The following Wednesday, The New York Observer reported on the nascent protests in Zuccotti Park. On Friday, September 23, Ginia Bellafante panned the movement in The New York Times. Joanna Weiss of The Boston Globe
found it difficult to take the protests seriously, criticizing Occupy Wall Street for its "circus" atmosphere." In a September 27 article, Lauren Ellis of Mother Jones magazine criticized the movement's lack of a clear message.
By October 4, economist Richard Wolff
commented that the unclear shape of the movement is "mostly irrelevant" at this early stage and the priority should be to invite all interested parties. Kalle Lasn
, co-founder of Adbusters, believed that the protests had gone mainstream and expressed the opinion that "it's become kind of a political left movement in the U.S., hopefully to rival the Tea Party." Michael Daly, of Newsweek
and The Daily Beast
characterized the position of the protesters as a "feeling that there is just a fundamental unfairness. From their point of view, the very people who almost wrecked the U.S. economy on Wall Street continue to get wealthy while working people are struggling to pay their bills." On October 11, Katrina vanden Heuvel
, who writes a weekly column for The Post
and is the editor and publisher of The Nation
, said "most understand that the main task ahead is growing the movement," and pointing to recent legislation, she suggests that the movement has already influenced public dialogue. From October 17–21 Cenk Uygur
of the internet news show The Young Turks filmed the political segment of the show in Zuccotti Park.
MSNBC's Technolog noted that policymakers had failed to address economic problems, and news media had failed to cover the unemployment crisis: "Tracking CNN, MSNBC and Fox, ThinkProgress found 7,583 mentions of the word 'debt,' compared to 427 mentions of 'unemployment' on all three networks combined." NM Incite
said 22% of tweets
using the #OccupyWallStreet hashtag voiced general support for the movement, 11% indicated participation in it, 5% described celebrity support, 11% were complaints against the movement, 13% shared news, 6% shared videos, 4% blamed government, 2% blamed Obama, and 1% blamed capitalism.
has assigned Rick Lee, a First Precinct community relations detective, to duty at the demonstration. He is one of the department's main liaisons with the protesters on behalf of the police department, and advises protesters on such matters as, avoiding arrest and getting along with police as well as attempting to get information of protesters plans. As a plainclothes officer, he has been referred to as the "hipster cop" for his attire consisting of glasses, cardigan sweaters, skinny ties and skinny trousers. Reaction to his presence is mixed.
Occupy Wall Street has cost the Police Department $5 million in overtime as of October 27. Police statistics show competing information. Arrests and crimes have risen, while the number of summonses has fallen. How dangerous it may be for Occupy Wall Street protesters and nearby residents is difficult to assess due to an informal divide that has sprung up between who patrols inside and outside the park. While NYC police are stationed around the periphery, police seem to have ceded patrol of the interior to protesters.
, coauthor of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
, said in The Guardian
that "Few doubt that it was the actions of the rich and the super-rich, the 1%, that created the crisis. But sadly, debate has not yet been translated into action...This is why we need the Occupy movement and the staunch actions of the trade unions – why we need protest and demonstrations and activism."
Canadian writer Naomi Klein
has spoken at the protest several times. Writing in the New York Times she said she is "delighted" that OWS has not given in to issuing a list of demands. "This is a young movement still in the process of determining just how powerful it is, and that power will determine what demands are possible. Small movements have to settle for small reforms: big ones have the freedom to dream."
Professor and author Cornel West
addressed the frustrations that some critics have expressed at the protest’s lack of a clear and unified message, saying, "It’s impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We’re talking about a democratic awakening."
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek
gave a speech on Wall Street in which he expressed support for the protests saying, "They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare."
On November 15, when police closed the park to overnight use by the protesters, Chris Hedges
, who has been participating since the onset, wrote in his weekly column that he believed that through a rigid adherence to nonviolence and a verbal respect for the police, the movement would continue to move forward to see the realization of its goals. Author Barbara Ehrenreich
, in response to the dismantling of the occupations, stated that "One of the appalling things here is that there are so many Democratic mayors involved in these crackdowns or in Bloomberg's case, someone who is seen as a liberal."
Over one thousand authors have announced their support for the movement via “Occupy Writers”, an online petition that states “We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world.” The initiative began when Jeff Sharlet
e-mailed Salman Rushdie to suggest a petition for writers who support Occupy Wall Street, and signatories range the spectrum of literary genres and academic disciplines and include Margaret Atwood
, Noam Chomsky
, Neil Gaiman
, Daniel Handler
also known as Lemony Snicket
, and Alice Walker
. The site also features original work from the writers expressing their take on the Occupy movement.
Authors and academics supporting include professor of economics and best-selling author Ravi Batra
, anthropologist David Graeber
, Stéphane Hessel
, Nobel Prize winning economists Paul Krugman
, and Joseph Stiglitz, Jeff Madrick
, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
, and professor of economics Richard D. Wolff
.
, billionaire and founder of the hedge fund Paulson & Co.
, criticized the protesters for "vilifying our most successful businesses," citing that "The top 1% of New Yorkers pay over 40% of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state." Vikram Pandit
, head of Citigroup
, called the protesters' sentiments "completely understandable" and said that Wall Street had broken the trust of its clients. Bill Gross
, manager of PIMCO's Total Return Fund, the world's largest mutual fund
, stated "Class warfare by the 99%? Of course, they're fighting back after 30 years of being shot at." PIMCO's co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian argued that people should "listen to Occupy Wall Street." Businessman and CEO Peter Schiff
wrote an opinion column where he stated, "I own a brokerage firm, but I didn't receive any bailout money... Yes, I am the 1% - but I've earned every penny. Instead of trying to take my wealth away, I hope they learn from my example." The lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford
proposed to the American Bankers Association
a plan to respond to the Occupy movement by researching the 'backers' and doing public relations
work against them like putting negative stories in the media.
Karl Denninger
, former CEO and one of the original co-founders of the Tea Party movement
, expressed support for the movement, saying "The problem with protests and the political process is that it is very easy, no matter how big the protest is, for the politicians to simply wait until the people go home, and then they can ignore you. Well, Occupy Wall Street was a little different, and back in 2008, I wrote that when we will actually see change is when the people come, they set up camp, and they refuse to go home. That appears to be happening now." Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric
and a member of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
, stated "It is natural to assume that people are angry, and I think we have to be empathetic and understand that people are not feeling great." Ray Dalio
, founder of Bridgewater Associates
, the world's largest hedge fund
, stated in an interview with Charlie Rose
, "I think the number one problem is that we're not having a quality dialogue...I certainly understand the frustration, I understand the dilemma, I understand the discontent." Other business leaders lending their support include George Soros
and Russell Simmons
.
, the first celebrity to endorse the protest, spoke to protesters calling for a combination of capitalism
and socialism
and a system not based on "bloated talk radio hosts and that goddamn Ayn Rand book."
Filmmaker
Michael Moore
also spoke in support, saying, "They have tried to take our democracy and turn it into a kleptocracy."
Rapper Lupe Fiasco
, one of the initial supporters of Occupy Wall Street, wrote a poem, "Moneyman," for the protest. Susan Sarandon
spoke at the demonstration saying, "I came down here to educate myself.... There's a huge void between the rich and the poor in this country." Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo
has supported the Occupy Wall Street protest saying, "Peaceful Resistance. That is what changes the world. We must be peaceful. This movement is about decency."
Jeff Mangum
of Neutral Milk Hotel
played a solo acoustic set for the protesters on October 4, and Tom Morello
performed on October 13. Folk singer Pete Seeger
led a group of several hundred protesters on a march through the streets on October 22, singing several songs, including "This Land Is Your Land
" and "We Shall Overcome
." Other musicians joining them included Arlo Guthrie
, Tao Rodríguez-Seeger
, Tom Chapin
, David Amram
, and Guy Davis
.
On October 23, Asmaa Mahfouz
, whose video blog helped spark the 2011 uprising in Egypt, held a teach-in at Liberty Plaza. When asked why she came to the OWS protest she replied, "Many of U.S. residents was in solidarity with us. So, we have to keep going all over the world, because another world is possible for all of us."
On October 23, musicians Sean Lennon
and Rufus Wainwright
showed their support for the Occupy movement and played among a large crowd in Zuccotti Park. On October 25, international street artist Above
completed a 255 foot long mural in Miami, Florida that read "Give a wall st. banker enough rope and he will hang himself" next to Interstate 95
. The artist installed a controversial effigy that mimicked a 'wall st' banker hanging from a noose.
On November 8, folk-rock singers David Crosby
and Graham Nash
appeared at Zuccotti Park to offer their support and sing to the occupiers. Three days later, on November 11, folk singer Joan Baez
sang there as well. Many of the young protesters were not familiar with her songs and were unaware of her long history as an activist.
In fellowship with "Occupy Writers", hundreds are signed supporters as "Occupy Musicians" and "Occupy Filmmakers", respectively. Additionally, "Occupy Comics" and "Occupy Design" have lent their talent in support. Other celebrities lending their support include John Carlos
, Anti-Flag
, Radiohead
, Talib Kweli
, and Kanye West
.
, Leah Hunt-Hendrix, 28, was quoted as saying “We should acknowledge our privilege and claim the responsibilities that come with it.” Farhad Ebrahimi, who received an inheritance as a teenager, has been participating in the Occupy Boston protest wearing a T-shirt that says, "Tax me. I'm good for it." Russell Simmons
, hip-hop artist and successful businessman, has actively supported the OWS movement saying that he believes that it is his moral duty to do so. "You give what you get. I want to do what I can to relieve suffering and improve the quality of other's lives."
, front-runner in the Republican presidential primary race said "All the Occupy movements starts with the premise that we all owe them everything. Now, that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, go get a job right after you take a bath."
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, pollster Douglas Schoen
wrote that the protesters reflect "values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people" and 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," and that politicians who support them will be hurt in the 2012 elections. Journalist David Weigel
responded in an opinion piece published on Slate
characterizing Schoen's opinion piece as "a dishonest column full of claims that couldn't be backed up by his own research", while Washington Monthly lead blogger Steve Benen
wrote an opinion piece accusing Schoen of political spin in his analysis and referring to Schoen as "the quintessential 'Fox News Democrat'".
A group of bloggers, led by political commentator Erick Erickson
, organized a website criticizing the movement entitled "We Are the 53%," referring to the 53% of Americans who earn enough income to pay federal income taxes. An opinion piece by CBS contributor Jim Edwards, comparing the We are the 99% blog to the 53% blog, commented that "once you've looked at both blogs, the impression you come away with is that the recession is as devastating to conservatives as it is to liberals, but that conservatives regard their misfortunes as their own fault whereas the liberals see structural forces at work -- lack of health insurance, student loans -- that they cannot overcome."
Mike Brownfield of The Heritage Foundation
argued that rejection of the capitalist system and the policies that OWS protesters advocate, including limits on trade and student loan forgiveness, would not lead to improved economic conditions for unemployed Americans. According to Brownfield, the Foundation believes it is "right to decry out-of-control bailouts and corporate subsidies" and there are valid concerns regarding the economy, unemployment rates and low job creation. However, Heritage argued that capitalism is key to improving the economy and that the movement is focusing on the wrong solutions to the problems they protest: it should be protesting the expansion of government instead of calling for more government intervention.
Mark Tooley
of the Institute on Religion and Democracy
, said that while Occupy Wall Street has succeeded in getting attention, it is limited because it is only attracting religious support from the left. He said that a call for the government redistribution of wealth and reliance on street activism did not appeal to those with conservative political or religious leanings. The protest has been criticized for tolerating anti-Semitic activists. The Emergency Committee for Israel
ran an ad condemning anti-Semitic remarks and calling on Obama and other political officials to do likewise. These allegations lead the Anti-Defamation League to call on the movement "to condemn anti-Semitic signs and comments that have appeared at some of the protest rallies across the country and around the world." Other journalists have disputed allegations of anti-Semitism as not reflecting the movement as a whole.
reported that the Occupy Wall Street movement sparked parodies which connect the movement to pop culture icons from Star Wars
and Lord of the Rings and others. An image of Luke Skywalker
holding a protest sign was published: "It wasn't glamorous but I had a steady living working on my uncle's moisture farm... my aunt and uncle were unjustly murdered and the farm destroyed. I was forced to leave my home and join an extinct cult just to survive. I am now a member of an upstart movement to take down a greedy corrupt establishment. I AM THE 99%." Skywalker's enemies, the Imperial Storm Troopers, joined the protest on another image circulating on the Internet holding signs: "End Galactic Corporate Greed", "Get Our Troops Off Tatooine" and "Keep Your Empirical Hands Off My Healthcare". Parodies relating to Middle Earth include a woman who had written her complaint in Elvish, allegedly translated: "I spend every waking hour fighting Orcs while Elrond and Galadriel eat lembas bread all day. I am the 99%".
Other parodies include Occupy Narnia and Occupy Sesame Street
. Occupy Sesame Street went viral and, following violent encounters between NYPD and the protesters, Tumblr
posted pictures of Elmo
arrested, Grover
restrained, and Count von Count
pepper-sprayed. Occupy Wall Street and its related protests were satirized in the South Park
episode "1%", which aired on November 2, 2011. Remy Munasifi
wrote and sang a song called "Occupy Wall Street Protest Song," which criticized the protestors for not understanding, in his opinion, how well off they are. According to AFP
, the song went viral
in early October.
