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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 13
th
, 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 17
th
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 Ethan Earle 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 Stiftung 1 (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.

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