Today marks the anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street. One year ago, activist descended into Lower Manhattan in an effort to confront the banks and businesses that were largely responsible for the financial crash. The idea caught on. Occupy camps went up across America and around the world.
However, almost as soon as the movement started it faced a number of challenges in both its tactics and its message. The horizontal structure of Occupy made it difficult for outsiders to join in and was confusing to the media. Additionally, Occupy’s diversity means that it lacks a crafted and singular message. Again, this was difficult for the public and the press to interpret and latch onto.
For the Occupiers, these weakness are strengths that will make their movement more flexible as they move away from direct action and more towards legislative and awareness campaigns. It will be interesting to see what the new year brings. Burning River and I will talk more about this in this week’s Radio Crass.
This morning Occupy activists will try to blockade New York’s financial district and reassert some of their initial power and momentum. Occupy groups around the world will also have their own actions, celebrations, and protests. If you want to watch the action live there are dozens of live streams to choose from. Here is a really handy list so you can see what is going on.
In the meantime here are a few pictures from this weekend’s celebration.
Additionally, it would not be a protest without the drummers. This is for you Brutus.
This post will (hopefully) be updated throughout the day as I get new information and images to share.
I added some images from this morning. There have been about two dozen arrests, but things were mostly pretty congenial all around.
Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t give you some video of someone being arrested. Apparently these ladies are social workers from Child Protective services who got snagged for stepping off the sidewalk.