Popular culture images are also employed by protesters to make statements. For example, Guy Fawkes mask
s from the film V for Vendetta
are worn by protesters in New York and around the world as visual symbols of resistance against corporate greed.
's leg.
Police Commissioner Paul Browne complained that protesters delayed reporting crime. He stated that it's OWS protocol not to report such incidents to the police until there were three complaints against the same individual.” The protesters denied a "three strikes policy", and one protester told the New York Daily News that he had heard police respond to a complaint by saying, "You need to deal with that yourselves".
On November 16, 2011, police arrested Nkrumah Tinsley, 29, and charged him with with making a terroristic threat, after police saw a video of him saying, “On the 17th, we going to burn New York City to the fucking ground,” and "In a few days they’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s." He had been previously arrested for assaulting a police officer during another protest on October 26. Defense lawyer Pierre Sussman said that Tinsley had been exercising his right to free speech, and that he was not really going to do the things he said. When police carried out a search warrant of Tinsley's home, they did not find any bomb making materials.
At least 80 arrests were made on September 24, after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets. Most of the 80 arrests were for blocking traffic, though some were also charged with disorderly conduct
and resisting arrest. Police officers have also been using a technique called kettling
which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into smaller groups.
Videos which showed several penned-in female demonstrators being hit with pepper spray
by a police official were widely disseminated, sparking controversy. That police official, later identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, was shown in other videos hitting a photographer with a burst of spray.
Initially Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly
and a representative for Bologna defended his actions, while decrying the disclosure of his personal information. After growing public furor, Kelly announced that Internal Affairs
and the Civilian Complaint Review Board were opening investigations, again criticizing Anonymous for "[trying] to intimidate, putting the names of children, where children go to school," and adding that this tactic was "totally inappropriate, despicable." Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney
Cyrus Vance, Jr.
started his own inquiry.
Public attention to the pepper-sprayings resulted in a spike of news media coverage, a pattern that was to be repeated in the coming weeks following confrontations with police. Clyde Haberman, writing in The New York Times, said that "If the Occupy Wall Street protesters ever choose to recognize a person who gave their cause its biggest boost, they may want to pay tribute to Anthony Bologna," calling the event "vital" for the still nascent movement. "After Ron Kuby, an attorney for one of the protesters, demanded Mr. Bologna’s arrest, [Bologna] was instead docked 10 vacation days and given a [...] reassignment to Staten Island, where he lives," according to an account by blogger Daniel Edward Rosen.
On October 1, 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge
. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. The police used ten buses to carry protesters off the bridge. Some said the police had tricked protesters, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across. Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street said, “The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway.” However, some statements by protesters supported descriptions of the event given by police: for example, one protester Tweeted that "The police didn't lead us on to the bridge. They were backing the [expletive] up." A spokesman for the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, said that protesters were given multiple warnings to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they refused. By October 2, all but 20 of the arrestees had been released with citations for disorderly conduct and a criminal court summons. On October 4, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into a trap and then arresting them; Mayor Bloomberg, commenting previously on the incident, had said that "[t]he police did exactly what they were supposed to do."
On October 5, joined by union members, students, and the unemployed, the demonstration swelled to the largest yet with an estimated 15,000 marchers joining the protest. Smaller protests continue in cities and on college campuses across the country.
Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District. The march was mostly peaceful—until after nightfall, when scuffles erupted. About 200 protesters tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting.
Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, British protesters organized an occupation of the London Stock Exchange to bring attention to what they saw as unethical behavior on the part of banks. One of the organizers of the protest said the protests are focused against "increasing social and economic injustice in this country." In his opinion, "the Government has made sure to maintain the status quo and let the people who caused this crisis get off scot-free, whilst conversely ensuring that the people of this country pay the price, in particular those most vulnerable."
in New York City and rallied for several hours. Several hundred protesters were arrested across the U.S., mostly for refusing to obey police orders to leave public areas. In Chicago there were 175 arrests, about 100 arrests in Arizona (53 in Tucson, 46 in Phoenix), and more than 70 in New York City, including at least 40 in Times Square. Multiple arrests were reported in Chicago, and about 150 people camped out by city hall in Minneapolis.
In the early morning hours of October 25, police cleared and closed an Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Park in Oakland, California. The raid on the encampment was described as "violent and chaotic at times," and resulted in over 102 arrests and several injuries to protesters. The city of Oakland contracted the use of over 12 other regional police departments to aid in the clearing of the encampment. An Iraqi war veteran, Scott Olson, was allegedly hit in the head with a teargas canister and suffered a skull fracture. His condition was later upgraded from critical to fair. The next night, approximately 1,000 protesters reconvened in the plaza and held marches late into the night.
On November 2, protesters in Oakland
, California shut down the Port of Oakland
, the fifth busiest port in the nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city; a spokesman for the protest movement, who gave only his first name, told the BBC that he had heard people say that there were as many as 20,000 or 30,000 demonstrators, but added, "It's impossible to tell."
, Associated Press
, Daily News, DNAInfo, NPR
, Television New Zealand
, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair
, as well as New York City Council
member Ydanis Rodríguez
. An NBC reporter's press pass was also confiscated.
While the police cleared the park, credentialed members of the media were kept a block away, preventing them from documenting the event. Police helicopters prevented NBC and CBS news helicopters from filming the clearing of the park. Many journalists complained of being treated roughly or violently by the police. The Society of Professional Journalists
, the Committee to Protect Journalists
, Reporters Without Borders
and the New York Civil Liberties Union
expressed concerns and criticisms regarding the situation. The OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression
issued a statement saying that the "disproportionate restrictions on access to the scene of the events, the arrests, and the criminal charges resulting from the performance of professional duties by reporters violate the right to freedom of expression."
On November 21, the New York Daily News
, the New York Post
, the Associated Press
, Dow Jones, NBC Universal
and WNBC-TV joined in a letter written by New York Times General Council George Freeman criticizing the New York Police Department's handling of the media during the raid.
The letter enumerated numerous cases of arrest, injury and obstruction of the media.
Half an hour into the police removal, the Occupy Wall Street Media Team put out an official statement under the heading, "You can't evict an idea whose time has come." It went on to say, "Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces — our spaces — and, physically, they may succeed. But we are engaged in a battle over ideas."
The tents and personal effects of the protesters, and the five thousand books of The People's Library
were put in dump trucks by the police and removed. On the November 15 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show
, footage of the raid was shown.
Computers retrieved after the raid were found to be smashed.
After the removal, New York City officials ordered police to keep the entire park closed and to prevent any protesters from returning, pending the outcome of a court hearing on whether and in what circumstances the protesters could return; a judge issued a temporary restraining order that protesters could return to the park with their tents, which Washington Post opinion writer James Downie accused Mayor Bloomberg of ignoring. A judge in the late afternoon ruled that the temporary order should not be extended, saying that the First Amendment did not give protesters the right to fill the park with "tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner's reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park."
On November 17, journalists representing the Indypendent Reader, IMC
and In These Times
were arrested. Two reporters for the Daily Caller
and a reporter for RT
were reportedly struck with police baton
s.
Other U.S. protests
International
Related articles
Demonstration (people)
A demonstration or street protest is action by a mass group or collection of groups of people in favor of a political or other cause; it normally consists of walking in a mass march formation and either beginning with or meeting at a designated endpoint, or rally, to hear speakers.Actions such as...
initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters
AdBusters
The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia...
which began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park
Zuccotti Park
Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, is a publicly accessible park in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is a controlled by Brookfield Properties. The park was created in 1968 by Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, after the property owners negotiated its creation with city...
, located in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
financial district. The protests are against social and economic inequality
Economic inequality
Economic inequality comprises all disparities in the distribution of economic assets and income. The term typically refers to inequality among individuals and groups within a society, but can also refer to inequality among countries. The issue of economic inequality is related to the ideas of...
, high unemployment, greed, as well as corruption, and the undue influence of corporations—particularly from the financial services
Financial services
Financial services refer to services provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money. Among these organizations are credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, consumer finance companies,...
sector—on government. The protesters' slogan We are the 99% refers to the growing difference in wealth
Income inequality in the United States
Income inequality in the United States of America refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner in the US. Data from the United States Department of Commerce, CBO, and Internal Revenue Service indicate that income inequality among households has been increasing...
in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population.
Origin
In a July 13, 2011 blog post, the Canadian-based Adbusters Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumeristAnti-consumerism
Anti-consumerism refers to the socio-political movement against the equating of personal happiness with consumption and the purchase of material possessions...
magazine Adbusters
AdBusters
The Adbusters Media Foundation is a Canadian-based not-for-profit, anti-consumerist, pro-environment organization founded in 1989 by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz in Vancouver, British Columbia...
, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, the absence of legal repercussions for the bankers behind the recent global financial crisis, and a growing disparity in wealth. They sought to combine the symbolic location of the 2011 protests in Tahrir Square with the consensus decision making of the 2011 Spanish protests
2011 Spanish protests
The 2011 Spanish protests, also referred to as the 15-M Movement and the Indignants movement, are a series of ongoing demonstrations in Spain whose origin can be traced to social networks and Real Democracy NOW among other civilian digital platforms and 200 other small associations...
. Adbusters' senior editor Micah White
Micah M. White
Micah M. White is a senior editor at the magazine Adbusters and a writer for The Guardian. He was an early organizer of the Occupy Wall Street protests, and a close collaborator to Kalle Lasn. He lives in Berkeley, California.- Biography :...
said they had suggested the protest via their email list and it "was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world.” Adbusters' website said that from their "one simple demand, a presidential commission to separate money from politics," they would "start setting the agenda for a new America." They promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull
Charging Bull
Charging Bull, which is sometimes referred to as the Wall Street Bull or the Bowling Green Bull, is a bronze sculpture by Arturo Di Modica that stands in Bowling Green Park near Wall Street in Manhattan, New York City...
.
The internet group Anonymous
Anonymous (group)
Anonymous is an international hacking group, spread through the Internet, initiating active civil disobedience, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, the term refers to the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic,...
encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street." Other groups began to join in the organization of the protest, including the U.S. Day of Rage and the NYC General Assembly, the governing body of the Occupy Wall Street group. An Occupy Wall Street page on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
began on September 19 with a YouTube video of the early protests, and by September 22, it had reached critical mass. By mid-October, Facebook listed 125 Occupy-related pages and roughly one in every 500 hashtags used on Twitter, all around the world, was the movement's own #OWS.
Adbusters Kalle Lasn
Kalle Lasn
Kalle Lasn is an Estonian Canadian author, magazine editor and activist. Near the end of World War II his family fled Estonia and Lasn spent his childhood in a German refugee camp. He was then resettled in Australia. In the 1960s, he founded a market research company in Tokyo, and in 1970, moved...
, when asked why it took three years after the implosion of Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial services firm. Before declaring bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth largest investment bank in the USA , doing business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales and trading Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (former NYSE ticker...
' for people to begin protesting, said that after the election of President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
there was a feeling among the young that he would pass laws to regulate the banking system and "take these financial fraudsters and bring them to justice." However, as time passed, "the feeling that he's a bit of a gutless wonder slowly crept in" and they lost their hope that his election would result in change.
The protest was begun at Zuccotti Park
Zuccotti Park
Zuccotti Park, formerly called Liberty Plaza Park, is a publicly accessible park in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is a controlled by Brookfield Properties. The park was created in 1968 by Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, after the property owners negotiated its creation with city...
since it was private property and police could not legally force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the property owner.
At a press conference held on the same day as the protests began, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
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."
The rhetoric, imagery and tactics of OWS are partially inspired by the Arab Spring
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring , otherwise known as the Arab Awakening, is a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world that began on Saturday, 18 December 2010...
protests such as those in Cairo's Tahrir Square
2011 Egyptian revolution
The 2011 Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on Tuesday, 25 January 2011 and is still continuing as of November 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil...
. Immediate prototypes for OWS are the British student protests of 2010, Greece's and Spain's anti-austerity protests of the "indignados" (indignants), as well as the Middle Easts' Arab Spring protests. 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. Occupy Wall Street, in turn, gave rise to the Occupy movement
Occupy movement
The Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. The first Occupy protest to be widely covered was Occupy Wall Street in New York City, taking place on September 17, 2011...
in the United States and around the world.
Goals
The protesters targeted Wall Street because of the part it played in the economic crisis of 2008 which started the Great Recession. They say that Wall Street's risky lending practices of mortgage-backed securities which ultimately proved to be worthless caused the crisis, and that the government bailoutEmergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Division A of , commonly referred to as a bailout of the U.S. financial system, is a law enacted in response to the subprime mortgage crisis...
breached a sense of propriety. The protesters say that Wall Street recklessly and blatantly abused the credit default swap market, and that the instability of that market must have been known beforehand. They say that the guilty parties should be prosecuted.
Some journalists have criticized the protests saying it is hard to discern a unified aim for the movement, while other commentators have said that although the movement is not in complete agreement on its message and goals, it does have a message which is fairly coherent. Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Rushkoff
Douglas Rushkoff is an American media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist and documentarian. He is best known for his association with the early cyberpunk culture, and his advocacy of open source solutions to social problems.Rushkoff is most frequently regarded as a media...
