Occupy movement
2011–2012 protests against socioeconomic inequality / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Occupy movement was an international populist socio-political movement that expressed opposition to social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primarily to advance social and economic justice and different forms of democracy. The movement has had many different scopes, since local groups often had different focuses, but its prime concerns included how large corporations (and the global financial system) control the world in a way that disproportionately benefits a minority, undermines democracy and causes instability.[12]
Occupy movement | |
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Part of the response to the global financial crisis, the subprime mortgage crisis and the Arab Spring | |
Date | 17 September 2011 (2011-09-17) – 9 November 2016 |
Location | Worldwide (List of locations) |
Caused by | Economic and social inequality, corporate influence over government, inter alia. |
Methods | |
Casualties and losses | |
Arrests: 7,700+[1] Injuries: 400+[2] Deaths: 32[3][4][5][6][7] | |
www |
The first Occupy protest to receive widespread attention, Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park, Lower Manhattan, began on 17 September 2011. By 9 October, Occupy protests had taken place or were ongoing in over 951 cities across 82 countries, and in over 600 communities in the United States.[13][14][15][16] Although the movement became most active in the United States, by October 2011 Occupy protests and occupations had started in dozens of other countries across every widely inhabited continent. For the first month, overt police repression remained minimal, but this began to change by 25 October 2011, when police first attempted to forcibly remove Occupy Oakland. By the end of 2011 authorities had cleared most of the major camps, with the last remaining high-profile sites – in Washington, D.C., and in London – evicted by February 2012.[21]
The Occupy movement took inspiration in part from the Arab Spring,[22][23] from the 2009 Iranian Green Movement, and from the Spanish Indignados Movement, as well as from the overall global wave of anti-austerity protests of 2010 and following. The movement commonly used the slogan "We are the 99%" and the #Occupy hashtag format; it organized through websites such as the now defunct Occupy Together.[24][25] According to The Washington Post, the movement, which Cornel West described as a "democratic awakening", is difficult to distill to a few demands.[26][27] On 12 October 2011, 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.[28] In October 2012, Andy Haldane the Executive Director of Financial Stability at the Bank of England stated that the protesters were right to criticise and had persuaded bankers and politicians "to behave in a more moral way".[29]
In 2009 and 2010, students across the University of California occupied campus buildings in protest against budget cuts, tuition hikes, and staff cutbacks that had resulted from the Great Recession of 2008. According to Dissent Magazine, "It was in the context of the California student movement that the slogan 'Occupy Everything, Demand Nothing' first emerged."[30] The Huffington Post noted that, "During one incident in March of 2010, 150 protesters were arrested for trying to occupy part of Interstate 80 in protest of the budget cuts and tuition hikes, displaying a banner that read 'Occupy everything,' while shutting down the roadway for an hour, and were crushed by the same kind of overwhelming police force that was later mobilized against Occupy encampments across the country."[31] Adbusters editor Micah White, who designed the original Occupy Wall Street concept, traveled to California for the protests and took part in the occupation of Wheeler Hall. In an article for Adbusters, he wrote with enthusiasm about the "revolutionary potential of [the students'] struggle".[32]
The Spanish Indignados movement began in mid-May 2011, with camps at Madrid and elsewhere. According to sociologist Manuel Castells, by the end of the month there were already hundreds of camps around Spain and across the world.[33] For some journalists and commentators the camping in Spain marked the start of the global occupy movement, though it is much more commonly said to have begun in New York during September.[34][35] On 30 May 2011, a leader of the Indignados, inspired by the Arab Spring, 5.18 Movement of 1980, and June Democracy Movement of 1987[36][37] called for a worldwide protest on 15 October.[38] In mid-2011, the Canadian-based group Adbusters Media Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, address a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global financial crisis.[39] Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn registered the OccupyWallStreet.org web address on 9 June.[40] According to Micah White, the senior editor of the magazine, "[we] basically floated the idea in mid-July into our [email list] and it was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world, it just kind of snowballed from there."[39]
One of the inspirations for the movement was the Democracy Village set up in 2010, outside the British Parliament in London. The protest received additional attention when the internet hacker group Anonymous encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and Occupy Wall Street".[41][42][43] They promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull.[44][45] The first protest was held at Zuccotti Park in New York City on 17 September 2011,[46] the tenth anniversary of the re-opening of Wall Street trading after the 11 September 2001 attacks. The protests were preceded by a similar Occupy Dataran movement in Kuala Lumpur in July, seven weeks before Occupy Wall Street.[47][48][49]
"We are the 99%" slogan
The phrase "The 99%" is a political slogan used by participants in the Occupy movement.[50] It was originally launched as a Tumblr blog page in late August 2011.[51][52] It refers to the concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99 percent;[53] the top 1 percent of income earners nearly tripled their after-tax income over the last thirty years, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report.[54]
