World’s Bottom 99% Go Hand in Hand

Global wealth inequality has worsened each year and people start chanting “we are the bottom 99%” but where exactly does this originate? Apparently, it was from this one iconic event.

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City’s Wall Street financial district, in September 2011.

The original protest was called for by Kalle Lasn and others of Adbusters, a Canadian anti-consumerist publication, who conceived of a September 17 occupation in Lower Manhattan.

The first such proposal appeared on the Adbusters website on February 2, 2011, under the title “A Million Man March on Wall Street.”

Adbusters proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, the lack of legal consequences for those who brought about the global crisis of monetary insolvency, and an increasing disparity in wealth.

The protest was promoted with an image featuring a dancer atop Wall Street’s iconic Charging Bull statue like this.

Individuals associated with the hack group Anonymous created a video encouraging its supporters to take part in the protests.

The protest itself began on September 17; with the Occupy protesters using the slogan “We are the 99%” to refer to the income disparity in the US and economic inequality in general, which were main issues for OWS.

The slogan has arguably become the most successful slogan since ‘Hell no, we won’t go!’” of the Vietnam War era, and even started to be in popular usage worldwide ever since.

OWS’s goals included a reduction in the influence of corporations on politics, more balanced distribution of income, more and better jobs, bank reform, (especially to curtail speculative trading by banks), forgiveness of student loan debt, or other relief for indebted students,and alleviation of the foreclosure situation.

Despite labelling it as a peaceful movement, it is revealed in 2014 that FBI, DHS and other federal agencies monitored Occupy Wall Street-related groups.

Gideon Oliver, who represented OWS with the National Lawyers Guild in New York, said about 2,000 protesters had been arrested just in New York City alone, with over 6,000 others getting arrested in other cities across the country.

Researchers from NYU and Fordham found that the NYPD deployed unnecessarily aggressive force, obstructed press freedoms and made arbitrary and baseless arrests.

The movement was such a national and even a global sensation, with people from different backgrounds all gathered fighting for equality. From students to teachers, from artists to laborers. Yet, there still are people who oppose to it.

In 2011, Public Policy Polling did a national survey which found that 33% of voters supported OWS and 45% opposed it, with 22% not sure.

In 2012, a survey. by Rasmussen Reports, found that 51% of voters think that protesters are public nuisance, while 39% saw it as a valid protest movement representing the people.

And while the movement itself most definitely sounds like an anti-capitalist movement, many parties dispute the relevance of the label.

Either way, the event was so remarkable that OWS was mentioned by Time Magazine in its 2011 selection of “The Protester” as Person of the Year.

What do you think about this movement? Do the bottom 99% deserve more, or does the top 1% actually deserve that much wealth?”

Sources:

• Engler, Mark (November 1, 2011). “Let’s end corruption — starting with Wall Street”. New Internationalist Magazine (447).
• “700 Arrested After Wall Street Protest on N.Y.’s Brooklyn Bridge”. Fox News Channel. October 1, 2011.
• “Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested”. BBC News. October 2, 2011.
• Gabbatt, Adam (October 6, 2011). “Occupy Wall Street: protests and reaction Thursday 6 October”. Guardian. London.
• “Wall Street protests span continents, arrests climb”. Crain’s New York Business. October 17, 2011.
• Graeber, David (May 7, 2012). “Occupy’s liberation from liberalism: the real meaning of May Day”. Guardian. London.
• “Intellectual Roots of Wall St. Protest Lie in Academe — Movement’s principles arise from scholarship on anarchy”. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
• “#OCCUPYWALLSTREET: A shift in revolutionary tactics”. Adbusters.
• Horsley, Scott (January 14, 2012). “The Income Gap: Unfair, Or Are We Just Jealous?”. National Public Radio.
• “Voters moving against Occupy movement” (PDF). Public Policy Polling.
• “51% See Occupy Wall Street Protesters As Public Nuisance — Rasmussen Reports®”. www.rasmussenreports.com.
• “Person of the Year 2011 — TIME”. Time. December 14, 2011. ISSN 0040–781X.