Essay

On the ground with Occupy Wall Street

By Benjamin Woodward

A little over a month ago, inspired by the "Arab spring" earlier this year, about a thousand people gathered near Wall Street in lower Manhattan to protest against social inequality and corporate greed. Over a hundred of them remained, continuing the protest by camping in nearby Zuccotti Park. Sandwiched between skyscrapers and right next to Ground Zero, it's a place few New Yorkers could have named before the protests began. Now, as the focal point of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, it has become one of the most well-known locations in the city.

So after following the demonstrations in the news, I decided to visit. Although it was a weekday afternoon, and so lacked the evening and weekend protesters, the tiny tent-crammed square was bustling. In one corner, a woman was giving a speech via "human microphone," each phrase repeated loudly by the crowd to get around the ban on electronic amplification. In another corner, people were dancing to the beat of drums, the air pungent with incense and unwashed bodies. Nearby, civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson was giving an interview, while tourists and curious New Yorkers mingled with protesters. The atmosphere was surprisingly festive.

There were signs everywhere and the range of issues on show was really quite bewildering. There were signs protesting federal bank bailouts, CEO bonuses, personal debt, capitalism, war, the Middle East, the destruction of the environment, you name it. But the recurring themes were clear: the power of banks and corporations to bend politics to their interests; the unemployment rate; and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. With the wealthiest 1 percent owning about a third of the national wealth, the OWS rallying cry of "We are the 99 percent" has been particularly resonant.

This has not stopped commentators from criticizing OWS for lacking focus and concrete demands or from dismissing the movement as a naive and ignorant group of anarchists, communists and pothead hippies. Yet this is a movement that is still only one month old. Polls already show a growing number of Americans are sympathetic to its aims, and its very diversity shows just how alienated people are feeling from the political process. The fact that this movement has spread across America and even to hundreds of cities abroad is indicative of how widespread this disenchantment is.

The next few months are going to be fascinating. Just how the OWS movement will evolve is anyone's guess. Will it just be a flash in the pan? Well, we'll have to wait and see.

Shukan ST: NOVEMBER 4, 2011

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