, writing for CNN, said that even though the protesters are not ready to articulate an exact array of problems or how to solve them,
The 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. Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn has compared the protests to the Situationists and the Protests of 1968
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
movements. 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
Corporate personhood
Corporate personhood is the status conferred upon corporations under the law, which allows corporations to have rights and responsibilities similar to those of a natural person. There is a question about which subset of rights that are afforded to natural persons should also be afforded to...
.
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, 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. 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. OWS protesters that prefer a looser, more localized set of goals have also written a document, the Liberty Square Blueprint
Liberty Square Blueprint
The Liberty Square Blueprint is a collection of loosely defined goals authored by about 250 Occupy Wall Street protesters. It was started around October 4, 2011 and is a wiki style document...
, a wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
page edited by some 250 occupiers and still undergoing changes. Written as a wiki the wording changes, however, 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."
The Guardian interviewed OWS and found three main demands: get the money out of politics; reinstate the Glass-Steagall act; and draft laws against the little-known loophole that currently allows members of Congress to pass legislation affecting Delaware-based corporations in which they themselves are investors.
We are the 99%
The phrase "The 99%" is a political slogan of "Occupy" protesters. It was originally launched as a Tumblr blog page in late August 2011. It refers to the vast concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99 percent, and indicates that most people are paying the price for the mistakes of a tiny minority.The top 1 percent of income earners have more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a Congressional Budget Office
Congressional Budget Office
The Congressional Budget Office is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that provides economic data to Congress....
(CBO) report. The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate. 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
Progressive tax
A progressive tax is a tax by which the tax rate increases as the taxable base amount increases. "Progressive" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate progresses from low to high, where the average tax rate is less than the marginal tax rate...
. 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%. In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.
In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%. Financial inequality (total net worth minus the value of one's home) was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%. However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%. During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007, the income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. This is in stark contrast with surveys of US populations that indicate an "ideal" distribution that is much more equal, and a widespread ignorance of the true income inequality and wealth inequality. .
Demographics
Early on the protesters were mostly young due to their pronounced use of social networks through which they promoted the protests. As the protest grew, older protesters also became involved. The average age of the protesters is 33, with people in their 20s balanced by people in their 40s.Various religious faiths have been represented at the protest including Muslims, Jews, and Christians. 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.According to a survey of Zuccotti 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.
Organization and group process
The New York City General Assembly (NYCGA), held every evening at seven, is the main OWS decision-making body and provides much of the leadership and executive function for the protesters. 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. 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 stackProgressive stack
A progressive stack is a technique used in some general assemblies in the Occupy movement, designed to ensure that people from marginalized groups get a chance to speak....
, in which people from marginalized groups are sometimes allowed to speak before people from dominant groups, with facilitator
Facilitator
A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion...
s, 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. Volunteers take minutes of the meetings so that organizers who are not in attendance can be kept up-to-date. In addition to the over 70 working groups 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.
According to Fordham University
Fordham University
Fordham University is a private, nonprofit, coeducational research university in the United States, with three campuses in and around New York City. It was founded by the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York in 1841 as St...
communications professor Paul Levinson
Paul Levinson
Paul Levinson is an American author and professor of communications and media studies at Fordham University in New York City. Levinson's novels, short fiction, and non-fiction works have been translated into twelve languages....
, Occupy Wall Street and similar movements symbolize another rise of direct democracy
Direct democracy
Direct democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
that has not actually been seen since ancient times. Sociologist Heather Gautney, also from Fordham University, has said that while the organization calls itself leaderless, the protest in Zuccotti Park has discernible "organizers". Even with the perception of a movement with no leaders, leaders have emerged. Ad hoc leaders discussed whether to leave. They plan for the occupation of other cities and neighborhoods, with an infrastructure to keep the movement beyond just the park. 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.” According to TheStreet.com, some organizers have made more of a commitment and are more visible than others, with a core of about five main organizers being the most active.
Funding
Most of OWS funding comes from middle-class donors with incomes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, and the median donation was $22. According to finance group member Pete Dutro, OWS had accumulated over $600,000 and had $450,000 remaining as of November 21, 2011. 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. In the future members of the OWS finance committee say they will initiate a process to streamline the movement and re-evaluate their budget. They may eliminate or restructure some of the "working groups" they no longer need on a day-to-day basis. "We have some ideas but we want to hear ideas from the other working groups," said Dutro, "So we can put forward a proposal that would be fair and suit everybody's needs." Presently the movement continues to organize out of donated office space and give money to other "occupations."According to The Wall Street Journal, "A few weeks ago, the Alliance for Global Justice, a Washington-based nonprofit, agreed to sponsor Occupy Wall Street and lend it its tax-exempt status, so donors could write off contributions. That means the Alliance for Global Justice's board has final say on spending, though it says it's not involved in decisions and will only step in if the protesters want to spend money on something that might violate their tax-exempt status." As of late October it was reported that the OWS Finance Committee works with a lawyer and an accountant to track finances; the group has a substantial amount of money deposited at the Amalgamated Bank nearby, after first making deposits at the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union. In late October the General Assembly of Occupy Wall Street registered for tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3) Occupy Wall Street accepts tax-deductible donations, primarily through the movement's website.
Zuccotti Park encampment
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. Meals were served at a cost of about $1,000 a day and some visitors ate at nearby restaurants, however local vendors fared badly, and many businesses surrounding the park were adversely affected. Contribution boxes collected about $5,000 a day, and supplies came in from around the country. Eric Smith, a local chef who was laid off at the SheratonSheraton
Sheraton may refer to:*Sheraton Hotels and Resorts, a hotel chain*Sheraton, County Durham, a village in County Durham, in England*Sheraton Centre, a mall complex located in the parish of Christ Church, Barbados....
in Midtown, said that he was running a five-star restaurant in the park. 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.
The protesters constructed a greywater
Greywater
Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing, and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation and constructed wetlands...
treatment system to recycle dishwater contaminants. The filtered water was used for the park's plants and flowers. Many protesters used the bathrooms of nearby business establishments. Some supporters donated use of their bathrooms for showers and the sanitary needs of protesters.
New York City requires a permit to use "amplified sound," including electric bullhorns. Since Occupy Wall Street does not have a permit, the protesters have created the "human microphone
Human microphone
A human microphone, also known as the people's microphone, is a means for delivering a speech to a large group of people, wherein persons gathered around the speaker repeat what the speaker says, thus "amplifying" the voice of the speaker without the need for electrical or pneumatic amplification...
" 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 has provided a further unifying effect for the crowd.
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. The items were powered with gas generators until the New York Fire Department removed them on October 28, saying they were as a fire hazard. Protesters then used bicycles rigged with an electricity-generating apparatus to charge batteries to power the protesters' laptops and other electronics. According to the Columbia Journalism Reviews New Frontier Database, the media team, while unofficial, runs websites like Occupytogether.org, video livestream, a "steady flow of updates on Twitter, and Tumblr" as well as Skype
Skype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
sessions with other demonstrators.
In October a makeshift tent was erected, formally calling itself :The People's Library, and began offering free wi-fi internet to protesters and containing over 5,000 books. The library operated 24/7
24/7
24/7 is an abbreviation which stands for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week", usually referring to a business or service available at all times without interruption...
and used an honor system
Honor system
An honor system or honesty system is a philosophical way of running a variety of endeavors based on trust, honor, and honesty. Something that operates under the rule of the "honor system" is usually something that does not have strictly enforced rules governing its principles...
to manage returns. It offered weekly poetry readings on Friday nights, provided a reference serviced frequently staffed by professional librarians, and procured materials available through the interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan is a service whereby a user of one library can borrow books or receive photocopies of documents that are owned by another library...
system. However, the library was removed on November 15 when the park was closed to overnight use and it was reported that many of the books were destroyed. The library's cataloging system is accessible online at LibraryThing
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a social cataloging web application for storing and sharing book catalogs and various types of book metadata. It is used by individuals, authors, libraries and publishers....
, which donated a free lifetime membership.
On October 6, Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, issued a statement that "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."
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. 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, under rules set by the private park’s owner—and many protesters spent the night sweeping and mopping the park. The next morning, the property owner postponed its cleaning effort. 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.
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. 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."
Public opinion
National polls over October and November 2011 were mixed, with agreement/approval ratings for Occupy Wall Street varying from 59% to 22%, but approval was fairly consistently larger than disapproval, with large numbers often not giving an opinion. A November 3 poll done by Quinnipiac UniversityQuinnipiac University
Quinnipiac University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university located in Hamden, Connecticut, United States at the foot of Sleeping Giant State Park...
found that 30 percent of American voters have a favorable view of the protests, while 39 percent do not. The same poll found that among independent voters, 29 percent have a favorable view opposed to 42 percent who have an unfavorable view.
The age group that most strongly supports OWS are 50 to 64, rather than under 35. OWS has the strongest support among those making $50,000 to $70,000 a year, rather than under $30,000, with 27% of people making over $75,000 a year backing the movement. Managers and other professionals support the movement more than blue-collar workers, and men over over 50 show the strongest support.
An NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
/Wall Street Journal survey released October 12 found that 37 percent of respondents "tend to support" the occupy movement, while 18 percent "tend to oppose" it. An October 13 survey by TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine found that 54 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of the protests, while 23 percent have a negative impression. An October 18 Gallup poll
The Gallup Organization
The Gallup Organization, is primarily a research-based performance-management consulting company. Some of Gallup's key practice areas are - Employee Engagement, Customer Engagement and Well-Being. Gallup has over 40 offices in 27 countries. World headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Operational...
found that 22 percent of Americans agree with the protest's goals, while 15 percent disapprove and the remaining 61% say they don't know enough to decide. Gallup found that Democrats, Independents and Republicans all follow the news about OWS in equal numbers, and those who closely followed OWS were more likely to approve of its goals and methods. An October CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
/New York Times polls found 43% of Americans agree with Occupy Wall Street while 27% disagree. An October Rasmussen
Rasmussen Reports
Rasmussen Reports is an American media company that publishes and distributes information based on public opinion polling. Founded by pollster Scott Rasmussen in 2003, the company updates daily indexes including the President's job approval rating, and provides public opinion data, analysis, and...
poll found an almost even split, shows that 33 percent of Americans have a favorable view, while 27 percent are unfavorable and 40 percent have no opinion. An October United Technologies/National Journal Congressional poll found that 59 percent of Americans agree with the movement while 31 percent disagree.
An October Quinnipiac University poll of New York City voters found that 67 percent of New Yorkers approved of the movement with 23 percent disapproving. The results also found 87 percent of New Yorkers find it OK that they are protesting. Despite media criticism that the protesters views are incoherent, the poll also found that 72 percent of New York City voters understand their views. A NY1-Marist Poll released November 1 showed 44 percent of New York voters supported the Occupy Wall Street movement, while only 21 percent supported the Tea Party.
The White House
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." When Jake TapperJake Tapper
Jacob Paul "Jake" Tapper is an American print and television journalist, currently the senior White House correspondent for ABC News in Washington, D.C...
of ABC News pushed Obama to explain the fact that his administration hasn't prosecuted any Wall Street executives who didn't play by the rules, he replied, "One of the biggest problems about the collapse of Lehman's and the subsequent financial crisis and the whole subprime lending fiasco is that a lot of that stuff wasn't necessarily illegal; it was just immoral or inappropriate or reckless." On October 18, when interviewed by ABC news, he said "in some ways, they’re not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them."
On November 22nd, President Barack Obama was "#As a form of protest
Human microphone
A human microphone, also known as the people's microphone, is a means for delivering a speech to a large group of people, wherein persons gathered around the speaker repeat what the speaker says, thus "amplifying" the voice of the speaker without the need for electrical or pneumatic amplification...
" at a speech in New Hampshire by a group of Occupy Wall Street protesters as a series of call-and-response quips ensued, "Mr. President: Over 4,000 peaceful protesters have been arrested while banksters continue to destroy the economy. You must stop the assault on our First Amendment rights. Your silence sends a message that police brutality is acceptable. Banks got bailed out. We got sold out." The crowd quickly drowned the protesters out with chants of “Obama!” Obama then responded, "I appreciate you guys making your point. Let me go ahead and make mine." Later in the speech, Obama said “families like yours, young people like the ones here today — including the ones who were just chanting at me — you’re the reason that I ran for office in the first place.”
Vice President Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
likened the protest to the Tea Party's similar anger at the banks, saying, "Look guys the bargain is not on the level anymore in the minds of the vast majority of the American (people) the middle class has been screwed."
Congress
House Democratic Leader Rep.Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives
Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives are elected by their respective parties in a closed-door caucus by secret ballot and are also known as floor leaders. The U.S. House of Representatives does not officially use the term "Minority Leader", although the media frequently does...
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Pelosi
Nancy Patricia D'Alesandro Pelosi is the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives and served as the 60th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2007 to 2011...
, said she supports the growing nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement. Pelosi said she includes herself in the group of Americans dissatisfied with Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
and stated, "I support the message to the establishment, whether it's Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen. We cannot continue in a way (that) is not relevant to their lives."
Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
Senator Bernie Sanders
Bernie Sanders
Bernard "Bernie" Sanders is the junior United States Senator from Vermont. He previously represented Vermont's at-large district in the United States House of Representatives...
of Vermont, who caucuses
Congressional caucus
A congressional caucus is a group of members of the United States Congress that meets to pursue common legislative objectives. Formally, caucuses are formed as congressional member organizations through the United States House of Representatives and governed under the rules of that chamber...
with the Democratic Party
Democratic Caucus of the United States Senate
The Senate Democratic Caucus is the formal organization of the current 51 Democratic Senators in the United States Senate. In the 112th Congress, the Democratic Caucus additionally includes two independent senators who formally caucus with the Democrats for the purpose of committee assignments...
, appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program that airs on Current TV, where it began airing on June 20, 2011. The program was broadcast on MSNBC from March 31, 2003, to January 21, 2011. On MSNBC, the show presented five selected news stories of...
and supported the protests saying, "We desperately need a coming together of working people to stand up to Wall Street. We need to rebuild the middle-class in this country and you guys can't have it all."
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor
Eric Cantor
Eric Ivan Cantor is the U.S. Representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district, serving since 2001. A member of the Republican Party, he became House Majority Leader when the 112th Congress convened on January 3, 2011...
(R
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
-Va
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
), in a speech to a Values Voter Summit, characterized the movement as "growing mobs" and said that Obama's "failed policies" and rhetoric "condon[ing] the pitting of Americans against Americans" were to blame. In response, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney
Jay Carney
James "Jay" Carney is an American journalist and President Barack Obama's second White House Press Secretary. Prior to his appointment as Press Secretary, replacing Robert Gibbs, he was director of communications to Vice President Joe Biden...
accused Cantor of "unbound" hypocrisy, given the Majority Leader's support of the Tea Party protests, adding, "I don't understand why one man's mob is another man's democracy." Carney characterized both movements as examples of American democratic traditions.
The Democratic co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus
Congressional Progressive Caucus
The Congressional Progressive Caucus is the largest caucus within the Democratic caucus in the United States Congress with 83 declared members, and works to advance progressive issues and positions....
, Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Raúl Grijalva
Raul Grijalva
Raúl M. Grijalva is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2003. He is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes half of metro Tucson, all of Yuma and Nogales, and some peripheral parts of metro Phoenix.-Early life, education and career:...
and Keith Ellison
Keith Ellison
Keith Ellison may refer to:*Keith Ellison *Keith Ellison , member of the U.S. Congress from Minnesota*Keith P. Ellison, U.S. federal judge...
, announced their solidarity with the movement on October 4. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is the Democratic Hill committee for the United States House of Representatives, working to elect Democrats to that body. They play a critical role in recruiting candidates, raising funds, and organizing races in districts that are expected to yield...
is asking for 100,000 names on its website which will subsequently be added to 100,000 letters to Speaker of the House John Boehner
John Boehner
John Andrew Boehner is the 61st and current Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Republican Party, he is the U.S. Representative from , serving since 1991...
and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressing support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, the middle class, and opposition to tax loopholes for millionaires and big oil.
2012 Presidential candidates
U.S. Congressman and 2012 Republican presidential candidateRon Paul presidential campaign, 2012
U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas is running for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States. Although he was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate, Paul stopped short of a full-fledged candidacy before May 2011. Prior to that, he had only indicated that he...
Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
(R-TX) stated, "If they were demonstrating peacefully, and making a point, and arguing our case, and drawing attention to the Fed—I would say, 'good!'" In a GOP debate, mentioning the ongoing “Occupy Wall Street” protesters, he stated that crony capitalists are those “that benefit from contract from government, benefit from the Federal Reserve, benefit from all the bailouts. They don’t deserve compassion. They deserve taxation or they deserve to have all their benefits removed." When protesters conducted a 'mic check,' at one of Ron Paul's rallies, he replied, "If you listen carefully, I'm very much involved with the 99. I've been condemning that 1% because they've been ripping us off. The people on Wall Street got the bailouts and you guys got stuck with the bills and that's where I see the problem is."
2012 Republican presidential candidate
Herman Cain presidential campaign, 2012
Businessman, radio host, former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, and former United States Senate candidate Herman Cain of Georgia began a campaign for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States shortly after the 2010 midterm elections.Although he was...
Herman Cain
Herman Cain
Herman Cain is a candidate for the 2012 U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination.Cain has a background as a business executive, syndicated columnist, and radio host from Georgia. He served as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza from 1986 to 1996...
accused the movement of being "anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism
Anti-capitalism describes a wide variety of movements, ideas, and attitudes which oppose capitalism. Anti-capitalists, in the strict sense of the word, are those who wish to completely replace capitalism with another system....
" and argued "Don't blame Wall Street, don't blame the big banks, if you don't have a job and you're not rich, blame yourself!" In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Cain also expressed his belief that Occupy Wall Street was "planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration," but admitted that he "[didn't] have facts" to back up his accusation.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
was quoted as saying at the 2012 Bloomberg/Washington Post Debate, "Let me draw a distinction. Virtually every American has a reason to be angry. I think virtually [every] American has a reason to be worried. I think the people who are protesting in Wall Street break into two groups: one is left-wing agitators who would be happy to show up next week on any other topic, and the other is sincere middle-class people who frankly are very close to the Tea Party people who care. And actually... you can tell which are which. The people who are decent, responsible citizens pick up after themselves. The people who are just out there as activists trash the place and walk off and are proud of having trashed it, so let’s draw that distinction." On November 21, Gingrich was quoted as saying to the protesters that they should "Go get a job right after you take a bath."
2012 Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2012
The Mitt Romney 2012 presidential campaign began informally shortly after the 2008 presidential election. Having campaigned for the Republican nomination in 2008, the former Governor of Massachusetts was frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for U.S....
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
did admit that there were 'bad actors,' and the need for them to be 'found and plucked out.' Yet, he believes 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." 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."
2012 Republican presidential candidate
Buddy Roemer presidential campaign, 2012
Former Governor of Louisiana and former U.S. Congressman Buddy Roemer of Louisiana began a movement for the 2012 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States shortly following the 2010 midterm elections....
Buddy Roemer
Buddy Roemer
Charles Elson "Buddy" Roemer III is an American politician who served as the 52nd Governor of Louisiana, from 1988 to 1992. He was elected as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party on March 11, 1991...
expressed support for the movement, saying, "We have almost permanent unemployment. They say it’s nine percent, but the real unemployment rate is more like 16 percent. These are people there are no jobs for, or they have to work part time to try to make ends meet. It’s disturbing. The Wall Street protest is unshaped, unfocused, but there’s a lot of power in it."
On October 18, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson
Gary Johnson
Gary Johnson may refer to:*Gary Johnson , former Governor of New Mexico and candidate for President in 2012*Gary Johnson , American politician, Wisconsin State Assembly...
visited with the protesters in New York, expressing his support for the movement, stating, "I just have to express my solidarity with everyone there that expresses the notion that we have a country that doles it out unfairly. Corporatism is alive and well in this country."
Other politicians
Mayor Bloomberg said that the protests "aren't productive," although he also expressed sympathy for some of their complaints. On October 8, during his weekly radio show, Bloomberg complained that the protesters are trying to "take the jobs from the people working in the city," and said that although "[t]here are some people with legitimate complaints, there are some people who just like to protest."In an interview with The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, Former Democratic U.S. Senator Russ Feingold
Russ Feingold
Russell Dana "Russ" Feingold is an American politician from the U.S. state of Wisconsin. He served as a Democratic party member of the U.S. Senate from 1993 to 2011. From 1983 to 1993, Feingold was a Wisconsin State Senator representing the 27th District.He is a recipient of the John F...
endorsed the movement on October 5 stating, "This is like the Tea Party—only it's real... By the time this is over, it will make the Tea Party look like ... a tea party." Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
and Secretary of State
Secretary of State
Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....
Colin Powell
Colin Powell
Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...
declared that the demonstrations of the OWS movement were "as American as apple pie," adding "“This is something that our political leaders need to think about. It isn’t enough just to scream at our Occupy Wall Street demonstrators — we need our political system to start reflecting this anger back into how do we fix it? How do we get the economy going again?”
Labor unions
In September, various labor unionsTrade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
, including the Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America
Transport Workers Union of America is a United States labor union that was founded in 1934 by subway workers in New York City, then expanded to represent transit employees in other cities, primarily in the eastern U.S. This article discusses the parent union and its largest local, Local 100,...
Local 100 and the New York Metro 32BJ Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union
Service Employees International Union is a labor union representing about 1.8 million workers in over 100 occupations in the United States , and Canada...
, pledged their support for demonstrators.
Union leaders say that unions and OWS can offer mutual support, with OWS gaining from the union's money, stature, and large membership, and the weakened labor movement absorbing the protesters vitality. The Industrial Workers of the World
Industrial Workers of the World
The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
announced on September 28, 2011, that its General Executive Board (GEB), and the General Defense Committee (GDC) had issued statements of support for Occupy Wall Street. After numerous arrests of protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge, police commandeered city buses to pick up detained protesters and union drivers later sued the New York Police Department. Union President John Samuelsen said, "We're down with these protesters. We support the notion that rich folk are not paying their fair share. Our bus operators are not going to be pressed into service to arrest protesters anywhere". On October 4, representatives from more than 14 of the country's largest labor unions joined the protesters for a mass rally and march. In early November, National Nurses United
National Nurses United
National Nurses United -- with more than 150,000 members from across the country—is the largest union and professional association of registered nurses in America....
(NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the nation, expressed support for OWS and rallied in front of the White House and Department of Treasury. Karen Higgins, co-president of NNU, said, "A real finance tax would generate $350 billion a year in the U.S. alone and bring relief to families out of homes, friends out of work, patients out of care, communities running out of time. The tax starts a revenue flow back to the 99 percent."
Noting the growing union support, an article in the progressive-leaning Mother Jones magazine said that union support could splinter and derail the protests rather than sustain them because while unions are tightly organized, hierarchical, and run with a clear chain of command, Occupy Wall Street is the opposite in that they are "a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system with roots in anarchist thought." However, the article went on to suggest that if the unions and OWS joined together they could work to create a progressive movement that "effectively taps into the rising feeling among many Americans that economic opportunity has been squashed by corporate greed and the influence of the very rich in politics." As the success of the movement has become apparent, union organizers have begun to embrace some of their social media skills, bold tactics, and the simplicity of the 99% slogan. Damon Silvers, the AFL–CIO's policy director, said, “We think the Occupy movement has given voice to something very basic about what’s going on in our country right now. The fact that they’ve figured out certain concepts and language for doing that, we think is really important and positive.” The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) has endorsed the movement saying, "We recognize the need to work together and learn from each other. The vitality, energy and dialogue growing from the Occupy Wall Street movement show the potential to organize, build power and win justice for the middle class.”
Federal Reserve
During a hearing before the Joint Economic Committee October 4, 2011, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben BernankeBen Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist, and the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. During his tenure as Chairman, Bernanke has overseen the response of the Federal Reserve to late-2000s financial crisis....
said, "[P]eople are quite unhappy with the state of the economy and what’s happening. They blame, with some justification, the problems in the financial sector for getting us into this mess, and they’re dissatisfied with the policy response here in Washington. And at some level, I can’t blame them. Certainly, 9 percent unemployment and very slow growth is not a good situation." Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard W. Fisher
Richard W. Fisher
Richard W. Fisher is currently the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, having assumed that post in April, 2005.-Career:...
said that he was "somewhat sympathetic" to the views of the protesters, and added, "We have too many people out of work. We have a very uneven distribution of income
Income inequality in the United States
Income inequality in the United States of America refers to the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner in the US. Data from the United States Department of Commerce, CBO, and Internal Revenue Service indicate that income inequality among households has been increasing...
. We have a very frustrated people, and I can understand their frustration."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke
Ben Bernanke
Ben Shalom Bernanke is an American economist, and the current Chairman of the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the United States. During his tenure as Chairman, Bernanke has overseen the response of the Federal Reserve to late-2000s financial crisis....
commented about protester's blame of the Fed saying: "“The concerns about the Fed are based on misconceptions, A very simplistic interpretation of that [criticism] was that we were doing that because we wanted to preserve banker salaries. That was obviously not the case.” Bernanke has stated that policies aimed at boosting the economy will continue.
Media response
Five days into the protest, Keith OlbermannKeith Olbermann
Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...
criticized the initial media response for failing to adequately cover the protests. The protests began on Saturday, September 17. The following Wednesday, The New York Observer reported on the nascent protests in Zuccotti Park. On Friday, September 23, Ginia Bellafante panned the movement in The New York Times. Joanna Weiss of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
found it difficult to take the protests seriously, criticizing Occupy Wall Street for its "circus" atmosphere." In a September 27 article, Lauren Ellis of Mother Jones magazine criticized the movement's lack of a clear message.
