Opinion / Lead : The 99 per cent versus the One. Nearly three years ago, Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential election on the back of incredible popular mobilisation.
In a country often bogged down in plodding party politics, there seemed to be something transcendent and epochal about his rise. Observers suggested that Mr. Obama did more than inspire voters; he energised a generational movement. This sense was no doubt aided by Mr. Obama's charisma and the messianic rhetoric of his campaign. After three years of disillusionment, a more organic movement has taken root in the United States. The American protesters come from many of the groups who rallied to Mr. Mr. Post-2008 We can trace this anger to the hardships that descended on many Americans following the 2008 economic collapse. The rawness and generality of this sentiment — aimed at financial institutions, corporations, the wealthy, and a supposedly complicit government — has convinced many critics that the protesters lack a coherent agenda: “What do these people want?”
Global Media - reflection and critical analysis - Occupy Wall Street - Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street – an analysis « Redline. By Colin Clarke “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”
Antonio Gramsci. From the Prison Notebooks. The beginnings of the ‘Occupy’ movement In July this year, the online magazine Adbusters called for an occupation of Wall Street by 20,000 people to protest against the greed of corporate bankers and the lack of influence ordinary people have over the growing economic crisis that they’re being forced to pay for. From these small beginnings, the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest has caught the imagination of people all over the USA and the World.
As the first official statement of the occupation put it: ‘We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice and oppression over equality, run our governments’. ‘Occupy Wall Street’ goes global Responses to the ‘Occupy movement’ “OCCUPY. All this is unusual. Only fools make predictions… About Us. Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally.
#ows is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to fight back against the richest 1% of people that are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future.
OccupyWallSt.org is the oldest and most trusted online resource for the Occupy Movement. We were founded on July 14th, 2011 when Justine Tunney organized a scrappy group of anarchists to take the initiative in organizing a call to action published by Micah White in Adbusters magazine. Micah M. Occupy movement. The Occupy movement is an international protest movement against social and economic inequality, its primary goal being to make the economic and political relations in all societies less vertically hierarchical and more flatly distributed.
Local groups often have different foci, but among the movement's prime concerns deal with how large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy, and is unstable.[8][9][10][11] The first Occupy protest to receive widespread attention was Occupy Wall Street in New York City's Zuccotti Park, which began on 17 September 2011. Background[edit] Protests in 1–4 cities Protests in 5–9 cities Protests in 10 or more cities "We are the 99%" slogan[edit] Goals[edit] During the early weeks, the movement was frequently criticized by the news media for having no clearly defined goals.
Methods[edit] Assembly hand signals Structure[edit] Nonviolence[edit] Occupy Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the name given to a protest movement that began on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district.
The Canadian, anti-consumerist, pro-environment group/magazine, Adbusters initiated the call for a protest. The ensuing series of events helped lead to media awareness that inspired Occupy protests and movements around the world. In awarding Workhouse its Platinum Award, industry publication PRNews noted "The results, obviously, have been spectacular.