The origins of Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street was initiated by Kalle Lasn and other members of Adbusters, an anti-consumerist Canadian publication. The idea for a peaceful occupation of Wall Street was first proposed on February 2, 2011, with the title “A Million Man March on Wall Street.” Lasn registered the OccupyWallStreet.org web address on June 9, which initially redirected to Adbusters’ website but is now not found.
On July 13, 2011, Adbusters proposed a peaceful protest to highlight the corporate influence on democracy, the lack of consequences for those responsible for the global crisis of monetary insolvency, and the growing wealth disparity. The protest was promoted with an image of a dancer on top of the Charging Bull statue of Wall Street.
Justine Tunney registered OccupyWallSt.org in July, which became the primary online hub for the movement. The U.S. Day of Rage, a group that opposes corporate influence on political parties and government institutions, also joined the movement.
The protest began on September 17 at Zuccotti Park after the original location was fenced off by police. Since the park was private property, the police couldn’t legally force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the property owner. By mid-October, Facebook had listed 125 Occupy-related pages.
David Graeber played an important early role in the movement and coined the slogan “We are the 99%.” Occupy Wall Street drew inspiration from the Arab Spring protests, the Iranian election protests of 2009-2010, the British student protests of 2010, and protests in Chile, Greece, Spain, and India. Occupy Wall Street also gave rise to the Occupy movement in the United States.
Occupy Wall Street today
The OccupyWallStreet movement, spearheaded by OccupyTogether is gaining momentum. Youth are taking to the streets in droves, rejecting the current economic order rooted in corporate and political greed, and are seeking to redefine the future of the United States. As the Guardian explained:
We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Perhaps, it’s not surprising. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that the real priority of those running the world for the last few decades has not been creating a viable form of capitalism, but rather, convincing us all that the current form of capitalism is the only conceivable economic system, so its flaws are irrelevant. As a result, we’re all sitting around dumbfounded as the whole apparatus falls apart. It’s clear that the rich are determined to seize as large a share of the spoils as remain, tossing a whole generation of young people to the wolves in order to do so.
And the purpose of OccupyX? Their agenda is not clear cut (to be expected with a new movement like this) but according to Piers Morgan (CNN), the majority of Americans agree with their demands. OccupyX explains their agenda as such:
Through a direct democratic process, we have come together as individuals and crafted these principles of solidarity, which are points of unity that include but are not limited to:
- Engaging in direct and transparent participatory democracy;
- Exercising personal and collective responsibility;
- Recognizing individual’s inherent privilege and the influence it has on all interactions;
- Empowering one another against all forms of oppression;
- Redefining how labor is valued;
- The sanctity of individual privacy;
- The belief that education is human right;
- and Endeavoring to practice and support wide application of open source.
Get involved with Occupy Wall Street
Want to be involve. Download a PDF version of the OWS official posters below.
