Essay on Occupy Wall Street Movement

Craig Calhoun’s article “Occupy Wall Street in perspective” comes into great comparison with Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street". They are both written works about protest and conflict. There is not a various amount of movement in either section, but there does tend to be the statement of “I would prefer not to” (Melville, 55). In “Bartleby the Scrivener” the readers have to try and understand for themselves why Bartleby would prefer not to since the answer is never given in the text. The article, "OWS" clarifies why Bartleby would prefer not to, in “Bartleby the Scrivener", through the setting, the 99% vs. the 1% contrast, and passive resistance.

Occupy Wall Street has been called many things including: unfocused, ungrounded, and silly. Others coin it as “America’s first internet-era movement” (Rushkoff). In quintessence, Occupy Wall Street is a series of protests and demonstrations that oppose the influence that corporate greed has on American Democracy. The protestors manipulate marches and nonviolent demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the state of American Politics and economy. This relates to the political science concepts of power, performance democracy, and protective democracy.

The Ohioans suffered from low income. So they decided to come together to protest for a change. It is also one out of thirty campaigns being waged around the country. The activist that was involved in the campaign stated that they were following civil rights leader Martin Luther King´s example. They also mentioned that they will participate in non-violent civil disobedience to end racism. ¨It is not ok to let our children go without. It is okay to let the homeless be the answer. We must meditate and pray, we must act, and we must persevere,¨ says Stewart. The Ohio activists say that they will risk arrest if their agenda is not

On September 17, 2011 hundreds of people began to gather in Zuccotti Park, New York which is Wall Street’s financial district under the banner “Occupy Wall Street”: these three simple words are causing an uproar in America (Engler). Additionally, these three words happen to be protesting the current status of America’s financial condition. With the economy in America being as terrible as it is, and the unemployment rate skyrocketing, it is absolutely necessary for some sort of change to occur. The Occupy Wall Street protesting is most positively a progressive step for the economic state in America and it is a step in the right direction.

The Occupy New Hampshire movement stemmed from Occupy Wall Street, which began in September 2011. Tr.:16. The occupy movement generally consisted of staying in one place until the grievances of the participants are addressed. Tr.:33. Occupy Wall Street sought to address problems such as economic disparity, the growing gap between the classes, and the influence of money on politics. Tr.:13. Every Occupy movement focused on different issues and grievances, usually determined at the first general assembly. Tr.:111.

However, one of the most popular forms to share and demonstrate our opinions as citizens are marches and protests. Parades and marches were indeed a from the Progressives used to publicize and convince many about their efforts. Despite that, many of these parades, especially in Washington D.C. on March 3, 1913 faced violent responses that included in the assault of many women. This was not always the case. For example, a nonviolent mass direction action is the March on Washington on August of 1963. This march was part of the Civil Rights act movement. This march led from Washington monumental to the Lincoln Memorial and consisted of songs, chants and speeches of civil right leaders that fought for jobs and freedom. Some of the most notable speeches that came out of this march was Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream speech”, which is known to promote racial justice and equality. The previous examples, demonstrated marches and protests for social reforms, but not all marches are related social reforms. Some marches like the Anti- War march in 2003 that voices the opposition of the invasion of Iraq. More than 10 million people in over 600 cities joined these efforts to voice their discontent with the Bush Administration, but many felt and still feel ignored by the administration. In this case, no agreement or compromise could be reached. In our current society, the rise of racial unrest led to various marches such as the Anti- Trump and May Day marches. Marches and protests are a very popular way Americans and citizens from all over the country still use to voice their opinions. They are planned with the goal to lead to social reform or social change. However not all marches end up being nonviolent such as the March on Washington. In fact, many end up violently leading to the involvement of the police. Marches have always existed and will

In response to the growing inequality between rich and poor Canadians, and the growing wealth of the top 1%, the Occupy Movement took to the streets in order to protest against the accumulation of the majority of wealth by the minority of people. On October 15th, 2011, in 900 cities across the world, thousands of average citizens protested for their rights to wealth equality

Despite the inequality in the United States, many Americans have been determined to have their voices heard. Recently, movements such as Occupy Wallstreet and the Tea Party Movement have formed in response to the growing wealth and control by the “1%”. These social movements have become very popular at times due to discontent among the populace and the wide accessibility of social media. While these movements tend to have rapid success early on; lack of cohesion, results, and true direction

