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Yeah, real world changing. But, isn't it important what you are changing your world to?
Posted on 09/10/2012 10:46:44 AM PDT by presidio9
The 99% is turning 1.
Manhattan activist William Dobbs remembers exactly where he was that first day, Sept. 17: standing near the Bowling Green subway station with a ragtag band of about 500 people.
Some were riveted by an economics teach-in. Others were practicing yoga. Most were preparing to march up Broadway and settle in an unremarkable plaza known as Zuccotti Park.
Dobbs, a veteran of protest movements, says there was “some buzz” about the action that had been named Occupy Wall Street, the brainchild of the anti-consumerist outfit Adbusters.
But he could not have predicted the extraordinary events to come: the two-month encampment, the massive protests and violent clashes with cops, the slogan “We are the 99%” and the speed with which it rocketed around the globe.
“I could never have predicted that it was possible to have a camp in the shadow of Wall Street,” he said.
What started as a call to action by Adbusters quickly swelled into a full-throated — some say fleeting — condemnation of corporate greed and social injustice.
It might have fizzled faster, but for the decision of one cop, Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, who pepper-sprayed a group of female protesters during a largely peaceful Sept. 24 rally.
It was the first in a series of flash points that pitted demonstrators against cops, generating serious attention from mainstream media and the now-iconic images of women pinned to the ground.
The number of people willing to take to the streets in support of Occupy Wall Street suddenly swelled.
Just one week later, 700 demonstrators were arrested trying to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. As city officials scrambled to restore order, the heady days of the movement took hold. It dominated headlines, political debate and cocktail party chatter.
“It got the unions’ attention,” said James Jasper, a City University of New York sociology professor who is an expert on protest movements. “That’s pretty unusual in a way, because Occupy, until then, looked like a bunch of scruffy twentysomething countercultural people.”
Hundreds of copycat encampments sprang up from London to Boise, Idaho, as videos of violent clashes with police went viral. “I knew it had incredible potential because it was exactly what was needed, at exactly the right time,” said Max Berger, 26, an Occupy Wall Street organizer. “But I don’t think we knew quite how big it could become.”
Zuccotti Park, a privately owned public space controlled by Brookfield Properties, became Occupy’s home base. A comfort station doled out blankets and clothes, a canteen supplied around-the-clock hot meals, a “people’s library” was stocked with thousands of books — all of it donated from supporters around the world.
Princeton University’s Cornel West gave a rousing speech to the masses one night, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore wowed the crowd another. “There are plenty of people who now realize they can change the world,” Dobbs said.
Some will say that little has changed since the NYPD forcefully cleared the park in the early hours of Nov. 15: the 1% still has most of the wealth, the banks and corporations OWS targeted still stand, Republicans have a shot at the White House.
Zuccotti has returned to being a place where office workers take in the sun and eat lunch. Most of those who slept and volunteered there have returned to jobs and classrooms.
The number of people willing to take to the streets in support of Occupy Wall Street suddenly swelled.
Just one week later, 700 demonstrators were arrested trying to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. As city officials scrambled to restore order, the heady days of the movement took hold. It dominated headlines, political debate and cocktail party chatter.
“It got the unions’ attention,” said James Jasper, a City University of New York sociology professor who is an expert on protest movements. “That’s pretty unusual in a way, because Occupy, until then, looked like a bunch of scruffy twentysomething countercultural people.”
Hundreds of copycat encampments sprang up from London to Boise, Idaho, as videos of violent clashes with police went viral. “I knew it had incredible potential because it was exactly what was needed, at exactly the right time,” said Max Berger, 26, an Occupy Wall Street organizer. “But I don’t think we knew quite how big it could become.”
Zuccotti Park, a privately owned public space controlled by Brookfield Properties, became Occupy’s home base. A comfort station doled out blankets and clothes, a canteen supplied around-the-clock hot meals, a “people’s library” was stocked with thousands of books — all of it donated from supporters around the world.
Princeton University’s Cornel West gave a rousing speech to the masses one night, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore wowed the crowd another. “There are plenty of people who now realize they can change the world,” Dobbs said.
Some will say that little has changed since the NYPD forcefully cleared the park in the early hours of Nov. 15: the 1% still has most of the wealth, the banks and corporations OWS targeted still stand, Republicans have a shot at the White House.
Zuccotti has returned to being a place where office workers take in the sun and eat lunch. Most of those who slept and volunteered there have returned to jobs and classrooms.
In fact, she says, the internal focus on Zuccotti was one of the downsides.
“There became a preoccupation with the idea of occupying public space,” she said. “People idolized our New York encampment.”
Since the city evicted protesters, many have turned their energy to “smaller, localized problems and initiatives,” Sobel said.
Ex-occupiers also take some credit for pressuring Gov. Cuomo to enact a millionaire’s tax and the prominent mention of student loan debt at the Democratic National Convention.
City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan), who was arrested during the protests, said Occupy’s fingerprints were on the Con Ed labor battle this summer, a huge May 1 march and the Rev. Al Sharpton’s “Occupy the Corners” initiatives.
“This movement will continue having a presence in the city,” he said.
An earlier thread says that the Southern Poverty Law Center now calls OWS a “right wing” thing.
*shrugs*
Bunch of idiots at SPLC
and all of those people are now supporting the bailout party
These pathetic losers are legends in their own minds. They are so blinded to reality that they actually think they matter. The police in their various squatters’ holes did not even bother to arrest them, so they won’t have those great “persecuted by The Man” stories to tell when they are old diseased hippies like Bob Beckel.
Only fellow travelers on the Left such as Pelosi and the Communist news media could find a shred of worthiness in this pile of human debris.
There were no “extraordinary events”. OWS was a failure, a dud, a complete and utter flop. About all it did was get a few hippies out of their basements for the first time since Alice Toklas had a sale on bong polish.
Where is OWS? I know of st least three TEA Party offices here in Houston, one with a national True the Vote movement. These communist protesters accomplished nothing. The real rightwing group has elected like minded people to both houses of Congress. In five years there will not be evidence of this astroturf demonstration.
One would think these people would get bored building monuments to their own greatness....
My daughter knows some twenty-somethings who got caught up in OWS.
Basically they did it because it was their chance to recreate Woodstock. Sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, dude! That plus maybe we can get some free stuff, and scare them into wiping out our student loans.
My daughter has cut off all contact with these kids, citing “personal hygiene issues”.
One year? Seems like 5. Guess that illustrates how much coverage they have gotten.
Before:
During:
After:
Yeah, real world changing. But, isn't it important what you are changing your world to?
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