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Mackenzie Baker

SOC 0849: Dissent in America

3 May 2014

Term Paper

Occupy Wall Street

What started as a blog post now has become one of todays biggest and most notable

social movements in history. On July 13th

, 2011, a Vancouver based anti-consumerist magazine

proposes a similar movement to those in Egypt and Spain, against Wall Street. While the blog

post called for 20,000 protestors, when the specified date of September 17th

came, just several

hundred showed up. This leaderless group would spend the next two weeks setting up camp in

Zuccotti Park, a privately owned space near Wall Street, and rallying through the streets of

Manhattan. During the first few protests, many occupiers began collaborating and issuing the

demands of the movement. Most notably, the demand for economic equality and a close in the

gap between classes. However, to say that the hundreds of people participating in these protests

were there for the sole reason of economic equality doesnt begin to cover some of the issues

they wanted to address.

From the start, the occupation served as a point of convergence for an incredibly wide

range of critiques and viewpointsunited mostly by a broad sense of injustice and converging in

a public space where they could express themselves EthanEarle exclaims (Earle, 3). Over the

next two weeks following the beginning of the movement, the demonstrators realized they would

need more specific demands in order for the movement to go on. Around this time, the

movement would recognize its leading phrase identifying themselves and the rest of the middle

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and lower classes as the 99 percent. The other one percent consists of those who hold the

majority of the wealth in our society and were labelled as greedy and corrupt. Now the

movement has begun to gain traction as more and more people are showing up to these

demonstrations, protestors numbering in the thousands now, still however seem disorganized.

Disorganized or not, the demonstrators begin to witness several arrests as the police try to

maintain the movement. Several weeks in and demonstrations were appearing nationwide and in

foreign cities. Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, Tokyo, and many more major

cities began to participate as the movement continued to grow.

Occupy Wall Streets success lies mainly with how quickly the word was spread. This is

directly related to todays mass use of social media worldwide. Not only was the demonstration

information such as location and time posted on these media sites, there were constant

discussions regarding the issues being addressed and demanded by the movement. One example

in particular was the officers caught on video netting and spraying mace in the faces of four

young female protestors. The attack was filmed and promptly uploaded to YouTube where it

went viral, spreading to other media outlets. With more and more viral videos going around the

movement attracted a large spike in media coverage along with participants. The longer the

movement lasted more and more political figures began to weigh in on the movement, most

expressing their understanding of the movements frustrations. Barack Obama chimes in on the

issue saying:

I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest

financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the

countryand yet youre still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly

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trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the

first place. (Earle 5)

While several politicians addressed the movement, demonstrators were weary that theyd be able

fix much of the injustice that had took place causing this movement.

In time, the leaderless movement made a list of grievances, some legitimate, others

maybe not. The list starts with the mass injustice regarding the billions of dollars used to

bailout insurance groups and mortgage lenders who had been manipulating regulations into

making risky transactions in which they would be paid off nicely. This issue was a big driving

force behind the ever growing gap between the richest one percent and the other 99 percent.

While the one percent can seemingly act irresponsibly with their money and have no foreseeable

punishment, the 99 percent felt the consequences of their actions when the ticking time bomb

they had been tossing around had gone off causing the government to bail out these institutions

with billions of dollars in loans. This was the first grievance of many on the movements list.

The list of grievances continues with the consistent outsourcing of labor being used as

leverage to cut workers healthcare and pay. Simultaneously, they have continuously sought to

strip employees of their right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions. Corporate

forces have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace on age, the color of ones

skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. Corporations have also donated large amounts

of money to politicians backing them who once in position, will in return regulate them. The

movement also addresses the continuing rise in tuition price at many schools where students are

being held hostage with thousands of dollars in debt. Corporations have taken their bailouts from

taxpayers and continue to give their executives massive bonuses even after the financial crisis of

2008. These are several of the grievances addressed by the movement. As noticed, they range

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quite a bit which really points to the motives of the movement when they say they stand up

against to all the injustices committed by these corporations.

Having addressed a multitude of the grievances, its time to look at the goals of the

movement and what they seek to achieve through their demonstrations. While there is no

defined list of goals, there are definitely some standards the movement is striving for. First and

foremost, an investigation into the 2008 financial meltdown and the arrest of those who

committed any fraud which may have led to the crisis. In general, the movement aims to tighten

banking regulations to prevent such meltdowns in the future. They wish for elections to be

publicly funded only, keeping the corporate greed out of the election process. Stronger foreign

relations allowing the United States to compete in world trade is another aim of the movement.

