Occupy Wall St. – One Year Anniversary

In July of last year, a new hashtag began multiplying across Twitter. A few months passed by, bringing with it the beginnings of a new ”mental environment”. Saturday 17 September 2011 marked the physical birth of Occupy Wall Street as people gathered in Manhattan’s financial district of New York City to pitch their tents in the cause of social, economic and environmental justice. The impact of this action reverberated around the world. One year on, starting September 15, Occupy Wall Street has invited all of us, the ‘99%’, to downtown New York, once again, for three days of education, celebration, and resistance in the form of “permitted convergences,” assemblies and mass civil disobedience.

It has been a challenging twelve months. The global Occupy movement has experienced the wrathful machinations of those who sympathise with corporate power – police brutality, a biased commercial media and cynical, corrupt politicians. It has also experienced countless internal struggles over meaning, process and purpose. But none of this should be allowed to overshadow the power of the central concept. Occupy Wall Street – and its hundreds of sister movements from Nigeria to Australia, Hong Kong to Peru – has brought solidarity, awareness and passion, inspiring millions of people across the world.

The global callout for action includes the following:

”They built their bonuses out of stolen pensions of teachers, civil servants, and our neighbors. We pay for their welfare. They bet and borrow against our future. We drown in debt. So who is really in debt to whom? Now our elected representatives want us to embrace austerity–work harder for less, retire later (if at all), and say goodbye to our fundamental labor protections. They’re betting on our obedience. They’re betting wrong…For every crumbling aspect of our society, the cause of the ruin can be traced back to corporate greed. Follow the money. All roads lead to Wall Street. And in the days and weeks before (and long after) September 17th, we will be here, demanding a system that puts the health of our communities over the profits of the 1%. We are the 99%. ”

For those not able to reach New York, the organisers have the following advice:

“It’s just as important that we Occupy Main Street. Pick a local target that embodies corporate greed—occupy your state Capitol building like the people of Wisconsin, or a chamber of commerce conference as they did in D.C. Take inspiration from revolutionary occupations worldwide, from the railroads of India to the rivers of the Amazon to the streets of Spain. Wall Street has occupied our entire planet. What do you have to say about that?”

You are not a loan.

By Sara Cameron & Jack Dean