The Occupy Wall Street Movement

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a succession of protests that have no formal leader and no formal demands. The concept behind this form of movement is that each person

Provided the unofficial definition, majority of the United States could easily guess the word: “The slums outside of Los Angeles. This area is very poor and revolves around gang violence, sex and drug dealing.” That’s correct, you guessed it right! It’s the infamous Compton. The city that everyone has heard in the news or in a song at one point or another. This definition was taken from Urban Dictionary, a site that allows anyone to define specific words and terms. It is easy to see that Compton is often related with drugs, crime and gangs, but the general public fails to realize the truth behind the suburb. The smaller Los Angeles district is filled with hard working people that have been disenfranchised and defined as numbers and statistics.

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.

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.

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

In the reading relative to social movements, the TEA party and the Black lives matter movement are discussed.

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

More than three years after the Ferguson unrest, a group of protesters once again marched down the streets of the St. Louis suburb. About several dozen people were chanting and carrying “Black Lives Matter” signs on Friday night, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. During the otherwise peaceful protest, some individuals burnt an American flag. A group of protestors are seen on video standing around the burning flag while repeatedly chanting "we can't take it no more." The video was posted to social media by Daniel Shular, a freelance photojournalist. The original protests were prompted by the death of Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, who was shot by Darren Wilson, a white police

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

The Civil Rights movement is one of the most important acts to change the way not only African Americans were able to live their lives but all races and colors. It would slowly break down the social, economic, political, and racial barriers that were created by the The Age of Discovery and Transatlantic Slave trade. I believe without the Civil Rights acts our country would result to be no better than what it was when the Emancipation Proclamation just took effect. In the 1950s and long before, Southern folk, who were white had created a system that would interpret them as a superior race over blacks. The system would defend whites rights and privileges from being taken away from them while establishing terrible inhumane suffering for African Americans. In the South blacks were controlled in all aspects economic, political, and personal, this was called a “tripartite system of domination” - (Aldon D. Morris) (6) Though it isn’t as prevalent racism and discrimination towards other races that aren’t white is still found in America and can be in schools, the workplace, even when you are in the general public but you no longer see discriminating signs saying “Whites” or “Blacks” or Colored” along the front of bathroom, restaurants, and shopping malls doors. Nor do you see people being declined the right to buy a home based on their color or access to school and an equal education being declined because one didn’t meet racial requirements. The acts of violence towards

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 2008, the financial crisis that occurred left the poor and middle classes to suffer, with high unemployment rates and homes foreclosed. The financial district that was the cause of the crisis received trillions of dollars in bailouts, which sparked extreme discontent in the citizens. (“Occupy Movement”). Proponents argue that the protesters are doing the right thing in standing up for what they think is right for their country, the people, and the Earth. They argue that greed needs to go and that everyone should work together in peace and harmony.

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is the name given to a protest movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district. The Canadian group and magazine Adbusters initiated the call for protest with assistance from the Manhattan-based public relations firm Workhorse, who was well-known for its successful work on brands including Mercedes and Saks Fifth Avenue. The ensuing series of events helped lead to media awareness that inspired Occupy protests and movements around the world. In awarding Workhorse its Platinum Award, industry publication PRNews noted the results, obviously, have been spectacular. There’s hardly a newspaper, Internet

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