The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate.[55] According to the CBO, between 1979 and 2007 the incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. From 1992 to 2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%.[56] In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.[57][58][59]
In 2007, the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15% —an example of the Pareto principle. Financial inequality (total net worth minus the value of one's home)[60] was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%.[61]
However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%.[61][62][63] During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007, the income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928.[64] This is in stark contrast with surveys of U.S. populations that indicate an "ideal" distribution that is much more equal, and a widespread ignorance of the true income inequality and wealth inequality.[65]
During the early weeks, the movement was frequently criticized by the news media for having no clearly defined goals. Speaking on 7 October 2011, Kalle Lasn of Adbusters said that, in the early stages, the lack of demands was the "mysterious part" that allowed the movement to grow.[66] By late October, Adbusters had been trying to "rally it around a single, clear demand" for a Robin Hood tax, with a global march in support of the Robin Hood tax planned for 29 October.[67][68] Naomi Wolf argued that the impression created by much of the media that the protestors did not have clear demands was false. Wolf argued that they did have clear demands including a desire to end what they saw as the corrupting effect of money on politics.[69] The New Yorker magazine stated that the claims of Kalle Lasn and Micah M. White were specific: tighten banking-industry regulations, ban high-frequency trading, arrest all 'financial fraudsters' responsible for the 2008 crash, and form a presidential commission to investigate and prosecute corruption in politics.[40] According to Bloomberg Businessweek, protesters wanted more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics.[70] The movement has also been described as broadly anticapitalist.[71][72]
Some commentators such as David Graeber and Judith Butler criticized the idea that the movement must have clearly defined demands; they argued that issuing demands is counterproductive for the Occupy movement, because doing so would legitimize the very power structures the movement seeks to challenge.[73][74] In late November, the London contingent of the Occupy movement released their first statement on corporations, in which they called for measures to end tax evasion by wealthy firms. The reason for the delay in articulating a clear demand was given as the time it takes to reach a consensus with the sometimes slow processes of participatory democracy.[75] In November "Occupy London Stock Exchange", an offshoot of Occupy London, said that they were working on a global collaboration of various occupations that reflected the voices of diverse movements worldwide.[76] The global movement has been called the reinvention of politics, revolution, and utopia in the twenty-first century.[77]
Activists have used web technologies and social media like IRC, Facebook, Twitter, and Meetup to coordinate events.[78][79][80]
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund released a model community bill of rights, promoting laws that strip corporations of their personhood rights and elevating the rights of citizens, for occupy organizers to adopt locally.[81] In December 2011, Occupy Homes embarked on a movement to assist home owners who had lost or were scheduled to lose their homes due to foreclosure as a result of what they called the illegal practices used by banks that took advantage of consumers. The group planned to occupy foreclosed homes, disrupt bank auctions, and block evictions.[82]
Structure
The movement has been described as having an "overriding commitment" to participatory democracy.[83] Much of the movement's democratic process occurs in "working groups," where any protester is able to have their say. Important decisions are often made at General assemblies,[84] which can themselves be informed by the findings of multiple working groups. Decisions are made using the consensus model of participatory democracy. This often features the use of hand signals to increase participation and operating with discussion facilitators rather than leaders – a system that can be traced in part to the Quaker movement several centuries ago, to participatory democracy in ancient Athens, and to the spokescouncils of the 1999 anti-globalization movement.[85][86]
At the assemblies, working group proposals are made to meeting participants, who comment upon them using a process called a stack; a queue of speakers that anyone can join. In New York City, Occupy Wall Street uses what is called a progressive stack, in which people from marginalized groups are sometimes allowed to speak before people from dominant groups, with facilitators, or stack-keepers, urging speakers to "step forward, or step back" based on which group they belong to, meaning that women and minorities get to go to the front of the line, while white males must often wait for a turn to speak.[86][87] The progressive stack concept has been criticized by some outside the movement as "forced equality" and "unfair".[88]
Nonviolence
The occupy movement began with a commitment to nonviolence.[89][90][91] Frequent references were made to the writings of nonviolent theorist Dr. Gene Sharp whose work was reported to have influenced nonviolent struggle movements in Serbia and the Arab Spring.[92] Study groups were organised across the US Occupy camps discussing Sharp's 198 methods of nonviolent action[93] and his book From Dictatorship to Democracy.[94][95][96] A subsequent film about his work How to Start a Revolution by Ruaridh Arrow which premiered in Boston on 18 September was screened in Occupy camps across the US and Europe.[97][98][99][100] Sharp himself warned that many of the tactics the movement were employing were not effective. In an Al Jazeera interview, he said, "The [Occupy] protesters don't have a clear objective, something they can actually achieve. If they think they will change the economic system by simply staying in a particular location, then they are likely to be very disappointed. Protest alone accomplishes very little."[101]