By October 4, economist Richard Wolff
Richard D. Wolff
Richard D. Wolff is an American economist, well-known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis.- Early and personal life :...
commented that the unclear shape of the movement is "mostly irrelevant" at this early stage and the priority should be to invite all interested parties. Kalle Lasn
Kalle Lasn
Kalle Lasn is an Estonian Canadian author, magazine editor and activist. Near the end of World War II his family fled Estonia and Lasn spent his childhood in a German refugee camp. He was then resettled in Australia. In the 1960s, he founded a market research company in Tokyo, and in 1970, moved...
, co-founder of Adbusters, believed that the protests had gone mainstream and expressed the opinion that "it's become kind of a political left movement in the U.S., hopefully to rival the Tea Party." Michael Daly, of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast
The Daily Beast is an American news reporting and opinion website founded and published by Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the short-lived Talk Magazine. The Daily Beast was launched on October 6, 2008, and is owned by IAC...
characterized the position of the protesters as a "feeling that there is just a fundamental unfairness. From their point of view, the very people who almost wrecked the U.S. economy on Wall Street continue to get wealthy while working people are struggling to pay their bills." On October 11, Katrina vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Katrina vanden Heuvel is the editor, publisher, and part-owner of the magazine The Nation. She has been the magazine's editor since 1995. She is a frequent guest on numerous television programs...
, who writes a weekly column for The Post
The Post
The Post was a national tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom, owned by Eddy Shah. It ran for only five weeks in November and December 1988. Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves, then the hosts of an ITV football series called Saint and Greavsie, had a column in the paper.The Post was produced at...
and is the editor and publisher of The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...
, said "most understand that the main task ahead is growing the movement," and pointing to recent legislation, she suggests that the movement has already influenced public dialogue. From October 17–21 Cenk Uygur
Cenk Uygur
Cenk Kadir Uygur , is the main host and co-founder of the liberal Internet and talk radio show, The Young Turks . A naturalized U.S. citizen, Uygur was born in Turkey and raised from age eight in the United States. He worked as an attorney in Washington D.C. and New York before beginning his career...
of the internet news show The Young Turks filmed the political segment of the show in Zuccotti Park.
MSNBC's Technolog noted that policymakers had failed to address economic problems, and news media had failed to cover the unemployment crisis: "Tracking CNN, MSNBC and Fox, ThinkProgress found 7,583 mentions of the word 'debt,' compared to 427 mentions of 'unemployment' on all three networks combined." NM Incite
Nielsen Online
Nielsen Online, a service of the Nielsen Company, provides measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior. Previously a majority investor in both companies, Nielsen purchased NetRatings and BuzzMetrics in the...
said 22% of tweets
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
using the #OccupyWallStreet hashtag voiced general support for the movement, 11% indicated participation in it, 5% described celebrity support, 11% were complaints against the movement, 13% shared news, 6% shared videos, 4% blamed government, 2% blamed Obama, and 1% blamed capitalism.
Police response
Police reaction has varied. Some incidents have been criticized. The New York City Police DepartmentNew York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
has assigned Rick Lee, a First Precinct community relations detective, to duty at the demonstration. He is one of the department's main liaisons with the protesters on behalf of the police department, and advises protesters on such matters as, avoiding arrest and getting along with police as well as attempting to get information of protesters plans. As a plainclothes officer, he has been referred to as the "hipster cop" for his attire consisting of glasses, cardigan sweaters, skinny ties and skinny trousers. Reaction to his presence is mixed.
Occupy Wall Street has cost the Police Department $5 million in overtime as of October 27. Police statistics show competing information. Arrests and crimes have risen, while the number of summonses has fallen. How dangerous it may be for Occupy Wall Street protesters and nearby residents is difficult to assess due to an informal divide that has sprung up between who patrols inside and outside the park. While NYC police are stationed around the periphery, police seem to have ceded patrol of the interior to protesters.
International response
- BrazilianBrazilianBrazilian may refer to anything of or relating to Brazil and may also refer directly to:* Brazilian barbecue, known as churrasco* Brazilian football—see Football in Brazil* Brazilian football clubs—see List of football clubs in Brazil...
President Dilma RousseffDilma RousseffDilma Vana Rousseff is the 36th and current President of Brazil. She is the first woman to hold the office. Prior to that, in 2005, she was also the first woman to become Chief of Staff of Brazil, appointed by then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva....
said, "We agree with some of the expressions that some movements have used around the world [in] demonstrations like the ones we see in the US and other countries." - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen HarperStephen HarperStephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
said that because there was nothing like a Canadian TARP program, he did not think Canadians were as angry as Americans. Finance Minister Jim FlahertyJim FlahertyJames Michael "Jim" Flaherty, PC, MP is Canada's Minister of Finance and he has also served as Ontario's Minister of Finance. From 1995 until 2005, he was the Member of Provincial Parliament for Whitby—Ajax, and a member of the Progressive Conservative Party caucus...
expressed sympathy with the protests, citing high unemployment amongst the youth. Comparing Canada to the U.S., he said that unlike the U.S., Canada has a progressive income tax systemProgressive taxA progressive tax is a tax by which the tax rate increases as the taxable base amount increases. "Progressive" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate progresses from low to high, where the average tax rate is less than the marginal tax rate...
that favors the vulnerable, and the government has regulated and supervised its financial institutions. - People's Republic of ChinaPeople's Republic of ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
state news agency XinhuaXinhua News AgencyThe Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service...
said the protests had exposed "fundamental problems" with the US economic and political systems, and that it showed "a clear need for Washington, which habitually rushes to demand other governments to change when there are popular protests in their countries, to put its own house in order." - EgyptEgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian protesters from Tahrir Square have spoken out in support of Occupy Wall Street. A message of solidarity issued by a collective of Cairo-based protesters declared: "As the interests of government increasingly cater to the interests and comforts of private, transnational capital, our cities and homes have become progressively more abstract and violent places, subject to the casual ravages of the next economic development or urban renewal scheme. An entire generation across the globe has grown up realizing, rationally and emotionally, that we have no future in the current order of things." - GreekGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
Prime Minister George PapandreouGeorge PapandreouGeorgios A. Papandreou , commonly anglicised to George and shortened to Γιώργος in Greek, is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece following his party's victory in the 2009 legislative election...
supported the U.S. protests saying, "We fight for changing the global economic system, like many anti-Wall Street citizens who rightly protest against the inequalities and injustices of the system." - IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Prime Minister Manmohan SinghManmohan SinghManmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...
stated, "There are reasons why people are protesting. People are protesting in Wall Street, in Europe about the fat salaries that the bankers are getting when people are being asked to tighten their belts. There is problem of growing unemployment in the United States. There is also worry in Europe. So there are problems which the system must have credible answers to take them on board." - The Korean Central News AgencyKorean Central News AgencyThe Korean Central News Agency is the state news agency of North Korea and has existed since December 5, 1946. KCNA is headquartered in the capital city of Pyongyang...
of North KoreaNorth KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
commented that the Occupy Wall Street movement were "in protest against exploitation and oppression by capital, shaking all fabrics of society." - Former president of PolandPolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and cofounder of the Polish Solidarity Movement, Lech WałęsaLech WałęsaLech Wałęsa is a Polish politician, trade-union organizer, and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, he co-founded Solidarity , the Soviet bloc's first independent trade union, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983, and served as President of Poland between 1990 and 95.Wałęsa was an electrician...
, has expressed his support for Occupy Wall Street and is considering a visit to the site. - Former Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
President Mikhail GorbachevMikhail GorbachevMikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
compared it to the perestroikaPerestroikaPerestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
period and the collapse of the Soviet UnionSoviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
superpower, calling the protests justified. He said Americans should put their own house in order before attempting to do such with other countries. - Former United KingdomUnited KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Prime Minister Gordon BrownGordon BrownJames Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
said the protests were about fairness. "There are voices in the middle who say, ‘Look, we can build a better financial system that is more sustainable, that is based on a better and proportionate sense of what’s just and fair and where people don’t take reckless risks or, if they do, they’re penalized for doing so.’" - Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony BlairTony BlairAnthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
criticized the movement, stating, “a protest is not the same as a policy. Someone who’s demonstrating will often make demands, but they don’t necessarily have answers.” - Vatican CityVatican CityVatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...
Cardinal Peter Turkson, a senior Vatican official, defended the protests: "Do people at a certain time have a right to say: 'Do business differently, look at the way you are doing business because this is not leading to our welfare, to our good'? Can people demand this of the people of Wall Street? I think people can and should be able to." The comment was in light of a new publication the Vatican released entitled Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority, which agreed with many of the protesters' issues. - Venezuelan President Hugo ChávezHugo ChávezHugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
condemned the "horrible repression" of the Occupy Wall Street activists and expressed solidarity with the movement.
Authors and academics
Kate PickettKate Pickett
Kate Pickett is an English Epidemiologist who is Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York and is a National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist. She is prominent for co-authoring the The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always...
, coauthor of The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better is a book by Richard G. Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, published in 2009 by Allen Lane. The book is published in the US by Bloomsbury Press with the new sub-title: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger...
, said in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
that "Few doubt that it was the actions of the rich and the super-rich, the 1%, that created the crisis. But sadly, debate has not yet been translated into action...This is why we need the Occupy movement and the staunch actions of the trade unions – why we need protest and demonstrations and activism."
Canadian writer Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein
Naomi Klein is a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.-Family:...
has spoken at the protest several times. Writing in the New York Times she said she is "delighted" that OWS has not given in to issuing a list of demands. "This is a young movement still in the process of determining just how powerful it is, and that power will determine what demands are possible. Small movements have to settle for small reforms: big ones have the freedom to dream."
Professor and author Cornel West
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, civil rights activist and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America....
addressed the frustrations that some critics have expressed at the protest’s lack of a clear and unified message, saying, "It’s impossible to translate the issue of the greed of Wall Street into one demand, or two demands. We’re talking about a democratic awakening."
Philosopher Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek
Slavoj Žižek is a Slovenian philosopher, critical theorist working in the traditions of Hegelianism, Marxism and Lacanian psychoanalysis. He has made contributions to political theory, film theory, and theoretical psychoanalysis....
gave a speech on Wall Street in which he expressed support for the protests saying, "They tell you we are dreamers. The true dreamers are those who think things can go on indefinitely the way they are. We are not dreamers. We are awakening from a dream which is turning into a nightmare."
On November 15, when police closed the park to overnight use by the protesters, Chris Hedges
Chris Hedges
Christopher Lynn Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies...
, who has been participating since the onset, wrote in his weekly column that he believed that through a rigid adherence to nonviolence and a verbal respect for the police, the movement would continue to move forward to see the realization of its goals. Author Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich
-Early life:Ehrenreich was born Barbara Alexander to Isabelle Oxley and Ben Howes Alexander in Butte, Montana, which she describes as then being "a bustling, brawling, blue collar mining town."...
, in response to the dismantling of the occupations, stated that "One of the appalling things here is that there are so many Democratic mayors involved in these crackdowns or in Bloomberg's case, someone who is seen as a liberal."
Over one thousand authors have announced their support for the movement via “Occupy Writers”, an online petition that states “We, the undersigned writers and all who will join us, support Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy Movement around the world.” The initiative began when Jeff Sharlet
Jeff Sharlet
Jeff Sharlet is an American journalist, bestselling author, and academic best known for writing about religious subcultures in the United States. He is a contributing editor for Harper's and Rolling Stone...
e-mailed Salman Rushdie to suggest a petition for writers who support Occupy Wall Street, and signatories range the spectrum of literary genres and academic disciplines and include Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
, Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
, Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
, Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler
Daniel Handler is an American author, screenwriter and accordionist. He is best known for his work under the pen name Lemony Snicket.-Personal life:...
also known as Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket
Lemony Snicket is the pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler . Snicket is the author of several children's books, serving as the narrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events and appearing as a character within the series. Because of this, the name Lemony Snicket may refer to both a fictional...
, and Alice Walker
Alice Walker
Alice Malsenior Walker is an American author, poet, and activist. She has written both fiction and essays about race and gender...
. The site also features original work from the writers expressing their take on the Occupy movement.
Authors and academics supporting include professor of economics and best-selling author Ravi Batra
Ravi Batra
Raveendra Nath "Ravi" Batra is an Indian-American economist, author, and professor at Southern Methodist University. Batra is the author of six international bestsellers, two of which appeared on The New York Times Best Seller list...
, anthropologist David Graeber
David Graeber
David Rolfe Graeber is an American anthropologist and anarchist who currently holds the position of Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London. He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his...
, Stéphane Hessel
Stéphane Hessel
Stéphane Frédéric Hessel is a diplomat, ambassador, writer, concentration camp survivor, former French Resistance fighter and BCRA agent. Born German, he became a naturalised French citizen in 1939...
, Nobel Prize winning economists Paul Krugman
Paul Krugman
Paul Robin Krugman is an American economist, professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, Centenary Professor at the London School of Economics, and an op-ed columnist for The New York Times...
, and Joseph Stiglitz, Jeff Madrick
Jeff Madrick
Jeff Madrick is a journalist, economic policy consultant and analyst. He is editor of Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs, visiting professor of humanities at The Cooper Union, and director of policy research at the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School...
, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Wales
Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
, and professor of economics Richard D. Wolff
Richard D. Wolff
Richard D. Wolff is an American economist, well-known for his work on Marxian economics, economic methodology, and class analysis.- Early and personal life :...
