The Occupy Wall Street Movement

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.

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.

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.

In light of the recent presidential election, many people fear for their freedom as restrictions on immigration, religion, and abortion rights have been proposed. As a result of this, on January 20th, countless citizens banded together across America in “Women’s Marches”, the largest of about 400,000 people at Washington, D.C. (10 Actions). At these protests, advocating for people of all genders, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations, zero arrests were made. These peaceful gatherings gained the attention and unification of many people across the country and motivated citizens to continue to organize events. At the Women’s March on San Francisco, it was said by a speaker that we are “on the right side of history”. As people continue to vocalize their disagreements with the government, change will always be made, though it may be

These events of the election lead me to ask Alejandra and Fernando about the anti-protest that have been bursting out all over the country. I asked Alejandra and Fernando how they feel about them and if they had participated in an any of the protest. (Fernando) – “Well right after they announced the winner a lot of people at UCLA were not happy so they started a protest against Donald Trump. It was around 11:50 pm when the protest happened. I would have joined but I had a long day from work and school and I had to wake up early the next day. Is not that I didn 't care and I didn 't want my voice to be heard I was just not emotionally ready I literally started crying. Although I wasn 't there physically I was there in spirit because it was great to have a community back you up. I could hear the chants of "f*** Donald Trump," "We want equality, not supremacy," and "we hate Trump" then after that they quickly faded away. I heard from friends that the protest was around 600 students and it ended up really late like around 3 in the morning. Although I was not present my protest is getting my education and to achieve my goals. As well as to empower others and to show them that anyone can achieve anything if you believe in yourself. As well as to show my community and people of color that they belong at UCLA”.

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.

Uprisings against police crimes, protests on Israeli occupation, lobbying for gay rights, striking for a higher minimum wage, etc. are all fought with the same fist and same power: that of the people. Just in recent months, black activists in Chicago have traveled with student groups to Palestine in opposition of apartheid, and Palestinians marched beside the black community during the Black Lives Matter movement. Political prisoner Angela Davis lead the community hand-in-hand with Rasmea Odeh, a contemporary victim of political repression. The same can be said about so many other organizations and communities here in Chicago. The struggles of so many across the globe are unified here in Chicago by the thread of tyranny and injustice. This unifying thread only serves to symbolize how struggles belong to no single body or group of people, but are obstacles that must be overcome by the global

The history of American, non violent, civil disobedience depicts how peaceful resistance can shape public opinion, voice dissent, and change unjust laws. In both Contemporary and past history do we see the role that protest has on our Democracy,and how dissenters, such as Susan B Anthony and Martin Luther King Jr, can become American heroes. The United States was founded on an act of civil disobedience, and even in Modern America, principled dissent has become the highest form of

Protests riots in the United States has proven to an issue for both the country’s financial strength and the unity of the nation. With the presence of social injustices, combined with the increased impact of social media propaganda, protests riots are beginning to reach an all time high. Protest riots destroy individual communities and businesses, jeopardizes the safety of others and taints the protest’s cause by resorting to civil disobedience. Action must be done in order to prevent these random acts of violence from continuing after every social hot topic. The goal is not to prevent citizens from protesting; in fact, this should be encouraged. The goal is to change the way the protests are handled from both the citizens and authority perspectives, in order to prevent these protests from escalating into something dangerous.

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

On September 17, 2011 an unorganized, rudimentary, and diffuse group of activists set up camp in New York’s Zuccotti Park, a privately owned green space in New York’s financial district. The group set out to battle social inequality, corporate greed, and the super power that financial institutions and multinational companies hold over the democratic process. What started out as a grass roots movement has since become a major hot button in media and politics alike. Newt Gingrich has called the “concept of the ninety-nine and the one” both divisive and “un-American.” (Stolarik) When asked about the OWS movement, former President Jimmy Carter has said “Helping the less fortunate should be viewed as a moral obligation and not an act

Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street” is compared to the article “Occupy Wall Street in perspective” by Craig Calhoun. Both writings share a common idea of protest by “preferring not to”. The purpose of “Bartleby the Scrivener” is to give insight on the life of ordinary people on Wall Street. While the purpose of “OWS” is to give insight on ordinary peoples lives during the protest. The article “OWS” shows why Bartleby in “Bartleby, the Scrivener” prefers not to and makes him a protestor through four main relations being setting, the 99% vs. 1% contrast, passive resistance, and how both were encouraged through police interference.

The concerns of the majority Americans have no immediate solution as the answer lies in the separated divisions in government. Political stances of Democrat, Republican and Liberal views about Occupy Wall Street have separate and distinct ideals. But, one unified front from all three is that the movement has gotten out-of-hand; caught between the freedom of speech act, and the health and safety of the public from themselves. Michael Kirby Smith, of The New York Times, commented in an article that because of the anti-Semitism displays during Occupy Wall Street, President Barak Obama and House Representative Nancy Pelosi recanted their support for the Wall Street protests. Yet, recently in an article by Mark Whittington of Yahoo News, writes that even though President Obama

The first paper I have chosen to review is called Reflections on Occupy #Everywhere: Social Media, public space and emerging logics of aggregation. The author argues that social media has changed the way protest movements such as Occupy organize and communicate with their members, allowing the movement to reach a larger audience than would otherwise be possible (Juris, 2012, para. 1). The author’s evidence is valid, and comes from qualitative observation of the growth of the Occupy movement in general, and Occupy Boston in particular. The author’s evidence is relevant to his argument, as it supports the role that social media played in the formative phases of the Occupy movement.

On a brisk September day in 2011, in the commercial district of Manhattan Island, a minute protest in Liberty Square commenced against the fiscal atrocities committed by economic establishments leading to the financial crisis and subsequent economic recession in 2007 and 2008. Over the course of the month, the movement protesting the miscarriage of justice and democracy following the economic catastrophe and the overall inequitable and unfair wealth distribution diffused to over 100 American cities as well as 1,500 cities worldwide. The revolutionary movement was named Occupy Wall Street and through occupying and protesting the symbolic location of the financial elite, Wall Street, the crusade aimed to “[revolt] against the corrosive power