On October 5th 2011, groups of people continued to gather in Zuccotti Park in support of the movement Occupy Wall Street. Hundreds of people were either chanting with a human microphone, holding up their personal testimonies on cardboard signs, or assisting one of the many relief stations set up to support the protest. On this same day the Workers Unions of New York City were set to march to demonstrate their full support of the movement.
One of the many groups of people who have shown up today are a group of senior citizen women known as the, “Granny’s for Peace.” “It’s not what we’re hoping to achieve, it’s what everyone is hoping to achieve I’m hoping this will be, the end of this economic system, that’s what I think. And the brilliance of this is that has provided a way for everyone to participate to change something together. I’m old enough to remember many times when people came together to march against Vietnam and the biggest difference, to then is that there is no generation gap here,” said, Jenny, 63-year-old social worker and a member of “Granny’s for Peace”. Those at the protest who are over 30 years younger than the, “Granny’s” share the same desire to rectify injustices committed by the corporate grip on government.
Since September 1st a variety of residents from all around the United States have responded to calls by a Vancouver nonprofit publication known as Adbusters, and hacking collective Anonymous, which requested all who were dissatisfied with the Financial Crisis/UNCAP of 2008 and the ongoing effects of that crisis to peacefully protest in the confines of the financial district of Manhattan. Nearly a month later the movement has gained momentum, through the form of NYPD resistance and arrest of protesters as well as thousands of satellite protests constantly stemming from locations all over the world.
Genesis of the Movement
Drawing their inspirations from the Arab Spring movement, specifically the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt, Adbuster attempted to emulate these populist protests by employing the same tools to organize and raise awareness surrounding their movement.
On July 13, 2011 Ad Busters issued a forum that generated the initial proposal to non-violently petition against the continued abuses of the financial system in place in the United States. “Then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people,” said, Raimundo Viejom, a student of Pompeu Fabra University, who synthesized the meaning of the occupation. This quote was used on an original post of Adbusters to help sum up the position of the Wall Street protesters which supports the idea that, “Wall Street, the Financial Gomorrah of America,” will not adjust their attitudes their own. Its location at the epicenter of capitalist commerce unifies with a single cause hoping to force the authoritative political system of the United Sates to directly deal with all who were unhappy with the current motions of government.
AdBusters originally wanted 20,000 people to go to lower Manhattan to set up a communal center with a kitchen and tents and Occupy Wall Street for a few months. A goal of gathering here is to bring attention to, the plight of the 99%. The 99% are those who fear unevenly distributed tax and income system that has been widening in the past few decades. The influence of corporations over those who govern in Washington is seen by AdBusters as directly comparable to the unending power that former President Muhammad Mubarak had over the Egyptian people. The only unifying principle was the removal of his power which had the approval of nearly 300,000 people.
The first responses to AdBusters call for a change were from the New York General Assembly. They first met on August 2nd in Bowling Green Park to speak out against “ongoing probank” and “anti people cutbacks,” and to help establish a plan for the actual protest on September 17th. Throughout August the GA had ongoing meetings about collective thinking for solutions and called for food donations. On August 13th, AdBusters confirmed that two off shoot protests would occur in Spain and San Francisco and called for more movements to grow. Three weeks after this AdBusters posted about involvement from protesters in London, Milan, Lisbon, Madrid and Athens.
Starting on September 1st a trial occupation for New Yorkers occurred in the financial district to perform a peaceful and legal demonstration in preparation for the actual occupation. When the 17th came 5,000 people marched from Bowling Green Park to 1 Chase Plaza before the NYPD blocked their path. Following the police disruption the OWS movement relocated to the privately owned Zuccotti Park to fully practice a non violent and demonstrative protest that had been talked about three months before.
Reasons for Protesting (Economic Backstory)
The causes for Occupy Wall Street are rooted in economic problems that have plagued the United States since the Great Depression of the 1930s. After the events of the Depression the New Deal was instated and banks were regulated to prevent any future failures. Sixty years after the Depression, banks fell through another period of deregulation that resulted in an increased the amount of loans distributed to customers who could never repay them as well as the trading of more derivative assets. Consumer friendly banks gained the same abilities that had originally been designated to investment banks. Excessive loaning resulted in an uneven balance in the money maintained by the banks and the loans they were distributing to most of their customers. The costs of purchasing a home waxed because people were buying houses without the money to repay the mortgages banks gave out. The inability repay home ownership loans, caused the, “housing bubble,” to burst in 2008 and the costs of buying a home rapidly lowered. This resulted in former President George W. Bush passing the Troubled Asset Relief Program that would ensure the safety of banks and the corporations that helped maintain them. This bail out was almost completely paid for by the tax dollars of US citizens and those in charge of these corporations and banks went untouched from this economic downturn.
The Current Status of the Protest
Since September 17th, the occupation at Zuccotti Park has become a fully functioning community center for those participating in the movement. “There are people who are good at cooking who cook for us. There are people who are very knowledgeable with medicine who are healing us, there are musicians who play for us, there are artists creating art. There are people who are good speakers who are helping us organize. So you see, everyone here is allowed to access their strengths and let that be their work,” said Monica, 25-year-old traveling musician. This sentiment is displayed with the tents set up for the purpose of providing medicines and aid against the cold, a food station with a variety of donations of cold, hot, and dried foods, as well as speakers who hope to help shepherd a cause. Media outlets and politician such as Herman Cain and Michael Bloomburg have criticized the movement for its disorganization, but some protesters only hope to build and build. “Everything here rose organically out of the chaotic state. Western society has been the experiment. Hypothesis first then execution. We’ve been working pretty successfully, although it’s still very crude organization we’re trying to fine tune because we threw ourselves into this situation and now we’re trying to find a system to emerge out of this,” said, Fred Panpozi, 32 years old and unemployed.
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