.
Businesspeople
John PaulsonJohn Paulson
John Alfred Paulson is an American hedge fund manager, he is the founder and President of Paulson & Co., a New York-based hedge fund....
, billionaire and founder of the hedge fund Paulson & Co.
Paulson & Co.
Paulson & Co. Inc. is a hedge fund sponsor owned by its employees and founded in 1994 by John Paulson.-Overview:Paulson & Co. Inc. is an employee-owned, hedge fund headquartered in New York, New York...
, criticized the protesters for "vilifying our most successful businesses," citing that "The top 1% of New Yorkers pay over 40% of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state." Vikram Pandit
Vikram Pandit
Vikram S. Pandit is an Indian-born American business executive. He is the current CEO of Citigroup.-Early life:Vikram Pandit was born in Nagpur, India to an affluent Marathi family . His father, S B Pandit was an executive director at Sarabhai Chemicals in Baroda. He completed his schooling at the...
, head of Citigroup
Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
, called the protesters' sentiments "completely understandable" and said that Wall Street had broken the trust of its clients. Bill Gross
Bill Gross
Bill Gross is an American businessman. Born in 1958, he grew up in Encino, California. He founded GNP Loudspeakers , an audio equipment manufacturer; GNP Development Inc., acquired by Lotus Software; and Knowledge Adventure, an educational software company, later acquired by Cendant...
, manager of PIMCO's Total Return Fund, the world's largest mutual fund
Mutual fund
A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.- Overview :...
, stated "Class warfare by the 99%? Of course, they're fighting back after 30 years of being shot at." PIMCO's co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian argued that people should "listen to Occupy Wall Street." Businessman and CEO Peter Schiff
Peter Schiff
Peter David Schiff is an American investment broker, author and financial commentator. Schiff is CEO and chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc., a broker-dealer based in Westport, Connecticut and CEO of Euro Pacific Precious Metals, LLC, a gold and silver dealer based in New York...
wrote an opinion column where he stated, "I own a brokerage firm, but I didn't receive any bailout money... Yes, I am the 1% - but I've earned every penny. Instead of trying to take my wealth away, I hope they learn from my example." The lobbying firm Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford
Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford
Clark Lytle Geduldig & Cranford is a political lobbying firm in the United States. HistorySteve Clark formed the group as Clark & Associates in 1999.Gary Lytle joined in 2007 after working for the telecommunications industry...
proposed to the American Bankers Association
American Bankers Association
The American Bankers Association is an industry trade group and professional association representing the United States' banking industry...
a plan to respond to the Occupy movement by researching the 'backers' and doing public relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
work against them like putting negative stories in the media.
Karl Denninger
Karl Denninger
Karl Denninger was the CEO of MCSNet in Chicago, one of the area's first Internet providers. He is a founding contributer to conservative blog market-ticker.org and was one of the early members of the Tea Party movement . Rick Santelli's CNBC mention of a tea party followed Mr...
, former CEO and one of the original co-founders of the Tea Party movement
Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement is an American populist political movement that is generally recognized as conservative and libertarian, and has sponsored protests and supported political candidates since 2009...
, expressed support for the movement, saying "The problem with protests and the political process is that it is very easy, no matter how big the protest is, for the politicians to simply wait until the people go home, and then they can ignore you. Well, Occupy Wall Street was a little different, and back in 2008, I wrote that when we will actually see change is when the people come, they set up camp, and they refuse to go home. That appears to be happening now." Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
and a member of Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board
The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, originally the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, is a panel of non-governmental experts from business, labor, academia and elsewhere that President of the United States Barack Obama created on February 6, 2009. The board reports...
, stated "It is natural to assume that people are angry, and I think we have to be empathetic and understand that people are not feeling great." Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio
Ray Dalio is an American businessman and founder of Bridgewater Associates.-Early Life and Education:...
, founder of Bridgewater Associates
Bridgewater Associates
Bridgewater Associates is an American investment management firm founded by Ray Dalio in 1975 and is reported to be the world's largest hedge fund company with $122 billion in assets under management. The company has 270 clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, foreign governments...
, the world's largest hedge fund
Hedge fund
A hedge fund is a private pool of capital actively managed by an investment adviser. Hedge funds are only open for investment to a limited number of accredited or qualified investors who meet criteria set by regulators. These investors can be institutions, such as pension funds, university...
, stated in an interview with Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
, "I think the number one problem is that we're not having a quality dialogue...I certainly understand the frustration, I understand the dilemma, I understand the discontent." Other business leaders lending their support include George Soros
George Soros
George Soros is a Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, philosopher, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Soros Fund Management. Soros supports progressive-liberal causes...
and Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons
-External links:** * * * * * * from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum* *...
.
Celebrities
On September 19, Roseanne BarrRoseanne Barr
Roseanne Cherrie Barr is an American actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director. Barr began her career in stand-up comedy at clubs before gaining fame for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. The show was a hit and lasted nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997...
, the first celebrity to endorse the protest, spoke to protesters calling for a combination of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and a system not based on "bloated talk radio hosts and that goddamn Ayn Rand book."
Filmmaker
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a film, from an initial story, idea, or commission, through scriptwriting, casting, shooting, directing, editing, and screening the finished product before an audience that may result in a theatrical release or television program...
Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...
also spoke in support, saying, "They have tried to take our democracy and turn it into a kleptocracy."
Rapper Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco
Wasalu Muhammad Jaco , better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco , is an American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, Lupe is the CEO of 1st and 15th Entertainment. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his critically acclaimed debut album, Lupe Fiasco's Food...
, one of the initial supporters of Occupy Wall Street, wrote a poem, "Moneyman," for the protest. Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
spoke at the demonstration saying, "I came down here to educate myself.... There's a huge void between the rich and the poor in this country." Actor and activist Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
has supported the Occupy Wall Street protest saying, "Peaceful Resistance. That is what changes the world. We must be peaceful. This movement is about decency."
Jeff Mangum
Jeff Mangum
Jeff Mangum is a musician best known for being the lyricist, vocalist and guitarist of the band Neutral Milk Hotel, as well as being one of the cofounders of The Elephant 6 Recording Company. Mangum, along with the other founding members of the Elephant 6, attended Ruston High School in the late...
of Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel
Neutral Milk Hotel was an American indie rock band formed by singer, guitarist and songwriter Jeff Mangum in the early 1990s. The band was noted for its experimental sound, obscure lyrics and eclectic instrumentation....
played a solo acoustic set for the protesters on October 4, and Tom Morello
Tom Morello
Thomas Baptiste "Tom" Morello is a Grammy Award-winning American guitarist best known for his tenure with the bands Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, his acoustic solo act The Nightwatchman, and his newest group, Street Sweeper Social Club...
performed on October 13. Folk singer Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
led a group of several hundred protesters on a march through the streets on October 22, singing several songs, including "This Land Is Your Land
This Land Is Your Land
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", which Guthrie considered unrealistic and complacent. Tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on...
" and "We Shall Overcome
We Shall Overcome
"We Shall Overcome" is a protest song that became a key anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement . The title and structure of the song are derived from an early gospel song by African-American composer Charles Albert Tindley...
." Other musicians joining them included Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
, Tao Rodríguez-Seeger
Tao Rodríguez-Seeger
Tao Rodríguez-Seeger is an American contemporary folk musician. He plays banjo, guitar, harmonica, and sings in Spanish and in English. He is known as a founder of The Mammals and is the grandson of folk musician Pete Seeger....
, Tom Chapin
Tom Chapin
Tom Chapin is a Grammy Award-winning American musician, entertainer, singer-songwriter and storyteller.-Biography:Chapin attended State University of New York at Plattsburgh and graduated in 1966. From 1971-1976, he hosted a TV show called Make a Wish...
, David Amram
David Amram
David Amram is an American composer, musician, conductor, and writer. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz , ethnic and folk music has led him to work with the likes of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Langston...
, and Guy Davis
Guy Davis (musician)
Guy Davis is an American blues guitarist and banjo player, actor, and musician. He is the son of actors Ruby Dee and the late Ossie Davis.-Davis' roots:Davis says his blues music is inspired by the southern speech of his grandmother...
.
On October 23, Asmaa Mahfouz
Asmaa Mahfouz
Asmaa Mahfouz is an Egyptian activist and one of the founders of the April 6 Youth Movement. She has been credited by journalist Mona Eltahawy and others with helping to spark mass uprising through her video blog posted one week before the start of the 2011 Egyptian revolution...
, whose video blog helped spark the 2011 uprising in Egypt, held a teach-in at Liberty Plaza. When asked why she came to the OWS protest she replied, "Many of U.S. residents was in solidarity with us. So, we have to keep going all over the world, because another world is possible for all of us."
On October 23, musicians Sean Lennon
Sean Lennon
is an American singer, songwriter, musician, guitarist and actor. He is the only child of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. His godfather is Sir Elton John.-Early life and education:...
and Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is an American-Canadian singer-songwriter. He has recorded six albums of original music, EPs, and tracks on compilations and film soundtracks.-Early years:...
showed their support for the Occupy movement and played among a large crowd in Zuccotti Park. On October 25, international street artist Above
Above (artist)
ABOVE has been creating public art since 1995. Above is an international street artist who keeps his identity concealed. Above is known for his multi-layer/full color social and political stencils, spinning wooden "arrow mobile" installations, and large mural "word play" paintings. Above started...
completed a 255 foot long mural in Miami, Florida that read "Give a wall st. banker enough rope and he will hang himself" next to Interstate 95
Interstate 95 in Florida
Interstate 95 is the main Interstate Highway on the east coast of the United States; it serves the Atlantic coast of Florida. It begins at a partial interchange with U.S. Highway 1 just south of downtown Miami, and heads north past Daytona Beach and Jacksonville to the Georgia state line at the St...
. The artist installed a controversial effigy that mimicked a 'wall st' banker hanging from a noose.
On November 8, folk-rock singers David Crosby
David Crosby
David Van Cortlandt Crosby is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of three bands: The Byrds, Crosby, Stills & Nash , and CPR...
and Graham Nash
Graham Nash
Graham William Nash, OBE is an English singer-songwriter known for his light tenor vocals and for his songwriting contributions with the British pop group The Hollies, and with the folk-rock band Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Nash is a photography collector and a published photographer...
appeared at Zuccotti Park to offer their support and sing to the occupiers. Three days later, on November 11, folk singer Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
sang there as well. Many of the young protesters were not familiar with her songs and were unaware of her long history as an activist.
In fellowship with "Occupy Writers", hundreds are signed supporters as "Occupy Musicians" and "Occupy Filmmakers", respectively. Additionally, "Occupy Comics" and "Occupy Design" have lent their talent in support. Other celebrities lending their support include John Carlos
John Carlos
John Wesley Carlos is a Cuban American former track and field athlete and professional football player. He was the bronze-medal winner in the 200 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics and his black power salute on the podium with Tommie Smith caused much political controversy...
, Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag
Anti-Flag is a punk rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the United States, formed in 1988. The band is well known for its outspoken political views. Much of the band's lyrics have focused on fervent anti-war activism, criticism of United States foreign policy, corporatism, U.S. wealth...
, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American hip-hop artist and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" ; his in Swahili means "true"...
, and Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
.
Wealthy supporters
Several wealthy supporters have joined the protest, and have started a blog, westandwiththe99percent, in which they say, "I am the 1%. I stand with the 99%," and give their stories. The granddaughter of oil tycoon H. L. HuntH. L. Hunt
Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, Jr. , known throughout his life as "H. L. Hunt," was a Texas oil tycoon and conservative activist. He built one of the world's largest fortunes by trading poker winnings for oil rights, ultimately securing title to much of the East Texas Oil Field, one of the world's very...
, Leah Hunt-Hendrix, 28, was quoted as saying “We should acknowledge our privilege and claim the responsibilities that come with it.” Farhad Ebrahimi, who received an inheritance as a teenager, has been participating in the Occupy Boston protest wearing a T-shirt that says, "Tax me. I'm good for it." Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons
-External links:** * * * * * * from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum* *...
, hip-hop artist and successful businessman, has actively supported the OWS movement saying that he believes that it is his moral duty to do so. "You give what you get. I want to do what I can to relieve suffering and improve the quality of other's lives."
Criticism
Newt GingrichNewt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
, front-runner in the Republican presidential primary race said "All the Occupy movements starts with the premise that we all owe them everything. Now, that is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country and why you need to reassert something as simple as saying to them, go get a job right after you take a bath."
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, pollster Douglas Schoen
Douglas Schoen
Douglas Schoen is an American political analyst, pollster, author, and commentator. He is a political analyst for Fox News. He partnered with political strategist Mark Penn and Michael Berland in the firm of Penn, Schoen & Berland...
wrote that the protesters reflect "values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people" and 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," and that politicians who support them will be hurt in the 2012 elections. Journalist David Weigel
David Weigel
David "Dave" Weigel , is an American journalist, currently working for Slate magazine and MSNBC. Weigel began appearing on MSNBC in 2009, accepting a position as a paid contributor in June 2010...
responded in an opinion piece published on Slate
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary layering...
characterizing Schoen's opinion piece as "a dishonest column full of claims that couldn't be backed up by his own research", while Washington Monthly lead blogger Steve Benen
Steve Benen
Steve Benen is an American political writer and blogger, and became the lead blogger for the Washington Monthly "Political Animal" blog in August 2008....
wrote an opinion piece accusing Schoen of political spin in his analysis and referring to Schoen as "the quintessential 'Fox News Democrat'".
