Occupy Wall Street

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Revision as of 04:44, 3 March 2012 by Penyulap (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) This article is about the protests in New York City. For the wider movement, see Occupy movement.

Occupy Wall Street
Part of the Occupy movement
Adbusters poster for the first protest, September 17, 2011.
Date	September 17, 2011 (2011-09-17) – ongoing (13 years, 3 months, 1 week and 1 day)
Location	New York City
Caused by	Wealth inequality, Corporate influence of government, Populism, (in support of) Social Democracy, inter alia.
Methods	Non violent protest Civil disobedience Occupation Picketing Demonstrations Internet activism
Status	Ongoing
Number
Zuccotti Park Other activity in NYC: 2,000+ marchers (march on police headquarters, October 2, 2011) 700+ marchers arrested (crossing Brooklyn Bridge, October 3, 2011) 15,000+ marchers (Lower Manhattan solidarity march, October 5, 2011) 6,000+ marchers (Times Square recruitment center march, October 15, 2011)

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a protest movement that began September 17, 2011 in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district. The protests are against social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial services sector. To effect change OWS uses "direct action" instead of petitioning authorities. Their slogan, We are the 99%, addresses the growing income inequality and wealth distribution in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. OWS was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters and has led to Occupy protests and movements around the world.

History and Chronology

Main article: Timeline of Occupy Wall Street

Origins

Occupy Wall Street has roots in the British student protests of 2010, Greece's and Spain's anti-austerity protests of the "indignados" (indignants), as well as the Arab Spring protests. But the more immediate series of events which lead to the protest started with email conversations between Kalle Lasn, founder of the Canadian-based Adbusters Media Foundation and Micah White, Adbuster's senior editor. The two had the idea for an occupation of lower Manhattan in early June 2011. Lasn registered the OccupyWallSteet.org web address on June 9th. Early in June, Adbusters sent its subscribers an email saying that “America needs its own Tahrir,” and according to Micah White the idea "was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world.” In a blog post on July 13 of 2011, Adbusters proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, the lack of legal consequences for those who brought about the global crisis of monetary insolvency, and an increasing disparity in wealth. The protest was promoted with an image featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull statue.

The series of events which culminated in the formation of the New York General Assembly (NYGA) began in June and July when a group called New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts (NYAB), began promoting a “People’s General Assembly” to “Oppose Cutbacks And Austerity Of Any Kind”. On August 2 NYAB met in Bowling Green Park. Activist, anarchist and anthropologist David Graeber and several of his associates also attended the NYAB meeting, but grew frustrated when they found out that the event was not a "general assembly" which rules by consensus created by group discussions. Rather, the event was intended to be merely a precursor to marching on Wall Street with a corpus of predetermined demands such as "An end to oppression and war!" In response, Graeber and his small group began their own general assembly, which eventually drew all the remaining attendees from the NYAB meeting and eventually developed into the New York General Assembly. The group began to hold weekly meetings to work out the issues and direction of the movement, such as whether or not to have a set of demands, the formation of working groups and whether or not to have leaders. Graeber argues that the Occupy movement is based on the philosophy of anarchism. According to Nathan Schneider, an editor for the blogs Waging Nonviolence and Killing the Buddha, anarchy is not just a negative philosophy or excuse for vandalism. Anarchism attempts to build a society where people maintain and care for themselves and their community and this draws on direct democracy, believing that "basic need" is more important than greed.

The internet group Anonymous encouraged its readers to take part in the protests. Other groups began joining to assist in organization, including the U.S. Day of Rage, and the NYC General Assembly. The protest itself began on September 17; a Facebook page for the demonstrations began two days later on September 19 featuring a YouTube video of earlier events. By mid-October, Facebook listed 125 Occupy-related pages.

The original location of choice by the protesters was 1 Chase Plaza, the site of the "Charging Bull" sculpture. Police discovered this before the protest began and fenced off the location. Nearby Zuccotti Park was then chosen. Since the park was private property police could not legally force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the property owner. At a press conference held the same day the protests began, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg explained, "people have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we'll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it."

Because of its connection to the financial system, lower Manhattan has seen many riots and protests since the 1800s, and OWS has been compared to other historical protests in the United States. Writing for CNN, Sonia Katyal and Eduardo Peñalver said that "A straight line runs from the 1930s sit-down strikes in Flint, Michigan, to the 1960 lunch-counter sit-ins to the occupation of Alcatraz by Native American activists in 1969 to Occupy Wall Street. Occupations employ physical possession to communicate intense dissent, exhibited by a willingness to break the law and to suffer the -- occasionally violent -- consequences." Commentators have put OWS within the political tradition of other movements which made themselves known by occupation of public spaces, such as Coxey's Army in 1894, the Bonus Marchers in 1932, and the May Day protesters in 1971.