These goals directly target the majority of the grievances listed in hopes these injustices will be

made right in the future.

Its one thing to start a movement and grow to the size that now is Occupy, its another to

make sure these demonstrations are carried out in a way that effectively promotes their goals and

views on corporate injustice. The movements main tactic is nonviolent direct action. Martin

Luther King Junior addresses the tactic as following in his Letter from Birmingham Jail,

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community

which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to dramatize the

issue that it can no longer be ignored (Letter from Birmingham Jail). Occupy Wall Street also

saw the beginning of the human microphone. The tactic involves the demonstrators repeating the

words of someone yelling a certain phrase or line. This not only helps to prove unity of the

movement, it amplifies their message as thousands of people chant the phrase repeatedly. While

the demonstration occurs on a global stage, the tactics behind the movement remain the same no

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matter the location. This brings us back to the social media sites which in this day and age are

definitely proven to be effective tactics for sharing information as well as promoting the

demands of the movement. In a sense, the movement never sleeps as people all over the world

post and share information regarding the movement online. This is key because while there are

many Occupy demonstrations going on around the world, even if there isnt one in your

hometown its not hard to follow through videos on YouTube or the likes of Facebook and

Twitter. Considering the movements worldwide success, these tactics prove to be efficient when

trying to create tension within a community in order to force open negotiations.

When comparing the Occupy Wall Street movement to past social movements, one that

sticks out the most in terms of similarity is the Striking Textile Workers of Lawrence. Though

separated by a century, their demands are quite similar in terms of demanding justice and

equality within the workplace. The strikers were made up of 20,000 workers so the movement

was a fairly large similar to todays Occupy Wall Street movement. Where the workers are the

99 percent of todays movement the mill owners who are in control represent the high ranking

employees at todays biggest financial institutions. And like todays richest bankers, these mill

owners, in the security of their sumptuous offices, behind stout mill gates and serried rows of

bayonetsdefied the State, city and public(Zinn, 273). This is relatable to Charles Fergusons,

Inside Job, in which he reached out to many of these high ranking employees at these financial

institutions, many of which declined to interviewed for the documentary. The Occupy Wall

Street Movement is even more closely relatable to that of the Arab Spring movement happening

over in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen. In fact, the Occupy movement was

believed to be inspired from such movements in the Middle East. The only notable difference

between the two is the higher percentage of violence occurring in those movements due to their

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governments standpoint on the movement not being as lenient as the United States government

as we have differing laws. However, nonetheless the movement has seen success in the Middle

East and continues to.

The Occupy movement has been regarded as a success because it, Created a space

where diverse and divided sectorsfrom unions to immigrant groups to radical youth, anarchists

and socialistscould come together and begin to heal, or at least confront, their longstanding

differences (Earle 15). The general viewpoint of social movements has been changed for the

better because of the Occupy movement and its nationwide success. Because it is everywhere, it

is easier for people to identify themselves with the movement. Many times people may wonder

what does this have to do with me, but when its all around you its a little easier to understand

that is about you. Looking forward, while the Occupy movement is still alive it is not expected to

return with such force it had initially exited the gate with. The movement was definitely a step in

the right direction in learning that to overcome challenges its easier to do it together in an

organized democratic way.

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Works Cited

Blodget, Henry. "OCCUPY WALL STREET: Analyzing Their List Of Grievances...."Business

Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 1 Oct. 2011. Web. 3 May 2014.

http://www.businessinsider.com/occupy-wall-street-analyzing-their-list-of-demands-

2011-10#!IIQrU

Earle, Ethan. "A Brief History of Occupy Wall Street."Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung1 (2012): 1-17.

Print.

Inside job. Dir. Charles H. Ferguson. Perf. Matt Damon. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment,

2011. DVD.

King, Dr. Martin Luther. "Letter From A Birmingham Jail." Letter to The Clergymen. 16 Apr.

1963.American Identities. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005. Print.

Xia, Rosanna. "Occupy Wall Street." Timelines.latimes.com., 02 Jan. 2012. Web. 03 May 2014.

Zinn, Howard, and Anthony Arnove. Voices of A people's history of the United States. Seven

Stories Press 1st ed. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2004. Print.