The Occupy Wall Street movement is a reflection of the growing economic frustration of many Americans and their anger toward the political and financial elite of this country.
Protests have spread to dozens of other cities across the country including Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Boston since protesters in New York camped out in that city’s financial district four weeks ago, rallying against Wall Street companies and denouncing what demonstrators see as corporate greed.
Organizers said the idea was to replicate in spirit, if not in scale, the kind of protests that had erupted in 2011 in places as varied as Egypt and Spain.
The group’s Web site, Occupywallstreet, describe the organization as a “leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that we are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”
The 1 percent refers to the country’s powerful elite. The 99 percent refers to the average worker who has seen his wages increasingly decline while costs for food, gas and housing have sharply increased.
The protests have grown in scale and in support. Prominent labor unions have joined forces with the demonstrators.
In some ways the Occupy Wall Street movement is the flip side of the Tea Party Movement—while the tea parties want to reduce the size of the government, Occupy Wall Street wants government to do more to meet the social needs of the average American.
Most of the Tea Party movement is older, White and conservative and have the backing of many prominent members of the Republican Party.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is younger, more diverse and more liberal-leaning and has the empathetic support of many prominent members of the Democratic Party.
For the movement to be successful it must remain nonviolent and focused to get its message across of the American workers’ frustration and outrage of economic inequality.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune.)
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