More immediate prototypes for OWS include the British student protests of 2010, Greece's and Spain's anti-austerity protests of the "indignados" (indignants), as well as the Arab Spring protests. These antecedents have in common with OWS a reliance on social media and electronic messaging to circumvent the authorities, as well as the feeling that financial institutions, corporations, and the political elite have been malfeasant in their behavior toward youth and the middle class. Occupy Wall Street, in turn, gave rise to the Occupy movement in the United States and around the world.

Protesters near New York police headquarters

September

On 17 September 2011, 1,000 protesters marched through the streets, with an estimated 100 to 200 staying overnight in cardboard boxes. By September 19, seven people had been arrested. At least 80 arrests were made on September 24, after protesters started marching uptown and forcing the closure of several streets.

October

On October 1, 2011, protesters set out to march across the Brooklyn Bridge. The New York Times reported that more than 700 arrests were made. On October 5, thousands of union workers joined protesters marching through the Financial District, resulting in about 200 arrests later in the same evening when dozens of protesters stormed barricades blocking them from Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Police responded with pepper spray and penned the protesters in with orange netting.

November

After midnight on November 15, police delivered notices that protesters had to temporarily vacate the park to allow cleaning/sanitation crews access. Police moved in around 1:00 AM on November 15 and arrested about 200. Several journalists were arrested by the New York police as well, as well as the confiscation of an NBC reporter's press pass.

Movement structure and makeup

Goals

Some journalists have criticized the protests saying it is hard to discern a unified aim for the movement, while other commentators, such as Douglas Rushkoff, have said that although the movement is not in complete agreement on its message and goals, it does center on the problem that "investment bankers working on Wall Street getting richer while things for most of the rest of us are getting tougher". According to Rushkoff, "... we are witnessing America's first true Internet-era movement, which -- unlike civil rights protests, labor marches, or even the Obama campaign -- does not take its cue from a charismatic leader, express itself in bumper-sticker-length goals and understand itself as having a particular endpoint".

Some protesters want, in part, more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics. Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn has compared the protests to the Situationists and the Protests of 1968 movements and addresses critics saying that while no one person can speak for the movement, he believes that the goal of the protests is economic justice, specifically, a "transaction tax" on international financial speculation, the reinstatement of the Glass-Stegall Act and the revocation of corporate personhood.

The General Assembly, the governing body of the OWS movement, has adopted a “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City,” which includes a list of grievances against corporations, and to many protesters a general statement is enough. However, saying, "‘Power concedes nothing without a demand' " others within the movement have favored a fairly concrete set of national policy proposals. One group has written an unofficial document, "The 99 Percent Declaration”, that calls for a national general assembly of representatives from all 435 congressional districts to gather on July 4, 2012, to assemble a list of grievances and solutions. OWS protesters preferring a looser set of goals have written another document, the Liberty Square Blueprint; an early version read: "Demands cannot reflect inevitable success. Demands imply condition, and we will never stop. Demands cannot reflect the time scale that we are working with." The demand for demands itself has been criticized by figures like Judith Butler and David Graeber, who argue that issuing demands is counterproductive for the Occupy movement, as this legitimizes the very structures the movement seeks to challenge.

Slogan

Main article: We are the 99%

Template:Infobox/OWS Wealth chart

"Occupy" protesters' political slogan, We are the 99%, originally appeared on a Tumblr page in late August 2011. It asserts that the "99%" pay for the mistakes of the "1%". Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center said the slogan is "arguably the most successful slogan since 'Hell no, we won't go,'" of Vietnam war era, and that the majority of Democrats, independents and Republicans see the income gap as causing friction.

The top 1 percent of income earners have more than doubled their income over the last thirty years according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate. 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 1992-2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%. In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.

Protester demographics

Early on the protesters were mostly young, partly because social networks through which they promoted the protests are primarily used by young people. As the protest grew, older protesters also became involved. The average age of the protesters was 33, with people in their 20s balanced by people in their 40s. Various religious faiths have been represented at the protest including Muslims, Jews, and Christians. Rabbi Chaim Gruber, however, is reportedly the only clergy member to have actually camped at Zuccotti Park.