In late May 2011, sociologist Manuel Castells congratulated Spanish occupiers for the fact that not a single violent incident had been reported after 11 days of camping all over Spain.[33] Castells said that nonviolence was of fundamental importance, and was echoed by various other sociologists and social historians including Lester Kurtz, Prof. Maurice Isserman and Prof. Tom Juravich.[33][102][103] Juravich and others have, however, said that conflict can be important in attracting attention, with much to be gained if occupiers are seen as victims of the violence, providing occupiers keep their own aggression strictly within limits.[102] In the words of one occupier, it can help them gain media coverage if they "make things a little sexy and badass" . The Direct Action Working Group of Occupy Wall Street endorsed diversity of tactics from the earliest days of the encampment.[104] Not all occupiers have upheld the commitment to nonviolence, with aggressive tactics being used in Spain from as early as 15 June, and with some journalists saying the New York branch of the movement did initially accept protestors who had not signed up to nonviolence.[105][106]
In September, sympathetic coverage given to the movement by the media was substantially increased after the circulation of a video of pepper spray being used by a police commander against peaceful female protestors.[102] In early October, Naomi Klein congratulated New York occupiers for their commitment to nonviolence.[107] By November 2011, media sources began to report an increase in violence, with allegations of sexual assault and incidents of violence from occupiers against the police, including one officer allegedly stabbed with scissors.[102][108] Some occupy camps responded by requiring that all occupiers sign a resolution to be nonviolent if they wished to stay.[103] Rick Hampton for USA Today said the vast majority of occupy members have been nonviolent.[102] Reviewing the global movement in December 2011, Anthony Barnett said its nonviolence remained an immense strength.[34] One protester who did not take part stated, "It was organized by a very militant anarchist segment of the movement; I support the idea of taking a building, especially for housing those who don't have housing. But I don't support it with the kind of triumphal attitude I saw expressed."[106][109][110]
Social media
From the beginning the Occupy movement relied heavily on social media to disperse information and gather support. Occupy accounts were very successful in achieving these goals. The social media accounts eventually became hierarchical and failed their purpose.[111] Some [who?] believe, in order to have been more successful, the social media accounts should have been more heavily regulated and kept to a standard. In addition, a study was published that followed how Occupy user interests changed in time from 1 June 2011 to 31 August 2012. It showed 40% of users produced Occupy related content during peak activity of the movement. But it was not sustained over the following year, with the user ratio dropping to less than 5% in the last three months of the study period.[112]
Responses to the movement from celebrities were both in-person and online. Some find it controversial that rich celebrities made appearances at the Occupy Wall Street Movement, but Kanye West justified his appearance as helping give power back to the people.[113]
Many hold[who?] that the success of OWS has led to the success of Bernie Sanders and his political platform, disrupting the political conversation about environmental impact and economic equality. Some[who?] believe that there was social media blockage of Sanders' presidential campaign, in favor of more airtime for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.[114]
The WikiLeaks endorsed news site WikiLeaks Central began promoting the idea of a "US Day of Rage,"[115] on 10 March 2011. The Canadian editor-in-chief Heather Marsh modeled the concept after the Days of Rage being held at that time in the Middle East and North Africa.[115] Early promotion by the WikiLeaks Twitter and blog was reported[116] as being instrumental in the group's success.[116] It was renamed Occupy Wall Street after the idea publicized on an email list[117] on 13 July 2011 by Vancouver-based non-profit Canadian group Adbusters.[39][118][119] The Occupy Wall Street protests began on 17 September 2011 in downtown Manhattan.[120] On 9 October 2011, activists in cities in over 25 countries repeated calls for a global protest on 15 October.[78][121] A list of events for 15 October included 951 cities in 82 countries.[122] On 15 October events were held in many cities worldwide.[123]
17 September to 14 October 2011
On 17 September 2011, 1,000 protesters gathered in lower Manhattan walking up and down Wall Street. About 100 to 200 people stayed overnight in Zucotti Park, two blocks north of Wall Street. By 19 September, seven people had been arrested.[124] At least 80 arrests were made on 24 September after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets. Most of the 80 arrests were for blocking traffic, though some were also charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police officers also used a technique called kettling which involves using orange nets to isolate protesters into smaller groups.[125] Videos which showed several penned-in female demonstrators being hit with pepper spray by a police official were widely disseminated, sparking controversy. That police official, later identified as Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna, was shown in other videos hitting a photographer with a burst of spray.
