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| People participating the Occupy Wall Street sit in Zuccotti Park in the financial district in New York yesterday. The movement, which is protesting a wide variety of social issues related to financial inequality, began one month ago |
Protesters sheltering under plastic tarps in the increasingly well organised camp at Zuccotti Park, near Wall Street, began their second month yesterday with plans to follow up on big demonstrations that swept through the popular Times Square area over the weekend.
The next major event could be on Saturday which will see a “National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality,” according to the http://occupywallst.org/ website.
Defying expectations, the movement has already had a huge impact, spawning copycat demonstrations across the US and Europe, all with the same underlying message of anger at economic disparities between the top 1% and the other 99%.
Although their numbers are still relatively small - the biggest demonstration gathered between 10,000 and 20,000 people - senior politicians are paying close attention as the 2012 presidential contest gathers pace.
President Barack Obama has led Democrats in tentatively embracing the movement, while Republican presidential candidates have been scathing in attacks on a group. It has at the least become too big to ignore.
The latest boost for Occupy Wall Street came on Saturday when Martin Luther King III, son of slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, said at a new memorial in Washington that his father would have joined the protest.
“We have bailed out the auto industry, and we should have. We bailed out Wall Street. Now it’s time to bail out working Americans. That’s what this is about,” he said.
“I believe that if my father was alive, he would be right here with all of us involved in this demonstration today.”
The protests have so far been mostly peaceful. However, 175 people were arrested in Chicago over the weekend, following other mass arrests in recent days in Boston, Denver and New York.
The main question now is how the movement, known by its initials OWS, will use its growing power. To date not a single specific demand has been issued, prompting ridicule from critics.
However, the strategy of simply providing a big tent for mostly young people unhappy about a stagnant economy and angry at the disconnect between ordinary people and the political-business elites appears to be working.
Mike Lupica, a columnist for the Daily News in New York, wrote yesterday that the unpredictability of OWS was stirring the country “because nobody is sure how big the whole thing is going to get.”
Some predict that the rapidly approaching cold weather in New York will drive protesters away.
However, activists deny this. And a symbol of that determination can be found right on the homepage of their website: the detailed agenda posted on the website scrolls down literally forever.