No matter your political affiliation, the Occupy Wall Street movement has definitely proven to affect the political and economic climate of America.
In perhaps the most historic and sustained protests since The Selma to Montgomery marches of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, American citizens dubbing themselves the “99%” took over Zuccotti Park, a privately owned but publicly accessible park in the Wall Street financial district.
American citizens dubbing themselves the "99%" took over Zuccotti Park, a privately owned but publicly accessible park in the Wall Street financial district.
Since the Occupy Wall Street protests began in New York, many other protests of solidarity around the world were held in support of the marchers in New York. “Occupy X” marches were held as far away as Angola, and many cities in the United States formed their own Occupy marches as well.
The marchers were first met with police who attempted to quarantine the marchers, arresting many protesters who tried to actually cross over onto Wall Street proper. Many of the other protests were also marked by instances of violence between protesters and police, who used right here and teargas in many of the protests to try to force the protesters to disperse. Perhaps the most publicized of these events happened in Oakland, California where a young Iraq war veteran was sent to the hospital in serious condition after being hit by a projectile from a police officer.
The Occupy Wall Street protests are incredibly polarizing politically, to say the least. Republicans by and large have vilified the movement, with economists Ben Stein calling the marchers “bums” on MSNBC and Donald Trump saying that many of the protesters were only going to Zucotti Park for “dating purposes.”
The Occupy Wall Street movement has also undergone much criticism for its apparently leaderless structure and a lack of official stated demands. However, by way of many websites, different groups with in the Occupy Wall Street movement have organized politically relevant events such as “Move Your Money” day. On November 5th, these efforts resulted in over 70,000 people removing their money from large banks such as Bank of America and Chase and moving those funds into local credit unions. In November, credit unions signed up as many customers as they did in all of the year 2010.
Although this type of segmented initiative has given the movement political clout that has been acknowledged by politicians on both sides of the political spectrum, the Occupy Wall Street protests do not seem to be in a hurry to produce a unified theme. That theme has been co-opted by observers of the movement as being one of “income inequality.” Much like a criminal case that is held together by a preponderance of circumstantial evidence, it seems quite likely that this is the overarching theme of the movement, as no protester has actively denied this even as they continue to march for vastly different reasons.
This preponderance of evidence includes many figures which show that income inequality in the United States has been on an upward trajectory for the past 30 years and does not seem to be slowing down. Statistics show a wider gap then ever between the incomes of the young and the old, the rich and the poor, company owners and employees, and the educationally privileged and stunted. Unemployment statistics show a sustained level which has been described by politicians on both sides as being unacceptable.
The phenomenon that most of the statistics has been focused on, and definitely the angle that media has picked up on most, is that the preponderance of the increase in wealth in the past 30 years has been focused squarely in what is known as the “1%,” which is defined by many independent government agencies by different metrics. The one that is most often used is the metric of income, with the top 1% being a family with a yearly income of more than $350,000.
As the the movement seems to be in no hurry to acknowledge this as the reason for the protest, and politicians in no hurry to acknowledge the protesters as a legitimate political entity, the official word on if these statistics correlate with the marchers will probably remain unsolved for the time being. However, there is a noticeable divide between policymakers and protesters which definitely does nothing to quell the disdain on both sides.
Protesters have been quoted as saying they are marching to bring awareness to income inequality in the United States, unemployment issues and economic issues brought on by a poor job search market.