I remember, I think it was the Tuesday afternoon in a park that is usually pretty deserted at that time, and people kept coming and coming, and before the end we had 100 people just for a planning meeting in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon. Congratulations, Jesse, thanks very much for the phone call. But I think the highlight for me was going down as part of a delegation to Occupy Congress and being able to occupy all three branches of government in one day. So it was an interesting experience. Sept. 19Roseanne Barr becomes the first celebrity to endorse Occupy Wall Street. CONAN: There were moments when the police and the protesters - as somebody else called earlier and said - and sometimes it just became an issue of the protesters against the police. To gain a seat on the exchange, a person had to be voted in and willing to pay the fee of $25. How did that happen? CONAN: Well, Nichola Torbett, thanks very much for your time today. How long did the Chicago race riot of 1919 last? The demonstration marked the beginning of a new focus on wealth disparity in American politics. All rights reserved. We did Bible studies. The protesters settle into Zuccotti Park, two blocks north of Wall Street. But it's helped transform the American left. [12] This paradoxical classification of space has drawn criticism, as it gives considerable spatial power to the corporations that control the areas. October 24, 1929: The stock market surged as high as 50 percent starting in 1928, despite indications that the economy was on the wane and predictions of stock market collapse by economist Roger Babson. CONAN: And to the degree that it was your brainchild, it must have, well, blossomed. Our experts can answer your tough homework and study questions. Did you ever visit Zuccotti Park? If you participated, what happened that you're going to remember? Beneath the building were hundreds of underground vaults where stock certificates were kept. This renaissance was most recently visible on April 15, when tens of thousands of workers marched in hundreds of cities to demand better pay and conditions. LASN: Well, the occupation, after a few weeks, came here to Vancouver. On Sept. 17, 2011, a group of young activists descended on Wall Street to protest the gaping economic inequality in America. Occupy also reshaped the U.S.-environmental movement, which had its rebirth in fall 2011 when 1,200 people were arrested in Washington, D.C., protesting the Keystone XL pipeline. What type of social movement was Occupy Wall Street? How long did the French Revolutionary calendar last? But Wall Street is far more than a locationit has been adopted as a term to describe all U.S. financial institutions and U.S. economic power. I'm Neal Conan. We have an entire world to win.. CONAN: So there had been no premeditation, as it were? JESSE: Yeah, we went from the Capitol Building to the Supreme Court to the White House on January 17. Sept. 30An internet hoax that Radiohead will play for the protesters draws a crowd downtown. Noam Chomsky sends his regards. Up to 80% off + free fast delivery, Limited Time Only! So even that, we gave our blankets, they gave their book, "Here I Stand" and Malcolm X and of course "Time for Outrage" by Stephane Hessel. Brokers embraced the telegraph and soon, the area was filled with telegraph wires allowing brokerages to communicate remotely. 1. It's a few hours away from here, but we will be participating in that, also. Occupy Wall Street: What Happened? | HuffPost Latest News The Surprising Legacy Of Occupy Wall Street In 2020 : NPR It's been the most fascinating ride of my life. December 16, 1835: The Great Fire of 1835 decimated 700 buildings in lower Manhattan, totaling $40 million in damage, though only two died in the fires. Despite the publics overwhelming support for its messagethat the economic system is rigged for the very few while the majority continue to fall further behindmany faulted Occupy for its failure to produce concrete results. When hundreds of protesters return later in the day, police fire tear gascanisters in to the crowd. Nov. 19Campus police at the University of California, Davis, pepper spray protesters who are peacefully obstructing a public walkway. Here, a look back at some key events: June 9Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters registers the domain name OccupyWallStreet.org. How long was the Chilean War of Independence? This article originally published on Oct. 7 was last updated on Nov. 21. Destruction and debris in the neighborhood created limited access to the financial offices that survived and damaged communication networks, shutting down the market for seven days. At what appears to be a juncture(ph) for the Occupy movement, we're looking back at how it evolved, an oral history of Occupy Wall Street thus far. Occupy was, at its core, a movement constrained by its own contradictions: filled with leaders who declared themselves leaderless, governed by a consensus-based structure that failed to reach consensus, and seeking to transform politics while refusing to become political. But Wall Street is far more than a locationit has been adopted as a term to. 1882: The first electricity plant in the world is launched on Pearl Street by Thomas Edison in order to power 7,200 lamps on Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street swept the world and achieved a lot, even if it may What happened in the Black Lives Matter protest in Ferguson. The following is a timeline of Occupy Wall Street (OWS), a protest which began on September 17, 2011 [1] on Wall Street, the financial district of New York City and included the occupation of Zuccotti Park, where protesters established a permanent encampment. If you participated, what happened that you're going to remember? Taking place in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the protesters used New York City itself as a tool for the movement. [15] Joe Weisenthal and Robert Johnson: Heres How Occupy Wall Street Came to a Sudden, Unexpected End Today, Business Insider, November 15th, 2011. Those