Occupy Wall Street Begins (2011)

Sat Sep 17, 2011

Image: Two protesters, both holding signs. One says "I CAN'T AFFORD LOBBYISTS", the other reads "NO MORE CORRUPTION" [occupy.com]

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality that began on this day in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in 2011. It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries.

The OWS slogan, "We are the 99%", refers to income and wealth inequality in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. To achieve their goals, protesters acted on consensus-based decisions made in general assemblies which emphasized redress through direct action.

• Date: 2011-09-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.rferl.org, www.occupy.com.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

It was really weird seeing them go from "we have a concrete list of demands and plan to shut down this area until they're met" to whatever the hell they morphed into.

What did they morph into?

15 years later and it seems worse than ever.

That's because it is!

Fun fact: The 'We are the 99%' slogan was coined by the late, great David Graeber.

He writes all about OWS in his book "The Democracy Project", which is an awesome history of the movement from someone inside it.

A movement like Occupy has long lasting effects well after the camps have dispersed.

I was at Occupy with the people who went on to create Loomio. That never would have happened if they hadn't met at the camp and forged the bonds that created their group. Also the attempts at consensus decision making at Occupy that they experienced were the impetus they needed to see the need for Loomio in the first place.

There must be hundreds of things like that.