The Occupy Wall Street Movement

The 99 percent consists of average Americans whose homes are being foreclosed upon, who have accrued colossal student loan debt and are most affected by economic setbacks. A definition of power is the “ownership, control, and distribution of resources”. In this way, the 99 percent is powerless in America because they lack the ability to exist independently of the one percent who has the power over the nation’s resources. The one percent has an advantage in its ability to influence the government and public policy. The protestors point to many societal problems as evidence of this inequality. Some of these examples are unequal access to healthcare, poverty, exorbitant student loan debt, unemployment, and unfair practices in the housing market. These are all indicators of the unequal distribution of resources and subsequently power that Occupy Wall Street denounces.

Protests are a way that many citizens have historically exercised their right to freedom of speech and as to voice their opinions on current matters in the U.S. as well as other nations. Protests help the uninformed get informed on specific issues, and try to persuade fellow citizens. What were some of the effective aspects of the protests that were portrayed in “The Matrix”, “Battle in Seattle” as well as those in “The Letter from Birmingham Jail”? What were the downfalls? An effective protest is one where an advocated idea gets across to the intended audience. Peaceful protests tend to have a better outcome than those that lead to violence.

Occupy Wall Street symbolizes their frustrations through the various occupying demonstrations, signs, and most notably, their slogan: “We are the 99%” representing the growing inequality of the wealthiest 1% of America’s population and the rest of the country’s citizens. The top 1% has more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. In 2007, the richest 1% owned 34.6% of the country’s total wealth. After the Great Recession and economic crisis the amount of the country’s total wealth owned by the 1% grew from 34.6% to 37.1%.

This movement is extremely well documented when it comes to all kinds of sources, such as photographs, diaries, interviews, and videos. Many of these sources are housed in Wilson Library, some of which are very intriguing and carry messages that are still relevant to this day. One noteworthy photograph I discovered is one of a group of protestors on Franklin Street. The photograph was taken by an unknown photographer and it was taken in December of 1963. The group stands firmly in front of the post office; a landmark on Franklin Street, which is now known as Peace and Justice Plaza. It was named this because it is where protest marches would end and where a memorial plaque was placed for the

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.

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

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

The activists feel like this disruptive protest is needed in order to disturb not only the public but to disturb politicians and people in high places. They feel like in this way they will grab the attention, sympathy, and support of citizens and will force politicians to face these issues and propose solutions to them like police reform and will also remind the police force and all other authorities that they are aware of these injustices and that they are never ignored (Mather).

As Moisés Naím, contributing editor to The Atlantic, describes, “The fervent political energy on the ground is hugely disproportionate to the practical results of these demonstrations”. The issue with protest today is quite simply it happens so often. When the immediate reactions to outrages that happen frequently today in places like Ferguson, Charlotte, and others, is to immediately protest, over time these protests seem to lose their significance. Even when the issues they bring up are legitimate, the age of social media where everyone has a soap box and a story to tell means the shock value protests used to have in Dr. King’s day has all but disappeared. The loss of that shock value hinders any ability to communicate a message, making disobedience and protest a less viable option for effectively causing social change. As a platform for communication increases in frequency and decreases in uniqueness, its viability to actually deal with issues such as racial tension decreases exponentially. Given today’s environment, therefore, civil disobedience appears to have lost its efficacy, as it is now unable to effectively communicate its message, and thus may have far greater difficulty in impacting free society in a positive

In early October, OWS got a major boost when prominent labor unions joined protesters in a march from Foley Square to the encampment at Zuccotti Park. Labor leaders have joined the movements in hopes that OWS can act as a counter weight to the Tea Parties growing support, and help push Congress and President Obama to put more focus on job creation. In the protest’s fourth week it gained the support of some major democratic leaders and party fund-raisers, including a top ally of President Obama. It has been said that the embrace of the protests by democrats is a clear sign of their desire to align with disenchanted Americans. On the other hand, many democrats are wary of the movement pushing the party dangerously to the left as the Tea Party movement has often pushed republicans to the right. President Obama has spoken sympathetically of the protests, stating they are a reflection of the frustrations that struggling Americans have felt for a long time. Vice President Joe Biden and Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi have voiced similar opinions.

“The Occupy Wall Street protests are shining a national spotlight on the most powerful, dangerous and secretive economic and political force in America.”

I had seen it plenty of times before, but only in pictures and videos occasionally shown on tv or social media. It’s in an abundant amount of books and articles that we read in both academic and non-academic settings. It’s a part of my history, along with millions of others like me. Yet, I had a sudden wave of different emotions hit me when I got closer to the large crowd. At that moment I then realized that nothing could have prepared me for this moment. I grew anxious as my friends and I approached the roaring crowd of protestors, and at that moment I stood there astonished because I was finally apart of a movement that I had been yearning to be apart of for years. Upon further inspection of the hundreds of people standing around me I

Politics has become an aspect of our daily lives with the heavily charged political climate that we experience nearly every day in the recent years. Social media, news, and other sources of information has become more accessible to most people that live in the United States, with this access of information as well as easy access to neighbors, or local members of cities and states, protest or marches have become more easily managed and organized. Already we’ve seen several major protests and marches that have spread across the country, including Anti-Trump Marches protesting his inauguration, the most recent March for Science to promote scientific research, and the Women’s March for equal rights. These movements have been sparked with recent

The Occupy Wall Street Movement came about in September of 2011. This was a movement about corporate money ant the influences it has on the politics. Many supported this movement because they felt that politics” supported corporate greed, as well as financial and social inequality.” (Haidt, 2012). One moral view of this was focused on democracy, which must were lead to believe was controlled mostly money and not the people which is what a democracy is supposed to be focused on. Those who supported (OWS) Occupy Wall Street believed

The Occupy Movement was about people protesting against the social and economic inequality around the world. In the year of 2011 this protest got some worldwide attention in Wall Street in New York. The two major movements happened here in America on Wall Street, New York and in Chicago, Illinois. Overall, they started out as peaceful protests, but unfortunately did not end that way. The police force in both cities had to be aggressive and, in some cases, they had to arrest some peaceful protestors. In spite of the fact that many people did get arrested in Chicago, the police force on Wall Street was much more aggressive, and they got more media attention compared to Chicago.