On October 10 the Associated Press reported that "there’s a diversity of age, gender and race" at the protest. Some news organizations have compared the protest to a left-leaning version of the Tea Party protests.According to a survey of occupywallst.org website visitors by the Baruch College School of Public Affairs published on October 19, of 1,619 web respondents, 1/3 were older than 35, half were employed full-time, 13% were unemployed and 13% earned over $75,000. When given the option of Democrat, Republican or Independent/Other 27.3% of the respondents called themselves Democrats, 2.4% called themselves Republicans, while the rest, 70%, called themselves independents. A survey by Fordham University Department of Political Science confirmed and detailed this with political affiliations 25% Democrats, 2% Republican, 11% Socialist, 11% Green Party, 12% Other, and 39% who reported no party affiliation. Ideologically the Fordham survey found 80% self-identifying as slightly to extremely liberal, 15% as moderate, and 6% as slightly to extremely conservative. Racially, the majority of participants are Caucasian, with one study based on survey responses at OccupyWallStreet.org reporting 81.2% White, 6.8% Hispanic, 2.8% Asian, 1.6% Black, and 7.6% identifying "other".

Participation and organization

The New York City General Assembly (NYCGA), held every evening at seven, is the main OWS decision-making body and provides much of the leadership and executive function for the protesters. At its meetings the various OWS committees discuss their thoughts and needs, and the meetings are open to the public for both attendance and speaking. The meetings are without formal leadership, although certain members routinely act as moderators. Meeting participants comment upon committee proposals using a process called a "stack", which is a queue of speakers that anyone can join. New York 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 may move to the front of the line, while white men must often wait for a turn to speak. Volunteers take minutes of the meetings so that organizers who are not in attendance can be kept up-to-date. In addition to the over 70 working groups that perform much of the daily work and planning of Occupy Wall Street, the organizational structure also includes "spokes councils," at which every working group can participate.

Even with the perception of a movement with no leaders, leaders have emerged. A facilitator of some of the movement's more contentious discussions, Nicole Carty, says “Usually when we think of leadership, we think of authority, but nobody has authority here,” - “People lead by example, stepping up when they need to and stepping back when they need to.” According to Fordham University communications professor Paul Levinson, Occupy Wall Street and similar movements symbolize another rise of direct democracy that has not actually been seen since ancient times.

Funding

During the beginning weeks of the park encampment it was reported that most of OWS funding was coming from donors with incomes in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, and the median donation was $22. According to finance group member Pete Dutro, OWS had accumulated over $700,000. During the period that protesters were encamped in the park the funds were being used to purchase food and other necessities and to bail out fellow protesters. With the closure of the park to overnight camping on November 15, members of the OWS finance committee stated they would initiate a process to streamline the movement and re-evaluate their budget and eliminate or merge some of the "working groups" they no longer needed on a day-to-day basis.

Zuccotti Park occupation

Prior to being closed to overnight use, somewhere between 100 and 200 people slept in Zuccotti Park. Initially tents were not allowed and protesters slept in sleeping bags or under blankets. Meal service started at a total cost of about $1,000 per day. While some visitors ate at nearby restaurants, according to the New York Post many businesses surrounding the park were adversely affected. Contribution boxes collected about $5,000 a day, and supplies came in from around the country. Eric Smith, a local chef who was laid off at the Sheraton in Midtown, said that he was running a five-star restaurant in the park. In late-October kitchen volunteers complained about working 18 hour days to feed people who were not part of the movement and served only brown rice, simple sandwiches, and potato chips for three days.

The protesters constructed a greywater treatment system to recycle dishwater contaminants. The filtered water was used for the park's plants and flowers. Many protesters used the bathrooms of nearby business establishments. Some supporters donated use of their bathrooms for showers and the sanitary needs of protesters.

New York City requires a permit to use "amplified sound," including electric bullhorns. Since Occupy Wall Street did not have a permit, the protesters created the "human microphone" in which a speaker pauses while the nearby members of the audience repeat the phrase in unison. The effect has been called "comic or exhilarating—often all at once." Some feel this provided a further unifying effect for the crowd.

During the weeks that overnight use of the park was allowed, a separate area was set aside for an information area which contained laptop computers and several wireless routers. The items were powered with gas generators until the New York Fire Department removed them on October 28, saying they were a fire hazard. Protesters then used bicycles rigged with an electricity-generating apparatus to charge batteries to power the protesters' laptops and other electronics. According to the Columbia Journalism Review's New Frontier Database, the media team, while unofficial, ran websites like Occupytogether.org, video livestream, a "steady flow of updates on Twitter, and Tumblr" as well as Skype sessions with other demonstrators.

In October a makeshift tent was erected, formally calling itself The People's Library, and began offering free wi-fi internet to protesters and containing over 5,000 books. The library operated 24/7 and used an honor system to manage returns. It offered weekly poetry readings on Friday nights, provided a reference service frequently staffed by professional librarians, and procured materials available through the interlibrary loan system. However, the library was removed on November 15 when the park was closed to overnight use and it was reported that many of the books were destroyed. The library's cataloging system is accessible online at LibraryThing, which donated a free lifetime membership.

