Occupy Wall Street Movement

The Occupy Wall Street Movement that began in New York Sept. 17 and has since spread like wildfire across the world has made an undeniable impact on the social and political climate of the Upper Midwest. | With various Occupy protest committees continuing to spring up across Minnesota and North Dakota, many working people in the region who, previously, might not have come together on other political issues say they have found common ground in the Occupy Movement.

Union, non-union, white collar, and unemployed workers are learning to work together towards severing, what protesters describe as, a dangerously cozy relationship between Wall Street and Washington D.C., that has undermined democracy in the United States and across the globe.

Collectively, Occupy Movement assemblies have intentionally refrained from making specific, official demands to redress their grievances. Instead, their organizing tactic has been to provide a democratic platform from which individuals can express their own grievances against Wall Street and/or Washington. Unsurprisingly, many people, who may have otherwise been divided by opposing issues, seem to share a common distrust of Wall Street’s influence on Washington politics. Consequently, Occupy Movement groups have been organically forming just about anywhere that you can find two people with a bone to pick with a bank, a politician, or both. These days, that’s a lot of people, in a lot of places.

To date, in Minnesota there is now an “Occupy Duluth,” an “Occupy Grand Rapids,” an “Occupy Rochester,” an “Occupy Mankato,” an “Occupy Fergus Falls,” an “Occupy Brainerd,” an “Occupy Bemidji,” an “Occupy Northfield,” an “Occupy Alexandria,” an “Occupy Marshall,” an “Occupy Fargo-Moorehead,” an “Occupy Minneapolis” and, just last week, an “Occupy Saint Paul.” Wisconsin Occupy movements have materialized across the state from Green Bay to Kenosha, from La Crosse to Superior. In North Dakota, the state with the nation’s lowest