Public attention to the pepper-sprayings resulted in a spike of news media coverage, a pattern that was to be repeated in the coming weeks following confrontations with police. Clyde Haberman, writing in The New York Times, said that "If the Occupy Wall Street protesters ever choose to recognize a person who gave their cause its biggest boost, they may want to pay tribute to Anthony Bologna," calling the event "vital" for the still nascent movement.[126] On 1 October 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. Some said the police had tricked protesters, allowing them onto the bridge, and even escorting them partway across. Jesse A. Myerson, a media coordinator for Occupy Wall Street said, "The cops watched and did nothing, indeed, seemed to guide us onto the roadway." According to Fox News, a spokesman for the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, said that protesters were given multiple warnings to stay on the sidewalk and not block the street, and were arrested when they refused.[127][unreliable source?]
On 4 October, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into a trap and then arresting them.[128] In June 2012, a federal judge ruled that the protesters had not received sufficient warning of arrest pending entrance onto the Brooklyn Bridge. Although video evidence showed the police warning protesters by bullhorn,[129] after reviewing it, Judge Jed S. Rakoff sided with plaintiffs, saying, "a reasonable officer in the noisy environment defendants occupied would have known that a single bull horn could not reasonably communicate a message to 700 demonstrators".[130]
On 5 October 2011, joined by union members, students, and the unemployed, the demonstration swelled to the largest yet with an estimated 15,000 marchers joining the protest. Smaller protests continued in cities and on college campuses across the country. Thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District. The march was mostly peaceful—until after nightfall, when scuffles erupted. About 200 protesters tried to storm barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting. Inspired by Occupy Wall Street, British protesters organized an occupation of the London Stock Exchange to bring attention to what they saw as unethical behavior on the part of banks. One of the organizers of the protest said the protests were to be focused against "increasing social and economic injustice in this country". In his opinion, "the Government has made sure to maintain the status quo and let the people who caused this crisis get off scot-free, whilst conversely ensuring that the people of this country pay the price, in particular those most vulnerable."[131][132][133]
15 October to 4 November
On 15 October 2011 global protests were staged around the world, with thousands of protesters staging demonstrations in 900 cities including Auckland, Sydney, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tokyo, São Paulo, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Boston and many other cities. In Frankfurt, 5,000 people protested at the European Central Bank and in Zurich, Switzerland's financial hub, protesters carried banners reading "We won't bail you out yet again" and "We are the 99 percent." Protests were largely peaceful; however, a protest in Rome that drew thousands turned violent.[134] Thousands of Occupy Wall Street protesters gathered in Times Square in New York City and rallied for several hours.[135][136] Several hundred protesters were arrested across the U.S., mostly for refusing to obey police orders to leave public areas. In Chicago there were 175 arrests, about 100 arrests in Arizona (53 in Tucson, 46 in Phoenix), and more than 70 in New York City, including at least 40 in Times Square.[137] Multiple arrests were reported in Chicago, and about 150 people camped out by city hall in Minneapolis.[138]
In the early morning hours of 25 October, police cleared and closed an Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California.[139][140] The raid was chaotic and violent, but Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan expressed his pleasure concerning the operation because neither the police nor the public suffered any injuries.[141][142] A street march that afternoon protesting the closure culminated in a confrontation between police and protesters, who sought to re-establish the Ogawa Plaza encampment. During this confrontation, protester Scott Olsen, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran, suffered a skull fracture caused by a tear-gas projectile or smoke canister fired by police.[142][143] By 29 October 2011, there were around 2,300 Occupy protest camps across around 2,000 cities worldwide.[144] On 2 November, protesters in Oakland, California, shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth busiest port in the nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city; however, a member of the Occupy movement was quoted by the BBC as estimating as many as 30,000 may have taken part.[145]
