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OCCUPY:

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The Occupy movement started in New York one year ago this week and soon spread worldwide, as protesters railed against governments, big business and the banks. Derided as deluded idealists by some, others felt the movement promised a new form of politics and a chance to change the world. On its first anniversary, Ryan Gallagher takes stock
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It inspired people from Manchester to Moscow, led to thousands of arrests and continues to generate debate. The Occupy protest movement, founded to oppose corporate greed and inequality, is this week celebrating its first anniversary. For many of those involved it has been an emotional and life-changing journey. Occupy began in earnest on 17 September last year when a group of protesters descended on New Yorks Wall Street financial district. Angry about the banking industrys

role in the global financial crisis, the protesters wanted to come together to address what they called the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process. Inspired by the Arab Spring and a massive Spanish protest movement that had bloomed earlier in 2011, the Occupiers formed a makeshift tent-city a stones throw from Wall Street, where public assemblies and discussions were held. As the size of the camp quickly grew, international media attention soon followed.

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Above: an Occupy LA protester takes to the streets around City Hall. Above right: debris is cleared away from the Occupy camp outside Saint Pauls Cathedral in London in February. Photos: Carl Court, Carlos Sanchez-Gonzalez/ AFP/Getty Images)

Before long, Occupy became a contagious phenomenon, spreading across America and across borders to more than 80 countries on almost every continent, including Australia, England, Canada, Belgium, France, Denmark, Italy, China, New Zealand, Ireland, Scotland even Armenia and Nigeria. Ed Needham remembers the birth of Occupy well. The 45-yearold communications strategist was attending a conference for organisations working for progressive causes in Washington DC. He was

approached by an activist who told him about a new protest called Occupy Wall Street in New York, which had begun a few days earlier. He decided to visit, was immediately impressed by what It happened he saw and joined in a way that in with the protest. For me Occupy I think really represented a captured the reaction to where imagination we were as a of where we society, Needham says, recalling his were. first impressions. I just thought that this was an extremely historical moment and that instead of some fly-by-night political party initiative or something, that this was the beginning of a social movement. And everything that has happened since has affirmed that. Rather than people coming together under the many different organisations or political entities, people were coming together under a much larger banner. It happened in a way that I think really captured the imagination of where we were and still are as a nation in terms of what has happened to us over the last 30 years. The Occupiers structured themselves without formal leaders,

reaching decisions by consensus often after long debates attended by hundreds of participants. Another crucial aspect of the Occupy movement was that it was cross-generational. In the first few days it was characterised mainly as a youth movement, but as it grew that changed. Organised labour groups eventually got involved, as did senior citizens, war veterans, high-profile academics, musicians even people who had worked in the financial sector. At that point it just took off because people could no longer characterise the people down at the square as a bunch of hippie kids, Needham says. The movement also attracted a diverse selection of supporters: from rapper Jay-Z to supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Khamenei, who predicted that Occupy would bring down the capitalist system and the West. More realistically, activist and academic Noam Chomsky said the movement lit a spark and called it the first major public response to 30 years of class war. To date, there have been an estimated 7,000 arrests of activists participating in Occupy protests across the US. The main camp in New York was evicted in
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Madrid Indignados, May 2011. Right: painting by Alex Schaefer. Madrid photo: Ryan Gallagher

THE 99 PER CENT

Occupy Wall Street describes itself as a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colours, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that 99 per cent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 per cent. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximise the safety of all participants. The we are the 99 per cent slogan has come to symbolise the movement, and was used by protesters in countries around the world. It is intended to draw attention to the disparity between rich and poor and is a reference to the statistic that in the United States, the upper 1 per cent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nations income every year. And one of the Occupy movements successes was that the slogan helped the activists make common cause with people who might not have previously considered themselves political but were concerned about job insecurity, depressed wages, high living costs and being ripped off by banks. The phrase is thought to have originated from an article written by the Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who wrote in May 2011 that the top 1 per cent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesnt seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 per cent live.