movements also spurred a rebellion by student debtors, known as the Corinthian 15, who in April celebrated the closure of the for-profit Corinthian College chain, which they had accused of deceptive marketing and deliberately steering students into high-cost loans. Wisconsin's Capitol Siege, 10 Years On - WSJ - The Wall Street Journal Because as millions of Americans learned following the election of Barack Obama, real change doesnt come in slogans: It comes when the people demand it. How long was Stonewall gay before the riots? In the long run, Occupy invigorated ideas and people that influence today's . So our movement now is becoming a full-rainbow movement with room for everybody. [13] While there were no laws governing the usage of this property, the utilization for a long term protest and occupation were in direct opposition to the banks intentions of operating the space. Most significant, perhaps, is how the debate over inequality sparked by Occupy has radically remade the Democratic Party. Distribution and use of this material are governed by September 16, 1920: A wagon parked in front of the Assay Office exploded at 12:01 p.m. The building was the earliest in America to feature air conditioning, with a system designed by engineer Alfred Wolff. July 13Adbusters calls for a Sept. 17 protest, where "20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades, and occupy Wall Street for a few months," demanding "democracy not corporatocracy.". The efforts by the protesters also consumed the physical space of the city, as multiple unique facets were utilized within the protest to contribute to its effectiveness. Oct. 14 Brookfield postpones its planned cleaning at the last minute, avoiding a standoff between the demonstrators and police. How long did the King Riots last Chicago? The Rise of Wall Street, Skyscraper Museum. Occupy Wall Street - History of New York City - Seton Hall University Would you agree with that? But in the end, 1968 did not fundamentally change things. On her first campaign stop in Iowa in April, Hillary Clinton struck a decisively populist tone, declaring that the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Later, she sharpened her rhetoric on income inequality by comparing the salaries of Americas richest hedge fund managers with kindergarten teachers. At the center of the Occupy Wall Street movement was the New York Stock Exchange. We actually moved up north. Occupy Wall Street brought the people of the city together through the creation of a common enemy. And to be honest, I was there at night, and we've had a lot - not a lot, but a little bit less turnout at night, but great people day and night. On a local level, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio swept into office last year on a 99-percent-style tale of two cities campaign to address income inequality. The Week is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Occupy Wall Street ( OWS) was a 59-day left-wing populist movement against economic inequality and the influence of money in politics that had begun in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City 's Wall Street financial district, and lasted from September 17 to November 15, 2011. There's also - later on there was a spokes-council formed which kind of worked to deal with kind of the day-to-day operations of the camp but is still functioning right now. 'We Are the 99 Percent' Joins the Cultural and Political Lexicon - The That helped spur a nationwide movement as, 16 state legislatures and more than 600 U.S. towns and cities. What is the importance of the Civil Disobedience Movement? How long did the Haitian Revolution last? When it comes to money in politics, Occupy also drew mainstream attention to the corrosive influence of wealth on the political process. Around noon on September 24 2011, a young black man named Robert Stephens fell to his knees in the middle of the road outside Chase Bank headquarters on Liberty Street, New York City. The Occupy Wall Street protest began in September as a small encampment of mostly young activists with mostly inscrutable objectives that were mostly ignored by the media. Give us a call, 800-989-8255. I'm Neal Conan. [8] Mother Jones News Team, Occupy Wall Street, a Global Movement, Mother Jones, October 4, 2011. On September 17, 2011, hundreds of people gathered in Lower Manhattan to protest the growing wealth gap and Wall Street's involvement in the economic crisis. How long did the Russian Revolution last? Get HISTORYs most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week. And many, many, hundreds of millions of young people around the world feel that if they don't stand up now and fight for a different kind of a future, then they're not going to have a future. But I think it felt really great to be in a space that was very intentionally - where people worked really hard to get rid of class and race and sexism and talk to each other in a way that was so inspiring, people from all walks of life, people who entered this space very much wounded from society and were all interested in talking to each other and sharing our experiences. Occupy Wall Street Did More Than You Think - The Atlantic This month's issue of Vanity Fair collected some accounts of the Occupy movement. New York itself played a key role in this protest, as it represented both the center for economic prosperity in the United States, but also a constant reminder of the financial inequality inherent within the city itself. Will Biden and Zelenskyy's meeting resolve Ukraine's frustrations? It also charted the course for concrete legislative reform. Thanks very much. Vanity Fair recently published a fairly comprehensive history of the movement. New York itself played Zuccotti Park was home to the majority of the Occupy Wall Street protesters, as they camped out with tents and tarps during the duration of the movement. How long did the Zanzibar Revolution last? Charleston's a very conservative town, and it's a place with great economic disparity. It just felt like I was being a human being who was relating to other human beings. Women were allowed out of the back rooms in the 1940s to work on the trading floor, but it wasnt until 1967 that Muriel Siebert became the first woman to own a seat on the NYSE. FOX News July 26: The Occupy Wall Street website is launched; the group also uses Twitter and Facebook to promote the Sept. 17 demonstration. CONAN: Soft regime change, this clearly off the precedent of Tahrir Square in Egypt. We did meditation. CONAN: All right, Tim. