Occupy Wall Street Movement Analysis
In the days after the initial occupation the movement started to grow and spread quickly, even with no established goals. The movement impressively set up kitchens, mental health squads, libraries, media teams and published a newspaper, giving a sense of community for occupiers (Giltin, 2011 p.26). Protesters through the financial district were carried out shouting chants such as “we are the 99%” and “this is what democracy looks like”. The protests were attended from anywhere from a small amount of people to several hundred. OWS began to receive coverage from the mainstream press by the 23rd, September though this lack of recognition up until then had failed to halt the spread of the movement. Occupations were spreading across America in Chicago,
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It must be acknowledged that OWS did not produce any major policy results, legislation or candidates and unable to really change the under representation of the “99 percent”. However, OWS was able to change the national and international debate to focus on issues such as inequality, corporate greed, political corruption, while also shinning lights on issues that affected the movement such as free speech, civil liberties and police brutality. Occupy Wall Street’s ability to tie all themes of the movement together successfully showed how the “99 percent” was being marginalised and the system unfairly stacked against them. The slogan “We are the 99 percent” demonstrated how the “1 percent” have concentrated money and power at the detriment to everybody else. Economic inequality, an issue at the heart of the Occupy movement, showed how concentrating wealth in the hands of a few (or the 1 percent) was leading to the corruption of democracy in America. When OWS tried to demonstrate peacefully this economic and political inequality it was eventually met with brutality by police forces. The eviction of people from peaceful encampments all over America underscored the eroding of civil liberties such as free speech and freedom of assembly in the American political system, while also brining attention to the increasingly militarizing police forces in America (Watson, 2012). These issue were essentially non-existent until
It must be acknowledged that OWS did not produce any major policy results, legislation or candidates and unable to really change the under representation of the “99 percent”. However, OWS was able to change the national and international debate to focus on issues such as inequality, corporate greed, political corruption, while also shinning lights on issues that affected the movement such as free speech, civil liberties and police brutality. Occupy Wall Street’s ability to tie all themes of the movement together successfully showed how the “99 percent” was being marginalised and the system unfairly stacked against them. The slogan “We are the 99 percent” demonstrated how the “1 percent” have concentrated money and power at the detriment to everybody else. Economic inequality, an issue at the heart of the Occupy movement, showed how concentrating wealth in the hands of a few (or the 1 percent) was leading to the corruption of democracy in America. When OWS tried to demonstrate peacefully this economic and political inequality it was eventually met with brutality by police forces. The eviction of people from peaceful encampments all over America underscored the eroding of civil liberties such as free speech and freedom of assembly in the American political system, while also brining attention to the increasingly militarizing police forces in America (Watson, 2012). These issue were essentially non-existent until