On October 6, Brookfield Office Properties, which owns Zuccotti Park, issued a statement saying: "Sanitation is a growing concern... Normally the park is cleaned and inspected every weeknight because the protesters refuse to cooperate ... the park has not been cleaned since Friday, September 16 and as a result, sanitary conditions have reached unacceptable levels."

On October 13, New York City's mayor Bloomberg and Brookfield announced that the park must be vacated for cleaning the following morning at 7 am. However, protesters vowed to "defend the occupation" after police said they wouldn’t allow them to return with sleeping bags and other gear following the cleaning, and many protesters spent the night sweeping and mopping the park. The next morning the property owner postponed its cleaning effort. Having prepared for a confrontation with the authorities to prevent the cleaning effort from proceeding, some protesters clashed with police in riot gear outside City Hall after it was canceled.

Shortly after midnight on November 15, 2011, the New York Police Department gave protesters notice from the park's owner (Brookfield Office Properties) to leave Zuccotti Park due to its purportedly unsanitary and hazardous conditions. The notice stated that they could return without sleeping bags, tarps or tents. About an hour later, police in riot gear began removing protesters from the park, arresting some 200 people in the process, including a number of journalists. While the police raid was in progress, the Occupy Wall Street Media Team issued an official response under the heading, "You can't evict an idea whose time has come."

File:Police stuggle with barricades.jpg

New York Police and OWS protesters

On December 31, 2011, Protesters started to re-occupy the park. At one point, protesters started to push police barricades into the streets. Police quickly put the barricades back up. Occupiers then started to take down barricades from all sides of the park and stored them in a pile in the middle of Zuccotti Park. Police called in re-enforcements while at the same time more activists entered the park. Police tried to enter the park, but were pushed back by protesters. There were reports of pepper-spray being used by the police. About 12:40 a.m. after the group celebrated New Years in the park, They exited the park and marched down Broadway. Police, in riot gear, started to clear out the park around 1:30 a.m. According to New York Times, the park was cleared out by police by 2:30 a.m. Sixty-eight people were arrested in connection with the event, which was over within several hours.

Since the closure of the Zuccotti Park encampment, some former campers have been allowed to sleep in local churches, but how much longer they will be welcomed is in question and even former park Occupiers debate whether or not they can continue to provide funds and meals for homeless protesters. Since the police raid, New York protesters have been divided in their opinion as to the importance of the occupation of a space with some believing that actual encampment is unnecessary, and even a burden.

Security concerns and crime

On October 11, it was reported that OWS protesters staying in Zuccotti Park were dealing with a worsening security problem with reports of multiple incidents of assault, drug dealing and use, and sexual assault. Demonstrators complained of thefts of assorted items such as cell phones and laptops; thieves also stole $2500 of donations that were stored in a makeshift kitchen. In November, a man was arrested for breaking an EMT's leg.

Police Commissioner Paul Browne complained that protesters delayed reporting crime. He stated that it was OWS protocol not to report such incidents to the police until there were three complaints against the same individual. The protesters denied a "three strikes policy", and one protester told the New York Daily News that he had heard police respond to an unspecified complaint by saying, "You need to deal with that yourselves".

After several weeks of occupation, protesters had made enough allegations of sexual assault and gropings that women-only sleeping tents were set up. Occupy Wall Street organizers released a statement regarding the sexual assaults stating, "As individuals and as a community, we have the responsibility and the opportunity to create an alternative to this culture of violence, We are working for an OWS and a world in which survivors are respected and supported unconditionally... We are redoubling our efforts to raise awareness about sexual violence. This includes taking preventative measures such as encouraging healthy relationship dynamics and consent practices that can help to limit harm.”

The Department of Homeland Security considers Occupy Wall Street a threat, stating "mass gatherings associated with public protest movements can have disruptive effects on transportation, commercial, and government services, especially when staged in major metropolitan areas". The DHS keeps a file on the movement and monitors social media for information, according to leaked emails released by Wikileaks.

Reactions

Main article: Reactions to Occupy Wall Street

Among the general public, opinions of OWS have varied over time, and there are contradictions among the data collected by various polling agencies. Many prominent politicians, academics, and public figures have reacted with both criticism and praise.