On 4 November 2011, "Occupy the Roads" (OTR) started traveling throughout the U.S. to bring the message of Occupy, in order to educate the people on various issues facing the general public and shine a light on the inequities and political injustice. OTR has been to every major Occupy Event in support of all occupied cities, traveling over 31,000 miles and visiting 42 States and 160 cities since inception. One side of the RV (named the "V"- from the chant "Whose V? RV") has been decorated with stickers, posters, and event notices from around the country representing a billboard for the Occupy movement. On the other side is 31 ft of graphics in support for Chelsea Manning and WikiLeaks.[146]
5 to 25 November
On 5 November, protesters held "Bank Transfer Day", marching on banks and other financial institutions to urge Americans to move their money from big corporate banks to smaller community credit unions. It was reported that an estimated 600,000 people took their money out of major banks.[147] On 11 November, Remembrance Day in Canada, police forcibly removed tents from Victoria Park in Halifax, Nova Scotia and arrested 15 protestors.[148] On the night of 14 November, a coordinated crackdown was undertaken by authorities around the world, with several camps being forcibly cleared including Zuccotti Park in New York, Oakland,[149] Oregon,[150] Denver and Zurich. For some of the other camps such as the one at St Pauls in London, no physical action was taken, but on 15 November authorities stepped up legal action to gain authorization for a forcible eviction. Financial Times editor Richard Lambert suggested that the shift to confrontational tactics by authorities would be more likely to spur on the movement rather than cause it to disband.[17][18][151] However, John Gapper, chief business commentator at the FT, offered a different view. Gapper said that it may be advantageous that the camps were being closed down, as they were beginning to alienate even members of the public who were initially fully sympathetic with the movement.[152] During a demonstration at UC Davis on 18 November 2011, campus police Lieutenant John Pike used pepper spray on seated students.[153] The incident drew national attention and led to further demonstrations, petitions, and calls for Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi to resign. (See: UC Davis pepper-spray incident)[154][155] On 22 November, occupiers mic checked President Obama to draw his attention to the treatment they had received from the police, including thousands of arrests.[156]
26 November to 31 December 2011
By December, occupiers had begun to divert their energies beyond protest camps and a narrow focus on the banks, instead seeking to engage further with mainstream politics and joining forces with established activist groups to support causes broadly compatible with the interests of "the 99%". Interviewing one of the informal leaders of the movement, Financial Times journalist Shannon Bond found that issues of concern included: "the unemployment rate, household debt, student debt, the lack of prospects for people graduating from college and foreclosures".[157] In the U.S., Occupy Homes joined with other existing human rights activists groups and began to occupy foreclosed homes, disrupt bank auctions, and block evictions.[82] On 1 December, two evicted activists in Portland, Oregon, planted a table on the plaza of Portland's City Hall and lit a candle, igniting a Prayer Vigil/Occupation of City Hall that lasted 18 months. On 22 December The Washington Post reported that some of the cities which had forcefully disbanded occupy camps were now facing legal challenges.[158]
1 January 2012 to 2016
On 2 January 2012, Occupy Nigeria began, sparked by Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan announcing the ending of fuel subsidies in the country. There was support from the global movement, but most of the activity took place in Nigeria itself, with a report from CSM saying strikes were effectively shutting down whole cities. On 16 January Jonathan responded by announcing he would bring prices back down by partially restoring the fuel subsidy.[159]
While students have been involved with Occupy since its inception, early 2012 has seen increasing formal interaction between the Occupy movement and academia. In the US, universities including Columbia and Roosevelt have begun offering courses about the movement, in the case of Columbia the course includes field work where students join in with Occupy activities. In Great Britain, Occupy's outwork teams are planning school visits to give talks about the movement and related issues.[160][161]
On 23 January, EGT LLC (Export Grain Terminal) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) reached a tentative agreement, mediated by Washington state governor Christine Gregoire.[162][163] The agreement resolved a year-long dispute, paving the way for ILWU Local 21 workers to work inside the $200 million grain terminal at the Port of Longview in south-west Washington state. This came after "Occupy the Ports" protests which shut down multiple ports on the west coast of the United States on 12 December. The goals of those protests included support of longshoremen and truckers in disputes with EGT and terminal operator SSA Marine (partially owned by Goldman Sachs).[164]
