Occupy Wall Street
Since September 17, 2011 the Occupy Wall Street movement has grown from a core group of protestors who began occupying Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, renaming in Liberty Plaza. Solidarity protests have taken place in thousands of US and Canadian cities. Though police crackdowns have since cleared most, if not all, of these Occupy encampments, the spirit of the movement continues, made manifest in continued protest throughout the United States.
At the core of the movement: A reining in of corporate control of the US and global economy, and politics. It comes as the US economy has greater economic inequality than many developing nations (including India, China, and Iran), joblessness is on the rise, and social mobility is nearly at an all-time low. Calling themselves the 99%, they align themselves against the richest 1% of the US population, who control a percentage of US wealth and income unmatched since the Great Depression.
As much as what the movement itself has brought to the table, the response from civic government has been illustrative of the state of affairs, and polarizing. From police officers repeatedly pepper-spraying peaceful, non-violent protestors, to intimidating and arresting members of the media, the reaction of those in power has shed light on deep imbalances in the American political system and public life. In fact, as a result of the reaction to Occupy protests around the nation, the US has fallen 20 spots in international rankings of press freedom, falling to number 47 in 2011.
Featured Stories in Occupy Wall Street
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Why I'm Occupying Wall Street with the Green Movement Today
Since the Occupy Wall Street movement began, there's been plenty of long-winded pontificating about what it stands for or what it doesn't stand for or what it should stand for and so on. (Most of that pontificating
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#OccupyWallStreet, Food Prices, Civil Unrest: It All Comes Back To Oil
There is a direct connection between the Occupy Wall Street movement, the price of food, and the price of oil.
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Memo to #OccupyWallStreet: It's Not Just Neoliberalism That's Destroyed the Environment
When it comes to protecting the environment, it is true that the current neoliberal globalized economy hasn't done a very good job at protecting nature, at all. But historically speaking, neither has any other economic system.
Tag: Occupy Wall Street - Page 3
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The Occupy Movement Articulates Agenda Just Fine. It's The Media That's Struggling.
The collaborative nature of the Occupy movement bodes well for its success. The inability of the media to grasp it points to problems of their own.
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#Occupy as Constitutional Convention, Continued
What's the endgame for the Occupy Movement? If we're smart we'll push for a constitutional convention.
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Outrage Spreads Over UC Davis Pepper Spraying
Lt. John Pike has become a meme, a new symbol of the banality of power.
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This Is The Photo That Will Start A Real Revolution
So blasé; a cop just walking along pepper spraying kids sitting peacefully on a road, as if it was a can of FeBreze. Maybe now people will get angry.
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Bloomberg's Eviction of Occupy Wall Street is an Assault on the Power of Public Spaces
Mayor Bloomberg's brazen refusal to acknowledge a court order upholding the Occupy movement's right to protest reveals a dangerous contempt towards free assembly in public places, a cornerstone of a healthy democracy.
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$5 DIY Gas Mask for Surviving Occupy Wall Street
The Occupy movement is very much an environmental movement: off-the-grid camps set up across the country, surprisingly with 21st-century tech. And since things have been known to get out of hand from time to time, this DIY mask is the perfect accessory.
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The #occupy People Could Use A Few of These: The Decagon Tent
Clever modular design of tent can link individual modules into tent cities.
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Annie Leonard (The Story of Stuff/The Story of Broke) Live Chat (Video)
The Story of Stuff took on over consumption. Join a live chat with its creator as her latest work takes aim at Wall Street and the financial system.
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Why The #Occupy Movement Is An Environmental Movement
F. Scott Fitzgerald said "The Rich Are Different Than You And Me". He was right. TreeHugger should recognize that the 1% are cooking this planet.
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Occupy Wall Street's Now Composting, Distributing It To Community Gardens
As Occupy Wall Street's Sustainability Working Group gets more established in Zucotti Park, composting, bike-powered generators, and phasing out single-use plastics and bottled water are all on the agenda.
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Civilisedmoney: A Crowd-Funded, Ethical Alternative to Mainstream Banks?
Civilisedmoney plans to offer everything a regular bank does. Well that, plus transparency, accountability and true ownership of your money too.
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#OccupyWallStreet Discontent: Blame The Baby Boomers
Basic demographics may have a lot to do with our problems.
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Could #OccupyWallStreet Become a Constitutional Convention?
Last week, Rachel Maddow interviewed Harvard law professor, Lawrence Lessig (video above) about his new book, Republic Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress and a Plan to Stop It,
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Tar Sands Activists & Former Obama Organizers Demand President Reject Keystone XL Pipeline
Anti-fracking and tar sands activists, many of them self-described as organizers for Barack Obama in his first presidential campaign, are taking the President to task over his campaign promises about ending the tyranny of fossil fuels.
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David Suzuki Visits Occupy Montréal: "We've Got To Take Back Our Democracy" (Video)
Prompted by my curiosity about the global movement known as Occupy Wall Street, on Saturday I headed out to the Occupons Montréal / Occupy Montréal protests, which mirrored similar
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A New Rallying Cry: Occupy Green Building
Jennifer Atlee is on to something here.
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Occupy Wall Street Stages Mountaintop Removal Mining 'Die-In' At Bank of America's NYC HQ
Prior to making their way to the big Occupy Wall Street rally in Times Square yesterday, a smaller group made a stop at Bank of America -- to call them out for being a huge funder of one of the most environmentally-destructive forms of coal mining.
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Occupy Toronto: "It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now? " (Slideshow)
We cover the Occupy Toronto Protests
