Analysis Of The Occupy Movement

The first Occupy movement began on Wall Street in September 17th 2011. Over the next three weeks area’s became occupied in 951 cities throughout 82 countries. While the movement first occurred on Wall Street the idea of occupying a public space arose earlier in the year with the Arab Springs movement. In the middle east, the oppression democracy drove citizens into public areas to protest while the Occupy movement was driven by the state of an unequal distribution of resources, which exists globally. With uneven resource distribution existing internationally and the use of the internet the conditions were right for the Occupy movement to spread globally.
Currently there is enough food, water, clothing, and shelter in the world to provide
This was intended as at the occupy locations the protesters would discuss the situation that had brought them to the site and examine the way’s beneficial change was possible. Since this movement was based on active involvement the passive slacktivism did not aid the visual aspect of occupying public space where the movements aim’s were fluctuating based on its makeup. Along with discussion came a connection within the protesters. This allowed grievances to be shared easily (Howard & Hussian). This connection was vital to keep the protesters involved. As important as the internet was in sharing information it could not create the same strong ties that personal interactions could
The protesters created a lot of noise through the way they attracted attention, were visually seen, and filled the internet with their thoughts, but they struggled to influence the governments around the world. This is because they focused on direct action, instead of lobbing for structure institutional change. The Occupy movement never intended to have a second component that would search for structural change like … did during the women’s movement (Joe Freeman). Instead the idea was to bring the issues that were discussed to the public agenda. In this case the movement was a success as presidential candidates, especially Bernie Sanders, are discussing income inequality as an important issues that faces our country