References

"Hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters arrested". BBC News. October 2, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
"700 Arrested After Wall Street Protest on N.Y.'s Brooklyn Bridge". Fox News Channel. October 1, 2011. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
Gabbatt, Adam (October 6, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street: protests and reaction Thursday 6 October". Guardian. London. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
“Wall Street protests span continents, arrests climb“, Crain's New York Business, October 17, 2011.
"Intellectual Roots of Wall St. Protest Lie in Academe - Movement's principles arise from scholarship on anarchy". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2012-23-2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
^ Apps, Peter (October 11, 2011). "Wall Street action part of global Arab Spring?". Reuters. Retrieved November 24, 2011. "What they all share in common is a feeling that the youth and middle class are paying a high price for mismanagement and malfeasance by an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite...they took on slogans from U.S. protesters who describe themselves as the "99 percent" paying the price for mistakes by a tiny minority."
^ Schwartz, Mattathias (November 28, 2011). "Pre-Occupied". Retrieved January 19, 2012.
^ Fleming, Andrew (September 27, 2011). "Adbusters sparks Wall Street protest Vancouver-based activists behind street actions in the U.S". The Vancouver Courier. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
Beeston, Laura (October 11, 2011). "The Ballerina and the Bull: Adbusters' Micah White on 'The Last Great Social Movement'". The Link. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
Schneider, Nathan (September 29, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street: FAQ". The Nation. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
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Bennett, Drake (October 26, 2011). "David Graeber, the Anti-Leader of Occupy Wall Street". Business Week. Retrieved February 13, 2012.: "While there were weeks of planning yet to go, the important battle had been won. The show would be run by horizontals, and the choices that would follow—the decision not to have leaders or even designated police liaisons, the daily GAs and myriad working-group meetings that still form the heart of the protests in Zuccotti Park—all flowed from that"
"Occupy Wall Street's anarchist roots". Aljazeera. Retrieved 2012-23-2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) "It was only on August 2, when a small group of anarchists and other anti-authoritarians showed up at a meeting called by one such group and effectively wooed everyone away from the planned march and rally to create a genuine democratic assembly, on basically anarchist principles, that the stage was set for a movement that Americans from Portland to Tuscaloosa were willing to embrace."
"Thank You, Anarchists". The Nation. Retrieved 2012-23-2. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
Saba, Michael (September 17, 2011). "Twitter #occupywallstreet movement aims to mimic Iran". CNN tech. Retrieved September 17, 2011.
"Assange can still Occupy centre stage". Smh.com.au. October 29, 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
^ "'Occupy Wall Street' to Turn Manhattan into 'Tahrir Square'". IBTimes New York. September 17, 2011. Retrieved October 10, 2011.
"From a single hashtag, a protest circled the world". Brisbanetimes.com.au. October 19, 2011. Retrieved November 28, 2011.
Batchelor, Laura (October 6, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street lands on private property". CNNMoney. Retrieved October 7, 2011. Many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters might not realize it, but they got really lucky when they elected to gather at Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan
Wall Street: 300 Years of Protests OCTOBER 11, 2011 - By History.com Staff
Occupy's new tactic has a powerful past By Sonia K. Katyal and Eduardo M. Peñalver, Special to CNN December 16, 2011
Wall Street protest's long historical roots By Nicolaus Mills, Special to CNN October 11, 2011
A historical precedent that might prove a bonus for Occupy Wall Street by Nicolaus Mills in The Guardian, Saturday 19 November 2011 "The Great Depression offers a striking parallel to this week's attack on Occupy Wall Street."
Tahrir Square protesters send message of solidarity to Occupy Wall Street by Jack Shenker and Adam Gabbatt The Guardian, Tuesday 25 October 2011 "Much of the tactics, rhetoric and imagery deployed by protesters has clearly been inspired by this year's political upheavals in the Middle East..."
In the City and Wall Street, protest has occupied the mainstream By Polly Toynbee in The Guardian, Monday 17 October 2011 "From Santiago to Tokyo, Ottawa, Sarajevo and Berlin, spontaneous groups have been inspired by Occupy Wall Street."
Occupy Wall Street: A protest timeline "A relatively small gathering of young anarchists and aging hippies in lower Manhattan has spawned a national movement. What happened?"
^ Top 5 targets of Occupy Wall Street The Christian Science Monitor by Maud Dillingham
Marcinek, Laura (September 19, 2011). "NYPD Arrest Seven Wall Street Protesters". Bloomberg. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
Marcinek, Laura (September 19, 2011). "Wall Street Areas Blocked as Police Arrest Seven in Protest". Businessweek. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