November, but today the movement continues. The activists are currently collaborating on international actions to mark the one-year anniversary, and they still meet regularly and organise protests outside banks and In Spain, the run teach-in educational groups movement about economic that preceded issues. Though some Occupy may activists are offer a glimpse pessimistic of what is to about the level of change they come have managed to achieve, most believe that at the very least they have managed to shape mainstream political discussion by putting more focus on problems related to inequality. New splinter groups have also taken shape due to Occupy, with activists using different protest tactics to voice their discontent about the current status quo. Los Angeles-based artist Alex Schaefer garnered media attention

last year for expressing his indignation at the greed of the banking sector in a creative manner by painting pictures of banks on fire. Schaefer is hugely frustrated at how little has been done in America to hold the financial sector to account for bringing the countrys economy to its knees, and he recently started a new trend that is beginning to catch on in various cities. He calls it chalking a form of civil disobedience that involves drawing information about bank wrongdoing in chalk on pavements outside bank buildings. It needs to be a constant reminder, Schaefer says. Its a different protest than a march. This is a way to just casually do it consistently. I wish every bank would wake up to this on this sidewalk every morning. So far Schaefer has been arrested once for vandalism, but the charges were eventually dropped. He says the tactic was in part born of a deep frustration that nothing was being done to address the issues raised by the Occupy movement. Nothing has changed, its ridiculous, he says. Occupy is an uphill battle. The problem is that Occupy was only a fraction of the population. There are so many more people out there that need to get upset before a change is going to happen. In England, activists speak of the same frustration. Occupy spread to London in October last year, with a large encampment established outside St Pauls Cathedral near the citys stock exchange. Small campsites eventually formed in a number of cities across Britain from Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland to Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield in England. But most of the camps were either evicted or slowly disbanded as the cold bite of winter set in and some protesters feel that they failed to agree on a coherent message across the different sites. Even from London to the regions there was a huge difference in

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Its an uphill battle. The problem is that Occupy was only a fraction of the population.
scope and aims, says Daniel, 34, an activist from Liverpool who spent time at Occupy protests in England and America. I felt aspects I was experiencing at occupations abroad, particularly in the US, did not translate locally. What we saw regionally was more a kind of nebulous protest, and the camps ended up quite detached from the global movement. Daniel says that he found Occupy in London to be quite brilliant and well organised. An empty office block that was squatted by the activists in Londons financial district and turned into a giant makeshift community centre called the Bank of Ideas also impressed him.

However, in Liverpool he says groups including the Socialist Workers Party appeared intent on co-opting, while not overtly supporting the movement, which was predictable and divisive. And at some Occupy camps he visited, the initial energy that had catalysed the movement became diluted. Other protesters had similarly negative experiences of camps outside London. In Birmingham, activist Tom Holness says the camp had included people who believed in Jewish banking conspiracies and a member of the far-right English Defence League, which dissuaded new people from joining. The Facebook pages were a mess of arguments and conspiracy theories and that put a lot of people off.

OCCUPY CHANTS
Like all protest movements, Occupy has spawned many chants. Some of the most popular include: All day/all week/occupy Wall Street Privatisation/deregulation/that will be the agony/of the nation A better world is possible/we are unstoppable Show me what democracy looks like/ this is what democracy looks like 1 per cent you cant run/revolution has begun

Yet despite its flaws, Occupy as a movement is likely to persist in some form at least for the foreseeable future. The issues driving it, such as rising unemployment and a growing disparity between rich and poor, have not been addressed. And many activists, though they are tired and frustrated, are still intent on pushing for change. In Spain, the movement that preceded Occupy may offer a glimpse of what is to come. Thousands took to the streets across the country last summer to protest against austerity measures, corporate power and political corruption, camping out in public squares and holding lengthy debates in a bid to find solutions to economic problems. Calling themselves the Indignados (the indignant) they continue to organise demonstrations and political actions, weary but energised by groups in other parts of the world. Its been absolutely inspiring to see how some other movements have been out in the States and in London and everywhere, says Beatriz Prez, a 31-year-old activist who has been involved with the Indignados movement since it began in May last year. We share the sense of frustration and rage with a lot of other people. As a result of the Indignados movement, locally organised public assemblies are now held regularly in cities including Madrid and Barcelona for anyone to come and address grievances. Though unemployment is soaring in Spain and the protesting has not managed to achieve substantive political changes, it has brought people together in a way that has in itself had a positive and lasting impact. Life in Spain, in Madrid, has changed a little bit for everyone that has been in the movement, says Prez. I feel like in my city there is a lot more love out there its a romantic thing to say but thats how I feel. Its less individualistic here than it was. And I think that has got to be a very good thing for our lives.
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