We are reading an account of the trajectory of social movements that advocate for the poor and working classes. They point out a fatal flaw in all such movements: they are doomed to be absorbed by the existing systems. Is that what happened to the “Occupy” movement? What was this movement about? Why did it fail? (Or, did it fail?)
Harry Hoke
The Occupy Wall Street movement was meant to protest income inequality and the concentration of wealth within the top 1% of the population. Wall Street, as the hub of America’s banking and finance industry, came to symbolize this extreme concentration of wealth. From accounts of the Occupy Wall Street movement, it seems as though the critical flaw was a lack of infrastructure. Despite receiving large amounts of funding (ironically much from rich donors that fell into the very group the movement was meant to to protest), the movement lacked the infrastructure to turn funding into results, or even provide for sanitation needs in the occupied park to sustain the initial occupation. Though the occupy movement seems stabilized enough to produce new, smaller actions around the country now, at the time of its creation it lacked the infrastructure and clarity to sustain or move past its Zuccotti park occupation. The lack of clear demands, combined with an inability to sustain or advance past its initial occupation due to lack of infrastructure led to its downfall. Furthermore, its dependence on large donors could have foreshadowed an eventual agglomeration of the protest movement leaders with the system it meant to protest, which may have presented further problems if the movement had lasted longer.
Samuel Blakley
Amidst the fallout of the economic meltdown and the cries of “too big too fail” justifying corporate bailouts, a group of people banded together behind a shared identity. The Occupy Wall street movement was comprised of a group of people who wanted to speak out against income inequality. They rallied behind the fact that 1% of America’s population holds a vast majority of its wealth. While calling themselves the 99%, this group of protesters occupied Zucotti Park in 2011. Though they all desired changes in the way wealth is distributed in the United States, the movement lacked a unified proposal for a solution. There was also much variation in the backgrounds and beliefs of the people in the movement. After the first set of protesters began to occupy the park, many unions and other groups joined in and added their own resources and views to the cause. The group had a schizophrenic identity that failed to take a definite shape. The absorption of larger interest groups, as well as the financing of the movement by the wealthy people the group seemed to be against, seems to indicate perhaps that the group was absorbed by the interests of actors already existing in the system. This can further be corroborated both by the lack of tangible achievement by the movement and the self-serving prostitution of the occupy message by politicians. To my knowledge, no tangible gains were made by the movements efforts. Many members of the movement claim that the fact that people are talking about the inequalities now mean that the movement was a success. This reminds me in some ways of the old Percy Shelley poem Ozymandias. The only remaining relic of Ozymandias was a pedestal that read “look upon my works ye mighty and tremble”. In relation the occupy wall street, the pedestal can represent written institutional change. When all is said and done, issues and ideas can fade from the public conscientiousness. The remaining legacy a movement can leave is institutional change, in this case in the form of written statute or constitutional amendment. In this sense, the movement was an abject failure.
Kelly Quinn
Occupy Wall Street was a protest movement that began in September, 2011, and was committed to fighting against social and economic inequality brought about by the influential power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process. The protests originated in New York City’s Wall Street financial district, but spread to over a hundred cities in the U.S. and over 1,500 cities world-wide. The group was committed to communal leading and decision making and opposed any type of formal leadership. Although their hope was to avoid the traditional path of social movements, whereby leaders eventually escape the control of their members, this tactic may have lead to their eventual downfall. They also avoided making any demands out of fear of being coopted by the Democratic Party or other larger movements. The group lacked any clear goals or objectives. After a police crackdown in December, that broke up the protestors’ main camps, the movement lost focus and organization, which could have been otherwise provided by leaders.
Robert Morelli
The “Occupy” Movement began in New York City in September of 2011 to protest social and economic inequality. Although the movement was diverse and spread to many countries across the world where there was similar distaste for the status quo, the movements ascribed the source of the inequality to the ability for banks and corporations to amass vastly disproportionate amounts of wealth, and therefor power, and extend this influence into the political system, undermining democratic values. Although the movement began with excitement and a large social media presence, the movement fizzled out by 2012, and the campgrounds that were once filled with protesters were empty. Although we have seen many social movements started by the poor and working class come to an end due to the inevitability of being absorbed into the the very institutions they were fighting against, the occupy movement failed, more so, due to a general lack of organization . There were no leaders like the union leaders of the workers movement to be absorbed into the “system”. It was a group of people who felt disparaged by the system and wanted change, but had no real agenda and no consensus on how to effectively change the way things were in a way that would remedy their grievances. Protesters could only stay out in their tents for so long before they could no longer afford to be out on the streets 24/7, eventually returning to daily life.