The Occupy movement is an international protest movement against social and economic inequality, its primary goal being to make the economic structure and power relations in society fairer. Different local groups have different foci, but among the prime concerns is the claim that large corporations and the global financial system control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and is unstable.
Occupy Wall Street was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters, and partly inspired by the Arab Spring, especially Cairo’s Tahrir Square protests, and the Spanish Indignants. The movement commonly uses the slogan We are the 99%, the #Occupy hashtag format, and organizes through websites such as Occupy Together. According to the Washington Post, the movement, which has been described as a “democratic awakening” by Cornel West, is difficult to distill to a few demands. On October 12, the Los Angeles City Council became one of the first governmental bodies in the United States to adopt a resolution stating its informal support of the Occupy movement.
The first Occupy protest to receive wide coverage was Occupy Wall Street in New York City’s Zuccotti Park, which began on September 17, 2011. By October 9, Occupy protests had taken place or were ongoing in over 95 cities across 82 countries, and over 600 communities in the United States. Although most popular in the United States, Occupy has seen protests and occupations in dozens of other countries and on every continent. Each Occupy site set up a camp – including tents and outdoor kitchens – in a park or other public space, often near the city or town’s financial district, to establish a semi-permanent protest area.
For the first two months of the protest, authorities largely adopted a tolerant approach towards the movement, though this began to change in mid November with over a dozen camps being cleared in both the US and Europe. By the end of 2011 authorities had cleared out most of the major camps. The last remaining high profile camps – at Washington DC and at St Paul’s Cathedral in London – were cleared in February 2012. Yet protesters at many locations continue to organize and stage demonstrations.
The Occupy movement attracted less attention in the winter of 2011 compared with autumn, as participation and activity dropped. By February 2012 several journalists began suggesting that the movement was beginning to fade away, though this was frequently denied by occupiers themselves, who said that they had merely entered a less visible planning stage. By mid-March activity began to increase, with Occupy activists staging high profile rallies and attempting to re-occupy their original camp in Zuccotti Park.
Source – Wikipedia
Marianne Williamson Speaking About the Occupy Movement, Berkeley, CA November 2011