A worldwide poll conducted in January 2012 found that only one third (37%) of respondents were familiar with the movement. Of the respondents who were aware of the movement, supporters of the movement outweighed those in opposition two to one.[165] In late January, Occupy protested at the World Economic Forum.[166][167] On 17 March, Occupy Wall Street attempted to mark six months of the movement, by reoccupying Zuccotti Park, the location of the first Occupy camp. Protestors were soon cleared away by police, who made over 70 arrests.[168] On 1 May, the Occupy movement marked a resurgence with a May Day general strike that took place in cities across the U.S., including New York; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; and Los Angeles.[169] This included a revival of the Free University of New York.[170]
The longest US "re-occupation" started on 1 December 2011, when evicted activists from the Occupy Portland camp set up a table on the plaza of Portland's City Hall and lit a candle, igniting the 24/7 Prayer Vigil to Lift the Camping Ban, referring to the city's anti-"camping" ordinances that were cited during the eviction.[171] The activists claimed the laws, which prohibit the use of "bedding, sleeping bags, or other sleeping matter,"[172] are immoral and that they're obligated to challenge them. The occupiers claim that sleep is human right and is essential for mental, physical and emotional health, citing that human beings need to spend nearly a third of their lives sleeping. Prohibiting sleep by making it illegal for people to protect themselves and their belongings from the elements causes sleep deprivation; it is inhumane, unconstitutional, and amounts to torture.[173][174][175] The activists said the prayer vigil would continue until "bedding matter" was again legal. The vigil was staffed around the clock until 23 July 2013, when Mayor Charlie Hales ordered the removal of the vigil and associated encampments on the abutting sidewalks.[176]
The Occupy movement has "already transformed beyond recognition from its original state" and "campaigns have emerged outside the constraint of the trademark Occupy tactics."[177] These campaigns include Occupy Sandy which has provided needed relief to the New York area since Hurricane Sandy hit,[178] Occupy London's Occupy Economics group that hosted, and was praised by the Bank of England's Executive Director for Financial Stability,[179] Occupy the SEC, which monitors US financial regulatory matters,[180] The Rolling Jubilees program of Strike Debt,[181] which is raising money to retire "zombie debt," debt, such as medical bills, that the individual cannot re-pay,[182] Occupy University, which has developed and made accessible free educational materials,[183] and the Debt Collective, a successor of Strike Debt, worked to get students of a fraudulent for-profit college absolved of their debt with some success.[184][185]
On 3 April 2016, hundreds of supporters of Bernie Sanders protested outside of CNN's Headquarters in Los Angeles. Sanders supporters were protesting CNN's coverage of the 2016 United States presidential elections, specifically in regard to the amount of airtime Sanders has received. Known as Occupy CNN, protestors are claiming that major media networks have intentionally blacked out Sanders' presidential campaign in favor of giving much more airtime to candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.[186]
In Switzerland, the Occupy spirit lives on by annual online and offline celebrations each year on 17 September[187] in the village of St. Imier where modern anarchism began with the International Congress of 1872.[188] The Occupy Cafe along with the Decentrale Co-operative[189] continues to assist those wishing to participate in the continuing "decentralisation of the power" of banks and corporate entities; and, to encourage global activism through developing trust and value networks.[190][191][192]
This section needs to be updated. (May 2020) |
After an approximate two-year hiatus in activism on location, the Occupy Movement organized the Occupy ICE phase in order to protest the actions of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office regarding the detention of undocumented immigrants presenting themselves at the southern US border points to seek asylum. While small groups of protesters emerged across the country in protest against the separation of families who were detained during immigration processing, a group swarmed the ICE facility in SoHo, causing it to shut down temporarily. In Oregon, hundreds of Occupy ICE activists took over a portion of the grounds of the Portland ICE building. The blockade caused the building to shut down for several days, with ICE staff citing "safety concerns".[193] On 25 June, Feds ordered the protesters to vacate government environs or face arrest.[194] On 28 June 2018, Federal officers moved in the early morning to remove or arrest protesters blockading the building. Eight were arrested.[195]
On 19 August 2018, Occupy Kalamazoo began an encampment in Bronson Park to address homelessness.[196] The group's efforts notably received support from local Commissioner Shannon Sykes, who criticized her colleagues in government for "failing to create more affordable housing."[197]