World History

You are here: / Education / K - 12 / Politics / US Politics / Occupy Wall Street NY

Occupy Wall Street NY

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. OWS was initiated by the Canadian activist group Adbusters and has led toOccupy protests and movements around the world. The OWS protests are against social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial servicessector. 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. To effect change OWS engages in “direct action” instead of petitioning authorities.

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. Blog and Chat Occupy Wall Street New York.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street

YouTube Preview Image

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street

PureHistory.org ℗ is your source to learn about the broad and beautiful spectrum of our shared History.