Occupy: you can’t evict an idea. As snowstorms and freezing rain announce the arrival of winter, it’s hard to remember that the Occupy Wall Street movement emerged just a few months ago, in September. Enraged by the government bailout of Wall Street, but not of those who had lost their jobs and homes, angry at the rise of university tuition, frightened by the precarious decline of the middle class, several generations---not only the young--- began a movement that quickly spread from Zuccotti park in New York across the nation. “We are the 99%,” they chanted, until it became the slogan of the movement.
The 1%, they explained, owned as much wealth as the rest of the population. Now that the police have dispersed most of the encampments, often with gratuitous and unnecessary cruelty, many protesters are asking, “What next?” The answer to that question is unclear and will unfold in time, but now is a good time to pause and assess how the Occupy movement has affected American political culture. I agree with them. Jeffrey Wasserstrom: Putting the Latest 'Year of the Protester' Into Historical Perspective. It was hardly a surprise when Time magazine announced in mid-December that "The Protester" was its 2011 Person of the Year. After all, outbursts of discontent had made headlines during each of the preceding months.
Nor did stories of dramatic protest end when Time made its choice, for just as reports of the magazine's decision began to circulate, so did news of angry residents in the South China village of Wukan evicting the Communist Party's representatives from their community and stories of rallies in Moscow by Russians fed up with Putinism. In light of 2011's status as a year that will be remembered in part for its protests, the following question is worth asking.
Have recent events, from the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street, confirmed or contradicted standard ideas about the nature of collective action developed to make sense of earlier Years of the Protester, such as 1789, 1968, and 1989? 1) 2011 Reminded Us of How Often Economic Issues Set the Stage for Protests. 25 best Occupy photos of 2011. As 2011 draws to a close, the Post’s photo department takes a look back at the year in photos. Below, the best photos of the Occupy movement from the past year. WARNING: Some photographs depict scenes of violence. View more photo galleries REUTERS/Andrew BurtonProtesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement lift a chainlink fence while storming into Duarte Square in New York, December 17, 2011. REUTERS/Lucas JacksonDemonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street campaign march in the rain through the streets of the financial district of New York September 29, 2011. REUTERS/Andrew BurtonA protester affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement pours liquid over the eyes of another fellow protester to ease the pain from pepper spray during an unannounced raid by the New York City Police Department outside Zuccotti Park in New York, in the early hours of November 15, 2011.
REUTERS/Andrew BurtonRetired Episcopal bishop George E. REUTERS/Mark BlinchPolice circle the gazebo at St. Where are the Intellectuals? An Essay on Occupy Wall Street. In the cattle-market chatter about Occupy Wall Street, a whisper can be heard: that of the intellectuals. But far from throwing themselves into the fray, they’re tentatively poking at it with a long stick. While assorted commentators – ranging from musicians and actors, to writers and activists – are weighing in, intellectuals, at least the heavyweights, have been making only murmurs.
Granted, Noam Chomsky has spoken at length about the historical context of the movement and the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek has drawn parallels between OWS and his reading of psychoanalysis. Political philosophers Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri have analyzed the organizational structure of the movement, and literary theorist Judith Butler has made some few initial observations. All starting points, to be sure, but still only the seeds of a conversation. So why the quiet from so many of those who often have a good deal to say? So who will shape these perspectives? El 15-M da el salto al cómic. Tres meses después de su irrupción en la vida pública, el 15-M salta por primera vez a las viñetas del cómic con Revolution Complex y Yes we camp! , dos obras que recogen las críticas y reivindicaciones asociadas a este movimiento social. El primer libro en ver la luz ha sido Revolution Complex (Norma), una antología de historietas en la que 22 jóvenes artistas muestran su descontento con la crisis, el paro, la corrupción, la precariedad, la burbuja inmobiliaria, los políticos, los banqueros o las agencias de calificación.
El sistema desaparecerá porque es incapaz de hacer frente a los colapsos a los que nos enfrentamos Estas reivindicaciones estallaron el pasado 15 de mayo, cuando una simple manifestación se transformó en una acampada multitudinaria en la madrileña Puerta del Sol, dando lugar a un encuentro intergeneracional que puso en jaque a las estructuras políticas españolas. "El 15-M ha sido un revulsivo para la mayoría de la población, que es la que más sufre los recortes sociales. Newsnight: Paul Mason: Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere. The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change: Amazon.co.uk: David Harvey.
Should protesters have the right to occupy public space? | Opinion | Building Design. The Occupy London protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral. Yes, says Anna Minton, though this protest illustrates the City’s lack of public space; while Tom Ironside says demonstrations shouldn’t prevent others from going about their business The right to protest is at the heart of any democratic society. The difficulties faced by the Occupy movement reveal that this right cannot be exercised in public places in the City of London, which is the target of the protest.
Aiming at financial institutions, the protesters decided to set up camp outside the London Stock Exchange in Paternoster Square. But they were prevented from entering the square, which is privately owned, by a High Court injunction. The row over the subsequent closure of the cathedral is distracting from the main issue: that Britain’s financial centres are not democratic spaces. It speaks volumes that the second camp set up by the protesters is in Finsbury Square, on the edge of the city. Demonstrations make that less likely. 'Occupy' protest sites a good thing, say landscape architects - SignOnSanDiego.com. The takeover of parks, plazas and other public spaces by the "Occupy Wall Street" movement is a good thing, said a panel of landscape architects on the future of cities Tuesday at the American Society of Landscape Architects convention meeting in San Diego.
"I am so thrilled that we have reclaimed these places as places of protest and how important they are," said Maurice Cox, former mayor of Charlottesville, Va., who now teaches urban design at the University of Virginia. "These places are meant to be where you could petition your government and be heard. You're seeing it across the county. People are trying to find places across the world where they can get their voices heard. That needs to be enabled... The fact that people are shocked that people would have a protest (in a public plaza)! " Martha Schwartz, a landscape architect from Boston now working in London, said Americans are rediscovering the role of public spaces in shaping our democracy.