The movement brought up many conversations about lack of upward mobility and economic inequality. The common phrase from the movement speaking of the ninety-nine percent versus the one percent reflects on the desire for this equality (pg 75). The Occupy Movement used this to make an impact in the realm of politics. President Obama was aware of the slogan the movement used, describing the ninety-nine percent versus the one percent, and he used it as ammunition. He explained that many of his policies would help the middle class while Mitt Romney’s, his opponent, would help the wealthier individuals. This helped the Democratic incumbent keep his position for four more years. Lastly, if one delves into the results of the Occupy Movement, he or she would find that the greatest success of the movement was its impact on Bank of America. This bank and other large banks halted their plans to increase debit card fees due to Occupy action. The movement had made an impact on many aspects of

To begin with, peaceful and violent protests can spark the change, or get the attention of more supporters until something is resolved for the equality. The article, “Making a Visual Argument:Inequality and the Occupy Movement” shows one of the most influential movement, the occupy movement. Occupy Miami showed a man with a dollar taped to his mouth reading “occupy.” Then, during the occupy Portland demonstration a young college girl Elizabeth Nichols is pepper sprayed at point blank. These acts caught the eyes of the American people, and rose in popularity. The occupy movement also showed American’s that there is a problem of economic equality through the occupy at Miami and Portland

These people protest on Wall Street in New York on an everyday basis. They sleep there, eat there and basically do whatever they want. This protest does not have a unified cause, but the general conclusion that can be drawn from everyone is

Nonviolent movements are widespread across America, but very little are effective enough to create monumental change or to have a lasting impact. In their article "Waging Nonviolence: What makes nonviolent movements explode", Mark and Paul Engler explore what makes nonviolent protests powerful enough to force change. Written in December 2014, the article uses modern and historic examples of protest movements, with the main focus on the Occupy Wall Street movement, to create the context as to what each of the methods discussed has accomplished. Using the main example of Occupy Wall Street, the article showcases two major points, disruption and sacrifice, that nonviolent protest movements utilize in order to have the greatest effect, as well as how those two points work together to create lasting impacts. Disruption relies on interrupting everyday life and preventing business from occurring, while sacrifice focuses on what people are willing to risk and give up in order to see the change they wish for. In their article, the Engler’s propose that while these two methods of protest can be effective, protests rarely become large enough to actually create any change, even if they are combined, simply because the major businesses, corporations, and organizations that are being protested hold incredible amounts of political power and therefore are able to very easily shut down protests with police forces. This argument, that protests are inevitably going to fail, is very realistic

September 17, 2011 is the day the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City. The main issues include social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government according to The New York Times. The mix of moral foundations based on ideas from the anthropologist Richard Shweder, outline six clusters of moral concern - care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority, or sanctity. OWS main moral issues include: fairness, care, and liberty. Fairness – the rich (the “1” percent) got rich by taking without giving. OWS protesters viewed the

Occupy Wall Street’s opposing expression of the disparity between the wealthy and the poor may have begun in good faith by utilizing the Freedom of Speech and General Assembly amendment rights, but the strategies some of the protestors have demonstrated are resulting in adverse reactions against themselves. The Occupy Wall Street movement will assuredly cost affected cities in the double digits of millions of dollars. Increases in payroll, overtime, and business expenses will inadvertently backfire and increase layoffs. The burden the protestors physically place on a city is weighing down an already financially stressed situation. The mass of people and their tent lifestyle is causing a drain on city finances, and alas, the money is coming

In Judith Butlers paper “so what are the demands?” she writes about the lack of foresight and goals set by the occupy movement. For this reason she provides her own set of demands. She divides her paper into two sections that take on two points made by the skeptics points for which she analyzes. She first brings up the skeptics position which states that: demands should take the form of a list and secondly that demands should be capable of being satisfied. Between these two statements she clears up why the movement exists, what its purpose is and the pitfalls of these two points. The paper begins to dissect the problems with the first statement being that of lists. Butler states that they merely sum up what the demands are about but over-simplify/over-look the finer details. These lists also do not explain how these demands relate to each other. Lists fall short because no one item on the list can explain what gathers them all together. A position that Butler holds is that it is the very historical character of the economic system itself that is the root cause of inequality. Butler points out that the key to understanding this economic framework is to understand why differentials in wealth are increasing more so than ever and by fewer people. Furthermore, small adjustments by lists cannot fix the problems with the economy, they cannot address the inequality of wealth because it is reproducing in ever more acute ways and lists would just get larger rather than ever seeking to