Smith, Candice. "Occupy Wall Street Movement Reports 80 Arrested Today in Protests". abc. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
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Moynihan, Colin (September 24, 2011). "80 Arrested as Financial District Protest Moves North". The New York Times. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
Al Baker, Colin Moynihan and Sarah Maslin Nir (October 1, 2011). "Police Arrest More Than 700 Protesters on Brooklyn Bridge". New York Times.
"Occupy Wall Street protests: Police make arrests, use pepper spray as some activists storm barricade". Daily News. New York. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
Matt Wells and Karen McVeigh (October 5, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street: thousands march in New York | World news | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. UK. Retrieved October 7, 2011.
Johnston, Garth (November 15, 2011). "Police Arrest OWS Reporter As He Pleads "I'm A Reporter!"". Gothamist. Archived from the original on November 18, 2011. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
Atlantic Wire
^ Think Occupy Wall St. is a phase? You don't get it By Douglas Rushkoff, Special to CNN October 5, 2011 "...there are a wide array of complaints, demands, and goals from the Wall Street protesters: the collapsing environment, labor standards, housing policy, government corruption, World Bank lending practices, unemployment, increasing wealth disparity and so on...they believe they are symptoms of the same core problem. Are they ready to articulate exactly what that problem is and how to address it? No, not yet. But neither are Congress or the president..."
Occupy Wall Street: It’s Not a Hippie Thing By Roger Lowenstein, Bloomberg Businessweek October 27, 2011
Ben Piven (October 7, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street: All day, all week". Aljazeera. Retrieved October 21, 2011.
Sira Lazar “Occupy Wall Street: Interview With Micah White From Adbusters”, Huffington Post, October 7, 2011, at 3:40 in interview
"Forum Post: First OFFICIAL Release from OCCUPY WALL STREET". OccupyWallSt.org. Retrieved January 13, 2012.
New York Times
Walsh, Joan (October 20, 2011). "Do we know what OWS wants yet?". Salon.com. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
"Occupy Protesters' One Demand: A New New Deal—Well, Maybe". Mother Jones. October 18, 2011. Retrieved November 1, 2011.
Butler, Judith. "Occupy as Form". ARC Muses. Retrieved February 13, 2012.: "So articulating demands that can be satisfied depends fundamentally on the attribution of legitimacy to those who have the power to satisfy the demands. And when one ceases to direct demands to those authorities, as happens in the general strike, then it is the illegitimacy of those authorities that is exposed."
Graeber, David. "Occupy Wall Street's Anarchist Roots". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved February 13, 2012.
"Occupy Prescott protesters call for more infrastructure investment". Western News&Info, Inc. Retrieved 11-17-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
""We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed". Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. Retrieved 11-17-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
"The World's 99 Percent". FOREIGN POLICY, PUBLISHED BY THE SLATE GROUP. Retrieved 11-17-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
"Wall Street protests spread". CBS News. Retrieved 11-17-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
The Income Gap: Unfair, Or Are We Just Jealous? by Scott Horsley National Public Radia January 14, 2012
Pear, Robert (October 25, 2011). "Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation's Income, Study Finds". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 11-17-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
"CBO: Incomes of top earners grow at a pace far faster than everyone else's". The Washington Post. October 26, 2011. Retrieved 11-17-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
It's the Inequality, Stupid By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot in Mother Jones, March/April 2011 Issue
Who are the 1 percent?, CNN, October 29, 2011
"Tax Data Show Richest 1 Percent Took a Hit in 2008, But Income Remained Highly Concentrated at the Top." Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Accessed October 2011.
Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation’s Income, Study Finds New York Times By Robert Pear, October 25, 2011
Kleinfield, N.R.; Buckley, Cara (September 30, 2011). "Wall Street Occupiers, Protesting Till Whenever". New York Times. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
Protesters 'Occupy Wall Street' to Rally Against Corporate America, Ray Downs, Christian Post, September 18, 2011
^ Protesters Want World to Know They’re Just Like Us, Jocelyn Noveck, Associated Press via the Long Island Press, October 10, 2011
^ Who is Occupy Wall Street? After six weeks, a profile finally emerges. The Christian Science Monitor By Gloria Goodale, November 1, 2011
"Religion claims its place in Occupy Wall Street". Boston University. 2011. Inside, a Buddha statue sits near a picture of Jesus, while a hand-lettered sign in the corner points toward Mecca. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |= ignored (help)
