(Mark Casner 11.4.2011) Many among us must realize by now that business as usual will not pull us out of this recession, that funneling billions to this or that bank did nothing to alleviate the crisis in our neighborhoods and work places, that the continued enrichment of a tiny fraction of society is not helping us at street level. There is no trickle down. A movement is growing against greed, against austerity, against cuts, downsizing, layoffs, the melting of the polar ice caps, and the wars for oil. That movement is Occupy Wall Street. Spring and Summer 2011 Approximately a month and a half after the excellent NYC Mayday 2011 march in New York City, a protest was launched; an encampment known as Bloombergville stretched from the Woolworth Building to across from City Hall on the Brooklyn Bridge side. The focus of this protest was to oppose the Budget Cuts to Social Services and other vital programs and the layoffs of thousands of public employees. Organizations active in this protest included Bail Out The People, New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts and the Organization for A Free Society. The act of sleeping outside as part of a protest is a constitutionally protected form of free speech as long as no permanent structures, such as tents, are erected. The U.S. Supreme court has afforded first amendment protection to expressive conduct as a form of free speech (1). At this same point in time the Greek and Spanish protests, due to their size and vitality, were widely covered in news media worldwide. Protesters in Barcelona and Athens set up encampments with their own media centers, featuring streaming video, their own nursing stations, and other services. Workers and ordinary people in Greece and Spain heroically stood up to the austerity measures imposed by the political elites of those countries and their overlords at the European Bank and the IMF. It should be obvious that the “Arab Spring” protests occurring throughout the first six months of 2011 in Tunisia and Cairo, Egypt as well as the 2011 Madison Wisconsin Protests were a source of inspiration that cannot be overstated. The O.W.S. Website cites the ArabSpring tactics as a blueprint of sorts for this movement. The massive protests and occupation of the Sorbonne in Paris in 1968 seem like another good reference point and were mentioned by Kalle Lasn, one of the founders of the Adbusters website. Antecedents On June 2627, 2010 there was a G8 summit at the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario, Canada, The G8 are made up of the heads of state of the richest industrialized countries: France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Russia. Most of the protests in 2010 against the role of the G8 in our world occurred in Toronto. There were large gatherings such as the march called People First!We Deserve Better, put together by organized labor, and numerous smaller, sometimes unruly actions by environmental, anti war, anarchist, antiglobalism and ecological groups. Participants at these events were quoted as recognizing that political leaders of the world's industrialized nations were guilty of forcing austerity upon a population that is not requesting it, and further, that all cuts to social programs hurt ordinary people. Further it may be said that aggressive pursuit of fossil fuels by the G8 nations imperils the very earth upon which we depend for life. It should also be remembered that there were large protests against the so called Summit of the Americas way back in 2001 in Quebec. American anthropologist David
Graeber was an observer and participant in these protests and his book Direct Action: An Ethnography takes a look at the organizing and events of these memorable protests. Time magazine lists Mr. Graeber as a “catalyst” of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the originator of the “We Are The 99%” slogan. Canada has seen several large protest movements in recent years including movements to disrupt to disrupt an Arms Manufacturers' Trade Show, CANSEC, at Landsdowne Park, Ontario in June 2011 and at the same event for two previous years, as well as disruptions of deportment proceedings, (in which the government seeks removal of unwanted “aliens”) and direct action by ecological groups to protest and disrupt tar sands oil production, which is poisoning the Canadian countryside. There has been, in Canada, even more so than here in the U.S.,a massive increase in the disparity of wealth within the last 2 years, with the wealthiest gaining ground on an unprecedented scale and real wages declining sharply for the rest, and there has been an increase in steet activism as a result. Adbusters, the culturejamming magazine and website also happens to be located in Canada. Call For Convergence In July 2011, Adbusters, in conjunction with Anonymous posted a call for for a convergence of protesters, dissidents, labor and peace movement activists to come to New York city and occupy Wall Street on Sept 17. On Sept. 1 a test run was held in which a small group occupied sidewalks on Wall Street. Nine were arrested, despite the clear legal precedent that their actions were lawful. A federal court ruling in 2000 permitted the use of "public sleeping as a means of symbolic expression"(2). On September 17 the formal Occupy Wall Street protests began, with simultaneous occupations of financial districts in Madrid, Milan, London, Paris and San Francisco. The protests in NYC did not meet the 25,000 person goal originally asked for, but were sizable and were very quickly excluded from One Chase Manhattan Plaza, which was the original proposed campground. 20,000 people had converged on Wall Street by Sept 23 but only several hundred stayed overnight. Many of the original visitors set up in Zuccotti Park which was renamed freedom square. There were general assemblies nightly in September and the first resolutions appeared in the form of a Declaration, once accepted by General Assembly on Sept 29, 2011, it was published on the internet and in booklet form, under the title The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City. Clearly all the mainstream media reports that characterize this movement as inarticulate are completely false. Working groups within the movement that were launched in September continue to meet 25 times weekly or more and some have found indoor space to gather. 82 work groups exist at this writing, ranging from Environmentalist Solidarity to Direct Action to Electoral Reform to those concerned with day to day matters such as Translation and Community Relations. Unions Jump In Largescale union participation began during the first week of October; on Wednesday October 5 a huge rally drew over 20,000 to Foley Square and the subsequent march down Broadway. The atmosphere resembled the May Day march of 2011, as several of the trademark signs such as the large pig's head labeled C.E.O. were brought out for this march as well. There was heavy participation by the C.U.N.Y. Unions and student groups as well as the Transit Workers Union of NYC. There were other large weekend demonstrations that drew large numbers of people and the movement has since gone national. In California, with the participation of the International Longshoremen's Association, the Occupy Oakland movement has retaken their space after an assault by Oakland police that
resulted in the hospitalization of Scott Olsen, who not only served two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Armed Forces but also participated in the 2011 Madison Wisconsin Protests. He remains in critical condition. The port of Oakland was shut down in a General Strike on Nov. 3 as Occupy Oakland continues to up the ante in direct confrontation. What Next ? Events are moving quickly now. Although there is a real possibility that street activity will greatly diminish during the coming winter months, next spring is sure to be interesting. There is talk of a national convention in Philadelphia next summer and possible third party candidates for congressional seats in 2014, but much more important is the common will to envision the type of society we want, one that values environmental sustainability, creativity and egalitarianism and one that releases us from consumerism, eliminates authoritarianism, capitalism and racism. We need to build a movement that poses a real alternative.
1 – CLARK VS. COMMUNITY FOR CREATIVE NONVIOLENCE, Supreme Court Of The United States. 46 U.S. 280 No. 821998 Decided, June 12, 1984
2 METROPOLITAN COUNCIL, INC., Plaintiff, against HOWARD SAFIR, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, et al., June 12, 2000 [99 F. Supp. 2d 438; 2000 U.S. Dist.].