The suppressed anger and frustration that coalesced into a comprehensive 2010 defeat for the Democrats was based on economic insecurity. In the Tea Party case it was mostly older people, many of them retirees who feared for their investment income after the financial crisis. In their view, the politicians - especially Obama - sided with the bankers.
The current protest has the same roots: anger at perceived favoritism for financial services over the needs of common citizens. That the Occupy Wall Street protesters are mostly younger, more liberal and worried about joblessness versus investments as opposed to their Tea Party confreres should be a source of concern for the banking lobby. The reason is that politicians can count. The two movements may be disparate in their motivations but their enemy is identical. That means votes and it may mean lessened influence for financial services interests.
Occupy Wall Street is relatively inarticulate about its aims and objectives - so far. But there is a sense that increased financial regulation could be a unifying proxy for the myriad causes the protesters espouse. The protesters resolve could well fritter away as the weather turns colder and the NY Police remain implacable. But the experience elsewhere - in Cairo, Tunis, Kiev, London, Guangzhou and Lima suggest that these movements are adaptive and are evolving as they learn what works. The NYPD, meanwhile, with their massive budget, their electronic capabilities and their mighty intelligence apparatus, has made the same mistakes that their Egyptian counterparts did. Hardly an edifying example to follow, at least if one wants to prevail.
As the precursor to a Presidential election year, this makes great theater aimed at an unpopular foil. And everyone likes a good show. JL
Andrew Grossman and Jack Nicas report in the Wall Street Journal:
The anti-Wall Street protest in Lower Manhattan entered its third week with hundreds of arrests after the group blocked traffic Saturday on the Brooklyn Bridge, and budding copycat movements across the U.S. continued to stage smaller-scale protests, planning them online on social networking sites.
Protesters held sizable gatherings in Chicago and Los Angeles. In other cities, like San Francisco and Pittsburgh, protests were smaller or existed only in a planning stage. A website, occupytogether.org, lists groups that are offshoots of the New York protest. Activists have begun organizing outside the U.S., including in Prague, Melbourne and Montreal.
In New York, the protesters initially set out to occupy Wall Street but were rebuffed by police. Instead, the group set up in a nearby park, keeping the "Occupy Wall Street" moniker. The spread to other cities appears largely organic—the protests don't have a central organizer—and the idea came from a Canadian magazine and grew on social media websites.
Those protesting in New York have been circulating a list of grievances, most of which are aimed at corporations that they say are too powerful and often unethical. Among the complaints: bank executives received "exorbitant" bonuses not long after receiving taxpayer bailouts and companies have "poisoned the food supply through negligence" and "continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate better pay and safer working conditions."
Many of the protesters are young. Joblessness seems to be a persistent theme. A blog that has become popular has pictures of people's faces next to stories of economic woe and messages of support for the protesters.
"From 2006-2009 I owned a business with 12 employees," reads one, superimposed over a photo of a man and his young son, both smiling. "I closed my doors in 2009. I lost my home in 2010. I lived in my truck for six months. Now I rent a tiny room. I have no health insurance."
It's unclear how long the protests will last, or whether they will take hold in the other cities on par with the New York protests. Like the initial stage of the New York protest, much of the activity in the offshoot cities is still taking place online on Facebook.
Nathaniel Glosser, a 46-year-old Pittsburgh writer, is helping organize what he calls "the Occupy Pittsburgh movement." Mr. Glosser, a veteran of anti-war marches, said he was inspired by what he saw in New York and started looking for people online who might do something like it in Pittsburgh.
"After several days of searching on the Internet, I found that there were several hundred people who had signed up on the Facebook group and then I just jumped in with both feet," Mr. Glosser said. "Most of the people who started this have very little organizing experience."
Mr. Glosser's group plans to meet at a Unitarian church on Wednesday and plans to hold its first rally on Oct. 15.
In Los Angeles, hundreds marched on City Hall on Saturday on the first day of protests. In San Francisco, about two dozen people camped out Sunday afternoon outside the Federal Reserve branch. Some had tents. Others played guitars. Their posters said: "Arrest the fat cats."
In Chicago, protesters occupied a narrow sidewalk outside the city's branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. They've been there around the clock for 10 consecutive days. At 3 p.m. Sunday, more than 100 gathered for an organizational meeting that was labeled the general assembly in which anyone can participate—a hallmark of the protests.
Organizers shouted instructions through a small orange cone: No violence, be friendly to police, continue "the revolution."
The protesters were diverse in race, gender, age and dress. Among the headwear in the crowd were beanies, ushankas, do-rags, fedoras, bandanas and one green helmet. Some wore boots, others were barefoot. Some offered handrolled cigarettes out of small vintage cases. Many gave their Twitter handle in addition to their name when introducing themselves.
James Cox, a 25-year-old waitress, discovered the movement on Twitter and showed up on the second day when there were just seven people. She has now slept on the sidewalk for a week and has become and organizer, keeping track of donated food and water.
Protesters in Chicago are putting the New York group's grievances to a vote, amending some and adopting others as is.
"We definitely stand in solidarity," said Mark Banks, a 30-year-old unemployed biochemist and Occupy Chicago spokesman. "But we're employing a very careful, inclusive process to make sure what they're trying to say is what we're trying to say."
"We are part of a global and spreading movement," shouted Micah Philbrook, a 33-year-old actor with shaggy white hair who serves a press liaison for the Occupy Chicago movement. To amplify the speakers' words, the crowd repeated each sentence.
"I'm a semi-disabled 58 yr old granny with little or no transportation but whenever it is decided on date & place for OUR rally, I will do my darnedest to be there!" wrote a woman name Marilyn McCarty on the Facebook page for a Birmingham, Ala., occupation, which does not yet have a set date or time
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