A group of bloggers, led by political commentator Erick Erickson
Erick Erickson
Erick Erickson , also known as Erick-Woods Erickson, is a politically conservative American blogger and managing editor of the blog site RedState.com. In 2010, he became a political contributor for CNN's John King, USA...
, organized a website criticizing the movement entitled "We Are the 53%," referring to the 53% of Americans who earn enough income to pay federal income taxes. An opinion piece by CBS contributor Jim Edwards, comparing the We are the 99% blog to the 53% blog, commented that "once you've looked at both blogs, the impression you come away with is that the recession is as devastating to conservatives as it is to liberals, but that conservatives regard their misfortunes as their own fault whereas the liberals see structural forces at work -- lack of health insurance, student loans -- that they cannot overcome."
Mike Brownfield of The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. Heritage's stated mission is to "formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong...
argued that rejection of the capitalist system and the policies that OWS protesters advocate, including limits on trade and student loan forgiveness, would not lead to improved economic conditions for unemployed Americans. According to Brownfield, the Foundation believes it is "right to decry out-of-control bailouts and corporate subsidies" and there are valid concerns regarding the economy, unemployment rates and low job creation. However, Heritage argued that capitalism is key to improving the economy and that the movement is focusing on the wrong solutions to the problems they protest: it should be protesting the expansion of government instead of calling for more government intervention.
Mark Tooley
Mark Tooley
Mark Tooley, born 1965, became president in 2009 of the Washington-D.C. based Institute on Religion and Democracy , a conservative religious thinktank noted for its critique of liberal religious groups....
of the Institute on Religion and Democracy
Institute on Religion and Democracy
The Institute on Religion and Democracy is a Christian think tank that promotes Christian conservatism in public life. The organization comments on current events in the Christian community...
, said that while Occupy Wall Street has succeeded in getting attention, it is limited because it is only attracting religious support from the left. He said that a call for the government redistribution of wealth and reliance on street activism did not appeal to those with conservative political or religious leanings. The protest has been criticized for tolerating anti-Semitic activists. The Emergency Committee for Israel
Emergency Committee for Israel
The Emergency Committee for Israel's Leadership is a right-wing 501 political advocacy organization in the United States. The group’s board members include Weekly Standard editor William Kristol and former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer, Republican Virginia congressman Scott Rigell,...
ran an ad condemning anti-Semitic remarks and calling on Obama and other political officials to do likewise. These allegations lead the Anti-Defamation League to call on the movement "to condemn anti-Semitic signs and comments that have appeared at some of the protest rallies across the country and around the world." Other journalists have disputed allegations of anti-Semitism as not reflecting the movement as a whole.
Complaints by local residents
Some residents of the area surrounding Zuccotti Park have voiced complaints about the demonstrations. A caller to a radio show complained that the park has been rendered "unusable" by the protesters, and that "a general atmosphere of incivility," together with loud shouting and drums, prevailed; another complained that the drums from the protest, which he said "start in the morning" and get louder in the evening until 11:30 pm, made it difficult for his children to sleep or do their homework. Another resident complained that protesters had been vandalizing and urinating in the vestibule to his apartment building. Responding to a caller to his radio show complaining about noise and incivility at the park, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said "we couldn't agree more." The Mayor has been criticized for alienating both supporters and critics for his stance that seems supportive of the protests one day and opposed on others. The Mayor has vowed to crack down on the protester's behavior as well as saying he’ll allow the protests indefinitely.Popular culture references
CNBC correspondent Jane WellsJane Wells
Jane Wells is a CNBC business news reporter, based in Los Angeles, where she covers the defense and technology news stories. She writes a regular blog Funny Business on CNBC.com and serves as a contributor for WCBS Newsradio/880 in New York...
reported that the Occupy Wall Street movement sparked parodies which connect the movement to pop culture icons from Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
and Lord of the Rings and others. An image of Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the original film trilogy of the Star Wars franchise, where he is portrayed by Mark Hamill. He is introduced in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, in which he is forced to leave home, and finds himself apprenticed to the Jedi master...
holding a protest sign was published: "It wasn't glamorous but I had a steady living working on my uncle's moisture farm... my aunt and uncle were unjustly murdered and the farm destroyed. I was forced to leave my home and join an extinct cult just to survive. I am now a member of an upstart movement to take down a greedy corrupt establishment. I AM THE 99%." Skywalker's enemies, the Imperial Storm Troopers, joined the protest on another image circulating on the Internet holding signs: "End Galactic Corporate Greed", "Get Our Troops Off Tatooine" and "Keep Your Empirical Hands Off My Healthcare". Parodies relating to Middle Earth include a woman who had written her complaint in Elvish, allegedly translated: "I spend every waking hour fighting Orcs while Elrond and Galadriel eat lembas bread all day. I am the 99%".
Other parodies include Occupy Narnia and Occupy Sesame Street
Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
. Occupy Sesame Street went viral and, following violent encounters between NYPD and the protesters, Tumblr
Tumblr
Tumblr is a website and microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their tumblelog private. The service emphasizes ease of use. The site ranks as the 10th...
posted pictures of Elmo
Elmo
Elmo is a Muppet character on the children's television show Sesame Street. He is a furry red monster and currently hosts the last full 15 minute segment on Sesame Street, Elmo's World, which is aimed at toddlers. His puppeteer, Kevin Clash, uses falsetto to produce his voice...
arrested, Grover
Grover
Grover is a Muppet character on the popular television show Sesame Street. Self-described as lovable, cute and furry, he is a monster who almost never uses contractions when speaking or singing....
restrained, and Count von Count
Count von Count
Count von Count, often known simply as "The Count", is one of the Muppet characters on Sesame Street, performed by Jerry Nelson. The Count is a vampire modeled after Bela Lugosi's interpretation of Count Dracula.-Description:...
pepper-sprayed. Occupy Wall Street and its related protests were satirized in the South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...
episode "1%", which aired on November 2, 2011. Remy Munasifi
Remy Munasifi
Remy Munasifi is an Arab American stand-up comedian, parody musician and video artist who made it internet famous after his production of comedic sketches based on Arabs under the name "GoRemy" on YouTube and has gained over 70 million views.- Personal life :Munasifi was born in Washington, D.C...
wrote and sang a song called "Occupy Wall Street Protest Song," which criticized the protestors for not understanding, in his opinion, how well off they are. According to AFP
Agence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
, the song went viral
Viral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
in early October.
Popular culture images are also employed by protesters to make statements. For example, Guy Fawkes mask
Guy Fawkes mask
The Guy Fawkes mask is a stylised depiction of Guy Fawkes, the best-known member of the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the British House of Lords in 1605...
s from the film V for Vendetta
V for Vendetta (film)
V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue and produced by Joel Silver and the Wachowski brothers, who also wrote the screenplay. It is an adaptation of the V for Vendetta comic book by Alan Moore and David Lloyd...
are worn by protesters in New York and around the world as visual symbols of resistance against corporate greed.
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. A Crown Heights man was charged with sexually assaulting a protester at the park raising the level of public discussion of lawlessness at the demonstrations. Protesters use de-escalation techniques, talking down or blocking with their bodies those people throwing punches. In more tense situations, protesters encircle troublemakers and usher them out. But many times, those kicked out or arrested return. Protester sanitation teams have reported finding needles in tents, and reports of crack and crystal meth use have surfaced. But most protesters say that the most serious concern is the risk of assault, especially for women and at night. Demonstrators have 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. On October 10, a "methadone-addled man freeloading off the Wall Street protest" was arrested for groping a woman. On Nov 10, 2011, A man was arrested at OWS for breaking an EMTEmergency medical technician
Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...
's leg.
Police Commissioner Paul Browne complained that protesters delayed reporting crime. He stated that it's OWS protocol not to report such incidents to the police until there were three complaints against the same individual.” The protesters denied a "three strikes policy", and one protester told the New York Daily News that he had heard police respond to a complaint by saying, "You need to deal with that yourselves".
On November 16, 2011, police arrested Nkrumah Tinsley, 29, and charged him with with making a terroristic threat, after police saw a video of him saying, “On the 17th, we going to burn New York City to the fucking ground,” and "In a few days they’re going to see what a Molotov cocktail can do to Macy’s." He had been previously arrested for assaulting a police officer during another protest on October 26. Defense lawyer Pierre Sussman said that Tinsley had been exercising his right to free speech, and that he was not really going to do the things he said. When police carried out a search warrant of Tinsley's home, they did not find any bomb making materials.
Sexual assaults
After several weeks of occupation Occupy Wall Street protesters had made enough allegations of sexual assault and gropings that women-only sleeping tents were set up. David Park was arrested for a sexual assault that occurred in Zuccotti Park on October 8. At the time of the incident, Park had numerous warrants for his arrests. Tonye Iketubosin who worked as a kitchen helper was charged with an October 24 sexual assault of an 18-year-old fellow protester. Prosecutors believe he is responsible for an assault on another 18-year-old woman. 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.” A police union leader stated, “We have no way of really knowing. If you have three or five crimes reported, you really don’t know if it’s eight or 10 that happened.”First four weeks (September 17 – October 14)
On September 17, 1,000 protesters marched through the streets, with an estimated 100 to 200 staying overnight in cardboard boxes. By September 19, seven people had been arrested.At least 80 arrests were made on September 24, after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets. Most of the 80 arrests were for blocking traffic, though some were also charged with disorderly conduct
Disorderly conduct
Disorderly conduct is a criminal charge in most jurisdictions in the United States. Typically, disorderly conduct makes it a crime to be drunk in public, to "disturb the peace", or to loiter in certain areas. Many types of unruly conduct may fit the definition of disorderly conduct, as such...
and resisting arrest. Police officers have also been using a technique called kettling
Kettling
Kettling is a police tactic for controlling large crowds during demonstrations or protests. It involves the formation of large cordons of police officers who then move to contain a crowd within a limited area. Protesters are left only one choice of exit, determined by the police, or are completely...
which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into smaller groups.
Videos which showed several penned-in female demonstrators being hit with pepper spray
Pepper spray
Pepper spray, also known as OC spray , OC gas, and capsicum spray, is a lachrymatory agent that is used in riot control, crowd control and personal self-defense, including defense against dogs and bears...
by a police official were widely disseminated, sparking controversy. That police official, later identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, was shown in other videos hitting a photographer with a burst of spray.
Initially Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly
Raymond W. Kelly
Raymond Walter Kelly is the current Commissioner of the New York City Police Department and the first person to hold the post for two non-consecutive tenures. A lifelong New Yorker, Kelly has spent 31 years in the NYPD, serving in 25 different commands and as Police Commissioner from 1992 to 1994...
and a representative for Bologna defended his actions, while decrying the disclosure of his personal information. After growing public furor, Kelly announced that Internal Affairs
Internal affairs (law enforcement)
The internal affairs division of a law enforcement agency investigates incidents and plausible suspicions of lawbreaking and professional misconduct attributed to officers on the force...
and the Civilian Complaint Review Board were opening investigations, again criticizing Anonymous for "[trying] to intimidate, putting the names of children, where children go to school," and adding that this tactic was "totally inappropriate, despicable." Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Cyrus Vance, Jr.
Cyrus Vance, Jr.
Cyrus Roberts Vance, Jr. is an American trial lawyer. He is the incumbent New York County District Attorney , and was previously a principal at the law firm of Morvillo, Abramowitz, Grand, Isaon, Anello & Bohrer, P.C...
started his own inquiry.
Public attention to the pepper-sprayings resulted in a spike of news media coverage, a pattern that was to be repeated in the coming weeks following confrontations with police. Clyde Haberman, writing in The New York Times, said that "If the Occupy Wall Street protesters ever choose to recognize a person who gave their cause its biggest boost, they may want to pay tribute to Anthony Bologna," calling the event "vital" for the still nascent movement. "After Ron Kuby, an attorney for one of the protesters, demanded Mr. Bologna’s arrest, [Bologna] was instead docked 10 vacation days and given a [...] reassignment to Staten Island, where he lives," according to an account by blogger Daniel Edward Rosen.
On October 1, 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...
. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. The police used ten buses to carry protesters off the bridge. Some said the police had tricked protesters, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across. Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street said, “The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway.” However, some statements by protesters supported descriptions of the event given by police: for example, one protester Tweeted that "The police didn't lead us on to the bridge. They were backing the [expletive] up." A spokesman for the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, said that protesters were given multiple warnings to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they refused. By October 2, all but 20 of the arrestees had been released with citations for disorderly conduct and a criminal court summons. On October 4, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into a trap and then arresting them; Mayor Bloomberg, commenting previously on the incident, had said that "[t]he police did exactly what they were supposed to do."
On October 5, joined by union members, students, and the unemployed, the demonstration swelled to the largest yet with an estimated 15,000 marchers joining the protest. Smaller protests continue in cities and on college campuses across the country.
Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District. The march was mostly peaceful—until after nightfall, when scuffles erupted. About 200 protesters tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting.
Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, British protesters organized an occupation of the London Stock Exchange to bring attention to what they saw as unethical behavior on the part of banks. One of the organizers of the protest said the protests are focused against "increasing social and economic injustice in this country." In his opinion, "the Government has made sure to maintain the status quo and let the people who caused this crisis get off scot-free, whilst conversely ensuring that the people of this country pay the price, in particular those most vulnerable."
Weeks 5–8 (October 15 – November 11)
On October 15, tens of thousands of demonstrators staged rallies in 900 cities around the world, including Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, São Paulo, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and many other cities. In Frankfurt, 5,000 people protested at the European Central Bank and in Zurich, Switzerland's financial hub, protesters carried banners reading "We won't bail you out yet again" and "We are the 99 percent." Protests were largely peaceful, however a protest in Rome that drew thousands turned violent when "a few thousand thugs from all over Italy, and possibly from all over Europe" caused extensive damage. Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in Times SquareTimes Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
in New York City and rallied for several hours. Several hundred protesters were arrested across the U.S., mostly for refusing to obey police orders to leave public areas. In Chicago there were 175 arrests, about 100 arrests in Arizona (53 in Tucson, 46 in Phoenix), and more than 70 in New York City, including at least 40 in Times Square. Multiple arrests were reported in Chicago, and about 150 people camped out by city hall in Minneapolis.
In the early morning hours of October 25, police cleared and closed an Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Park in Oakland, California. The raid on the encampment was described as "violent and chaotic at times," and resulted in over 102 arrests and several injuries to protesters. The city of Oakland contracted the use of over 12 other regional police departments to aid in the clearing of the encampment. An Iraqi war veteran, Scott Olson, was allegedly hit in the head with a teargas canister and suffered a skull fracture. His condition was later upgraded from critical to fair. The next night, approximately 1,000 protesters reconvened in the plaza and held marches late into the night.
On November 2, protesters in Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, California shut down the Port of Oakland
Port of Oakland
The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah...
, the fifth busiest port in the nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city; a spokesman for the protest movement, who gave only his first name, told the BBC that he had heard people say that there were as many as 20,000 or 30,000 demonstrators, but added, "It's impossible to tell."
Weeks 9 & 10 (November 12 - November 26)
After midnight on November 15, police delivered notices that protesters had to temporarily vacate the park to allow cleaning/sanitation crews access. According to the police notice, protesters would have been allowed back in after the cleaning, but without tents, tarps, or sleeping bags. Police moved in around 1:00 AM on November 15 and arrested about 200 people, some of whom attempted to stop the entry of cleaning crews. Among those arrested were journalists representing the Agence France-PresseAgence France-Presse
Agence France-Presse is a French news agency, the oldest one in the world, and one of the three largest with Associated Press and Reuters. It is also the largest French news agency. Currently, its CEO is Emmanuel Hoog and its news director Philippe Massonnet...
, Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, Daily News, DNAInfo, NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
, Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand
Television New Zealand, more commonly referred to, and stylized as TVNZ, is a government-owned corporation television network broadcasting in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific. It operates TV1, TV2, TVNZ7, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U and new media services....
, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
, as well as New York City Council
New York City Council
The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...
member Ydanis Rodríguez
Ydanis Rodriguez
Ydanis Rodríguez is currently a Democratic New York City Council member from the borough of Manhattan and the Chair of the Higher Education Committee.-Early life and background:...
. An NBC reporter's press pass was also confiscated.
While the police cleared the park, credentialed members of the media were kept a block away, preventing them from documenting the event. Police helicopters prevented NBC and CBS news helicopters from filming the clearing of the park. Many journalists complained of being treated roughly or violently by the police. The Society of Professional Journalists
Society of Professional Journalists
The Society of Professional Journalists , formerly known as Sigma Delta Chi, is one of the oldest organizations representing journalists in the United States. It was established in April 1909 at DePauw University, and its charter was designed by William Meharry Glenn. The ten founding members of...
, the Committee to Protect Journalists
Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent nonprofit organisation based in New York City that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.-History:A group of U.S...
, Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
and the New York Civil Liberties Union
New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York Civil Liberties Union is an civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly 50,000 members across New York State.NYCLU's stated mission is to...
expressed concerns and criticisms regarding the situation. The OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression
OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression
The office of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the Organization of American States was established by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 1997 to monitor OAS member states' compliance with the American Convention on Human Rights in the area of freedom of...
issued a statement saying that the "disproportionate restrictions on access to the scene of the events, the arrests, and the criminal charges resulting from the performance of professional duties by reporters violate the right to freedom of expression."
On November 21, the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
, the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, Dow Jones, NBC Universal
NBC Universal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is a media and entertainment company engaged in the production and marketing of entertainment, news, and information products and services to a global customer base...
and WNBC-TV joined in a letter written by New York Times General Council George Freeman criticizing the New York Police Department's handling of the media during the raid.
- " . . . the police actions of the last week have been more hostile to the press than any other event in recent memory."
The letter enumerated numerous cases of arrest, injury and obstruction of the media.
Half an hour into the police removal, the Occupy Wall Street Media Team put out an official statement under the heading, "You can't evict an idea whose time has come." It went on to say, "Some politicians may physically remove us from public spaces — our spaces — and, physically, they may succeed. But we are engaged in a battle over ideas."
The tents and personal effects of the protesters, and the five thousand books of The People's Library
The People's Library
The People's Library, also known as Fort Patti or the Occupy Wall Street Library, is a public library founded in September 2011 by Occupy Wall Street protesters in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park located in the Financial District of New York City...
were put in dump trucks by the police and removed. On the November 15 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show
The Rachel Maddow Show was a weekday radio show on the Air America Radio network hosted by Rachel Maddow. The show featured news items read by Maddow and her commentary on each of them as well as interview segments with politicians, newsmakers and pundits...
, footage of the raid was shown.
- "New York City police officers dressed in riot gear, handed out a written notice to the protesters telling them where their personal articles from the encampment could be retrieved, which sounds lovely until you saw what they were doing to the protesters` personal belongings. There were reports that police use knives to cut up the sturdy military-grade tents that were the best hope of surviving winter down there. You can see police here cutting down the protesters` tent poles with hand-held saws, with sawsalls."
Computers retrieved after the raid were found to be smashed.
After the removal, New York City officials ordered police to keep the entire park closed and to prevent any protesters from returning, pending the outcome of a court hearing on whether and in what circumstances the protesters could return; a judge issued a temporary restraining order that protesters could return to the park with their tents, which Washington Post opinion writer James Downie accused Mayor Bloomberg of ignoring. A judge in the late afternoon ruled that the temporary order should not be extended, saying that the First Amendment did not give protesters the right to fill the park with "tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner's reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park."
On November 17, journalists representing the Indypendent Reader, IMC
Independent Media Center
The Independent Media Center is a global participatory network of journalists that report on political and social issues. It originated during the Seattle anti-WTO protests worldwide in 1999 and remains closely associated with the global justice movement, which criticizes neo-liberalism and its...
and In These Times
In These Times
In These Times is a politically progressive monthly magazine of news and opinion published by the Institute for Public Affairs in Chicago...
were arrested. Two reporters for the Daily Caller
The Daily Caller
The Daily Caller is a news website based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a focus on politics, original reporting and breaking news, founded by journalist and political pundit Tucker Carlson and Neil Patel, former adviser to former Vice President Dick Cheney...
and a reporter for RT
RT (TV network)
RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in the Russian Federation run by the state-owned state-run RIA Novosti....
were reportedly struck with police baton
Baton (law enforcement)
A truncheon or baton is essentially a club of less than arm's length made of wood, plastic, or metal...
s.
See also
Occupy articles- List of Occupy movement protest locations
- Occupy MarinesOccupy MarinesOccupy Marines is a group of non-active duty U.S. marines who support the Occupy movement. They established a Facebook page, Twitter feed, website and online petition shortly after Marine veteran Scott Olsen was injured by the police during an Occupy Oakland protest. They were also motivated by...
Other U.S. protests
- 1971 May Day Protests1971 May Day ProtestsThe 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington, D.C., in protest against the Vietnam War. These began on May Day of that year, continued with similar intensity into the morning of the third day, then rapidly diminished through several following days...
- 2011 United States public employee protests2011 United States public employee protestsIn February 2011, a series of public employee protests began in the United States against proposed legislation which would weaken the power of labor unions. By March, eighteen states had proposed legislation which would remove some collective bargaining powers from unions, along with another five...
- 2011 Wisconsin protests2011 Wisconsin protestsThe 2011 Wisconsin protests were a series of demonstrations in the state of Wisconsin in the United States beginning in February involving at its zenith as many as 100,000 protestors opposing the Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill. Subsequently, anti-tax activists and other conservatives, including tea...
International
- Impact of the Arab Spring
- 2010–2011 Greek protests2010–2011 Greek protestsThe 2010–2011 Greek protests are an ongoing series of demonstrations and general strikes taking place across Greece. The protests, which began on 5 May 2010, were sparked by plans to cut public spending and raise taxes as austerity measures in exchange for a bail-out, aimed at solving the...
- 15 October 2011 global protests15 October 2011 global protestsThe 15 October 2011 global protests were part of a series of protests inspired by the Arab Spring, the Spanish "Indignants", the Greek Protests and the Occupy movement. Global demonstrations were held on October 15 in more than 950 cities 82 countries. The date was chosen to coincide with the 5...
Related articles
- Bank Transfer DayBank Transfer DayBank Transfer Day is a consumer activism initiative calling for a voluntary switch from commercial banks to not-for-profit credit unions by November 5, 2011. As of October 15, 2011, a Facebook page devoted to the effort had drawn more than 54,900 "likes"...
- CorporatocracyCorporatocracyCorporatocracy, in social theories that focus on conflicts and opposing interests within society, denotes a system of government that serves the interest of, and may be run by, corporations and involves ties between government and business...
- Corruption Perceptions Index
- Empowered democracyEmpowered democracyEmpowered democracy is an alternative form of social-democratic arrangements developed by philosopher and politician Roberto Mangabeira Unger. Theorized in response to the repressiveness and rigidity of contemporary liberal democratic society, the theory of empowered democracy envisions a more open...
- Grassroots movementGrassrootsA grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
- List of countries by inequality-adjusted HDI
- PlutocracyPlutocracyPlutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth. The combination of both plutocracy and oligarchy is called plutarchy. The word plutocracy is derived from the Ancient Greek root ploutos, meaning wealth and kratos, meaning to rule or to govern.-Usage:The term plutocracy is generally...
- Selected Historical income tax rates in the U.S. (1913–2010)
- Social peer-to-peer processes
- The One PercentThe One PercentThe One Percent is a 2006 documentary about the growing wealth gap between America's wealthy elite compared to the overall citizenry. It was created by Jamie Johnson, an heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, and produced by Jamie Johnson and Nick Kurzon...
documentary about the growing wealth gap between America's wealthy elite compared to the overall citizenry - Wealth inequality in the United StatesWealth inequality in the United StatesWealth inequality in the United States, also known as the "wealth gap", refers to the unequal distribution of financial assets among residents of the United States. Wealth includes the values of homes, automobiles, businesses, savings, and investments. Those who acquire a great deal of financial...
Occupy websites
- NYC General Assembly The official website of the General Assembly at #OccupyWallStreet
- Unofficial website backed by Adbusters
- Adbusters page A listing of websites and updates
- Occupy Together A hub for events occurring across the U.S.
- Occupy Together Meetups Everywhere (Meetup)
- OccupyTV's YouTube Channel
- Occupy Wall Street: The Game
Related websites
- OccupyWiki.info Wiki on the Occupy movementOccupy movementThe Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. The first Occupy protest to be widely covered was Occupy Wall Street in New York City, taking place on September 17, 2011...
- wiki.shop.tm Wiki on the Occupy movementOccupy movementThe Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. The first Occupy protest to be widely covered was Occupy Wall Street in New York City, taking place on September 17, 2011...
- OccupyWiki.org Directory and information
- Occupy Directory Google Documents spreadsheet
- FirstGameWorld.com Media Network "Occupy" support site
- American Rattlesnake Archive Of Photo Essays Relating to Occupy Wall Street
- Charts: Here's What The Wall Street Protesters Are So Angry About... from Business InsiderBusiness InsiderBusiness Insider is a U.S. business/entertainment news website launched in February 2009. Founded by DoubleClick Founder and former C.E.O. Kevin P. Ryan it is the overarching brand beneath which fall the Silicon Alley Insider and Clusterstock verticals...
- Occupy Wall Street Videos The growing and expanding movement captured on video
- "Occupy" photographs from around the nation from the Denver Post
- Inequality.org from Program on Inequality and the Common Good, an Institute for Policy Studies project
- The Equality Trust (UK) An organization for reducing income inequality in the United Kingdom
- In Re Waller Order to Show Cause and Temporary Restraining Order of November 15, 2011 from the National Lawyer's Guild website
- Decision of November 15, 2011 overturning the TRO in Matter of Waller v City of New York from the New York State Unified Court SystemNew York State Unified Court SystemThe New York State Unified Court System is the official name of the judicial system of New York in the United States. Based in Albany, the New York State Judiciary is a unified state court system that functions under the Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals who is its...
website