Letter to Occupy Wall Street from www.nycga.net (Can someone with wiki editing know-how, please html edit this reference to make it more exact? Ideally, it should automatically open at the start of the "Therefore, as I felt a large enough portion of the movement..." paragraph on the linked page. Otherwise, someone has to scroll down quite a bit to find the exact source.)
Rabbi Gruber widely quoted in media reports about the 11/15/12 police raid on Zuccotti Park from www.haaretz.com
Photo of Rabbi Gruber at Foley Sq., immediately following NYPD clearing of Zuccotti Park on Nov. 15, 2012. From www2.macleans.ca
"As Occupy Wall Street explodes, the movement is being pegged as a left-wing Tea Party John Avlon on the key differences between the protests—and why they both miss the mark" "Tea Party for the Left?", The Daily Beast, posted October 10, 2011, accessed October 11, 2011
By Occupywallst, OccupyWallSt.org 19 OCT 2011
The Demographics Of Occupy Wall Street BY Sean Captain, Fast Company, Oct 19, 2011
By Professor Costas Panagopoulos, Fordham University, October 2011
"Infographic: Who Is Occupy Wall Street?". FastCompany.com. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
Parker, Kathleen (November 26, 2011). "Why African Americans aren't embracing Occupy Wall Street". Washington Post. Retrieved December 8, 2011.
"Jonah Goldberg: Occupy Wall Street protesters are the extremists, not the tea party - Baltimore Sun". Articles.baltimoresun.com. October 11, 2011. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
Westfeldt, Amy (December 15, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street's center shows some cracks". BusinessWeek. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
Penny, Laura (October 16, 2011). "Protest By Consensus". New Statesman. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
Occupy Wall Street Expands, Tensions Mount Over Structure International Business Times by Jeremy B. White, October 25, 2011
"Occupy Wall Street’s Media Team, Columbia Journalism Review's New Frontier Database, October 5, 2011
New York City General Assembly website, last visited 20 Nov. 2011
The New York Observer, 8 Nov. 2011, Occupy Wall Street Moves Indoors With Spokes Council
"Occupy Wall Street takes a new direction". Crain Communications Inc. Retrieved 11-13-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
"Does 'Occupy Wall Street' have leaders? Does it need any?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
Astor, Maggie (October 4, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street Protests: A Fordham University Professor Analyzes the Movement". International Business Times. Retrieved October 7, 2011. Fordham University Sociologist Heather Gautney in an interview with the International Business Times 'the movement doesn't have leaders, but it certainly has organizers, and there are certainly people providing a human structure to this thing. There might not be these kinds of public leaders, but there are people running it, and I think that's inevitable.'
Giove, Candice (2012-1-8). nypost.com has money to burn http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/ows_has_money_to_burn_zbjQcSF86gzz8vvVDSNZgM has money to burn. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
Burruss, Logan (November 21, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street has money to burn". CNN.com. Retrieved 11-21-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
"Somewhere between 100 and 200 people sleep in Zuccotti Park...." "Many occupiers were still in their sleeping bags at 9 or 10 am" Wall Street functions like a small city, Associated Press, October 7, 2011
^ The Occupy Economy, by Anne Kadet, Wall Street Journal, October 15, 2011
Oloffson, Kristi (October 12, 2011). "Food Vendors Find Few Customers During Protest". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 24, 2011.
GIOVE, CANDICE (November 13, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street costs local businesses $479,400!". New York Post. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
Protest mob is enjoying rich diet By REBECCA ROSENBERG, New York Post, October 19, 2011
Occupy Wall Street kitchen staff protesting fixing food for freeloaders By Selim Algar and Bob Fredricks, New York Post, October 27, 2011
Kadet, Anne (October 15, 2011). "The Occupy Economy". The Wall Street Journal.
Richard Kim on October 3, 2011 – 7:19 pm ET (October 3, 2011). "We Are All Human Microphones Now". The Nation. Retrieved October 13, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
"A general assembly of anyone who wants to attend meets twice daily. Because it's hard to be heard above the din of lower Manhattan and because the city is not allowing bullhorns or microphones, the protesters have devised a system of hand symbols. Fingers downward means you disagree. Arms crossed means you strongly disagree. Announcements are made via the "people's mic... you say it and the people immediately around you repeat it and pass the word along. "Wall Street functions like a small city, Associated Press, October 7, 2011
"Behind the sign marked “info” sat computers, , generators, wireless routers, and lots of electrical cords. This is the media center, where the protesters group and distribute their messages. Those who count themselves among the media team for Occupy Wall Street are self appointed; the same goes with all teams within this community." ""I later learned that power comes from a gas-powered generator which runs, among other things, multiple 4G wireless Internet hotspots that provide Internet access to the scrappy collection of laptops." "Occupy Wall Street’s Media Team, Columbia Journalism Review's New Frontier Database, October 5, 2011
