Occupy Wall Street
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in September 2011. It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries.
The Canadian anti-consumerist and pro-environment group/magazine Adbusters initiated the call for a protest. The main issues raised by Occupy Wall Street were social and economic inequality, greed, corruption and the undue influence of corporations on government—particularly from the financial services sector. The OWS slogan, "We are the 99%", refers to income and wealth inequality in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. To achieve their goals, protesters acted on consensus-based decisions made in general assemblies which emphasized redress through direct action over the petitioning to authorities.
The protesters were forced out of Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011. Protesters then turned their focus to occupying banks, corporate headquarters, board meetings, foreclosed homes, and college and university campuses.
See also
- 1932 Bonus army
- 1968 Poor People's Campaign
- 15 October 2011 global protests
- 2011 protests in Spain
- 2011 United States public employee protests
- 2011 Wisconsin protests
- 2013 protests in Brazil
- 2013 protests in Turkey
- 2014 Hong Kong protests
- List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States
- List of Occupy movement topics
- List of protests in the 21st century
- Nuit Debout
- Post-democracy
- Radical media
- UC Davis pepper-spray incident