The Technology Propelling #OccupyWallStreet , the Daily Beast , October 6, 2011
New York Authorities Remove Fuel, Generators From Occupy Wall Street Site, Esmé E. Deprez and Charles Mead, Bloomberg News, Oct 28, 2011; accessed November 2, 2011
With Generators Gone, Wall Street Protesters Try Bicycle Power, Colin Moynihan, New York Times, October 30, 2011; accessed November 2, 2011
"as the protest has grown, the media team has been busy coordinating, notably through the “unofficial,” Occupytogether.org. It’s a hub for all Occupy-inspired happenings and updates, a key part of the internal communications network for the Occupy demonstrations. While sitting in the media tent I saw several Skype sessions with other demonstrators. At one point a bunch of people gathered around a computer shouting, “Hey Scotland!” Members of the media team also maintain a livestream, and keep a steady flow of updates on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr." "Occupy Wall Street’s Media Team, Columbia Journalism Review's New Frontier Database, October 5, 2011
"Voices from Zuccotti: Steve Syrek, 33". The New York Daily News. YouTube. Retrieved November 20, 2011. I've even got one guy who wants to help us procure any materials we want from the interlibrary loan system, which means we are a legitimate, fully functioning research library. Someone could come here and request an article of any kind and we could theoretically get it for free and give it to them.
Kelly: Protesters To Be ‘Met With Force’ If They Target Officers, CBS News, October 6, 2011
Grossman, Andrew (September 26, 2011). "Protest Has Unlikely Host". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 9, 2011.
^ Allison Kilkenny on October 14, 2011 – 8:46 am ET. "Occupy Wall Street Protesters Win Showdown With Bloomberg". The Nation. Retrieved October 16, 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ "Cleanup Canceled", BusinessWeek, 2011-10-14.
Deprez, Esmé E., Joel Stonington and Chris Dolmetsch, "Occupy Wall Street Park Cleaning Postponed", Bloomberg, Oct 14, 2011 11:37 AM EDT.
Walker, Jade (November 15, 2011). "Zuccotti Park Eviction: NYPD Orders Occupy Wall Street Protesters To Temporarily Evacuate Park [LATEST UPDATES]". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved November 17, 2011.
CNN Wire Staff (November 15, 2011). "New York court upholds eviction of "Occupy" protesters". www.cnn.com. Retrieved November 15, 2011. A New York Supreme Court has ruled not to extend a temporary restraining order that prevented the eviction of "Occupy" protesters who were encamped at Zuccotti Park, considered a home-base for demonstrators. Police in riot gear cleared out the protesters early Tuesday morning, a move that attorneys for the loosely defined group say was unlawful. But Justice Michael Stallman later ruled in favor of New York city officials and Brookfield properties, owners and developers of the privately-owned park in Lower Manhattan. The order does not prevent protesters from gathering in the park, but says their First Amendment rights not do include remaining there, "along with their tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner's reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park." {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 208 (help)
"You can't evict an idea whose time has come."- official statement of Occupy Wall Street Media Team, posted November 15, 2011, 1:36 a.m. EST
"Protesters Occupy New Year in Zuccotti Park". Retrieved January 1, 2012.
"OWS Clash With Police At Zuccotti Park". Retrieved January 1, 2012.
"After Occupy Wall Street Encampment Ends, NYC Protesters Become Nomads". Huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved January 30, 2012.
Freund, Helen; Cartwright, Lachlan; Saul, Josh (October 11, 2011). "'Occupy' crasher busted in grope". www.nypost.com.
Celona, Larry (October 18, 2011). "Thieves preying on fellow protesters". www.nypost.com.
Siegal, Ida. "Man Arrested for Breaking EMT's Leg at Occupy Wall Street". NBC New York. Retrieved November 12, 2011.
"Michael Bloomberg: Crime at Occupy Wall Street goes unreported". Free Daily News Group Inc. Retrieved 11-11-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
"Occupy Wall Street protesters at odds with Mayor Bloomberg, NYPD over crime in Zuccotti Park". New York: NYDailyNews.com. Retrieved 11-11-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
"Occupy Wall Street Erects Women-Only Tent After Reports Of Sexual Assaults". The Gothamist News. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
Schram, Jamie (November 3, 2011). "Protester busted in tent grope, suspected in rape of another demonstrator". NY POST. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
"Man Arrested For Groping Protester Also Eyed In Zuccotti Park Rape Case". WPIX. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
Dejohn, Irving; Kemp, Joe. "Arrest made in Occupy Wall St. sex attack; Suspect eyed in another Zuccotti gropingCase". New York: NY Daily News. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
"Occupy Protests Plagued by Reports of Sex Attacks, Violent Crime". NY Daily News. November 9, 2011. Retrieved November 21, 2011.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/exclusive-homeland-security-kept-tabs-on-occupy-wall-street-20120228#ixzz1nkxlehSX