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8, Continue reading your article witha WSJ subscription, Already a subscriber? [10] The usage of public space for protest was conceptualized with intentionality, designed to create an image of repugnance for their movement, impressed upon the wealthy. A couple weeks ago, we had a cold snap that was really horrible, it got down to 50 below. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! After this, special rules were implemented to allow automated protocols to be overridden and prevent future disasters. You can also join the conversation on our website. And, in fact, its just one of a long list of legislative and political successes for which the Occupy movement can take credit. Occupy Wall Street is a movement rooted in the culture and history of New York City itself. 2020 Election: Wall Street spent over $74 million to back Joe Biden - CNBC Following a court case that concluded in 2014, this protester was found guilty after videos of her lunging at a police officer and wounding their face. September, 2008: In 2008, Wall Street was at the center of the worst financial crash since the Great Depression. So it didn't necessarily feel like I was being a leftie. What happened after the Chicago Freedom Movement? Nearly four years after the precipitous rise of Occupy Wall Street, the movement so many thought had disappeared has instead splintered and regrown into a variety of focused causes. So we want to hear from other occupiers, as well, too. Asked about Occupy Wall Street, President Obama says: "I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country and yet you're still seeing some of the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight efforts to crack down on the abusive practices that got us into this in the first place. We have a sleeping bag. TORBETT: I attended that meeting really just to see who was there and what it felt like, and it was the craziest thing. Oct. 18 President Obama delivers a mixed message on Nightline, saying he "understands the frustrations" of the protesters, but that the movement is "not that different from some of the protests we saw coming form the Tea Party.". It took all of the 1930s for the market to recover, a periodcalled the Great Depression, which was defined by mass unemployment and poverty. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Occupy Wall Street - Wikipedia And at 1.am. [9] Hao Cao, A Noneventful Social Movement: The Occupy Wall Street Movements Struggle Over Publicly Owned Private Space International Journal of Communication 11, 2017, 3163. Even leading Republican contenders have jumped on the inequality bandwagon: Jeb Bush, through his Right to Rise PAC, asserted that the income gap is real, while Ted Cruz admitted that the top 1 percent earn a higher share of our income nationally than any year since 1928, and Marco Rubio proposed reversing inequality by turning the earned-income tax credit into a subsidy for low-wage earners. Stay with us. While the movement was composed of thousands of individuals, their backgrounds and perspectives on the issues addressed in the protest were diverse and far-reaching. June 9 Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters registers the domain name OccupyWallStreet.org. I've been around for about 108 of those. How long did the Iranian Revolution last? BILL: Yes. Occupy Wall Street was a movement initiated in 2011 to protest the corporate greed and widespread economic inequality that was experienced across New York and the country as a whole. the Occupy (Wall Street) Movement: 2.It began in Zuccotti Park in New York City on September 17, 2011, but quickly spread to 500+ cities, as a social mov't with no clear leaders. Occupy Wall Street was a protest campaign that started on September 17, 2011, in New York's Zuccotti Park. Thousands of anti-Wall Street protesters rallied in New York's Times Square on . Largely the result of mishandling of subprime mortgages, the crisis resulted in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae being taken over by the government and Lehmann Brothers filing for bankruptcy. [7] James McKinley Jr., Woman Found Guilty of Assaulting Officer at an Occupy Wall Street Protest, The New York Times, May 6, 2014, 20. Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The area was bombarded with police as trading immediately ceased. By fighting to strengthen financial regulations in Dodd-Frank, break up too big to fail banks, and impose stiff taxes on corporations and the wealthy, Warren is the closest thing to an Occupy candidate the movement ever got. Oct. 13Brookfield, the company that owns Zuccotti Park, announces that protesters must vacate the park at 7 a.m. on Oct. 14 so it can be cleaned. We were in the park in October. And we're sort of a place for activists who are involved to come and be nurtured, to come and touch in with their spiritual center. 1788: City Hall was officially renamed Federal Hall after New York City became the first capital of the United States. And the regime change that happened there was a kind of a hard regime change, I guess you could call it. But it's been downgraded to the police versus us because we feel like we need to get, we need to kind of get past that, and we need to - we need to voice something like hey, you can't be a cop and just attacking innocent people. He said it was a moment when it was cool to be a leftie. How many police were fired after the Occupy Wall Street lawsuit? We had Roseanne, Naomi Klein. And then we have a culture-jammers network on our website, which has over 90,000 activist members all around the world. NURSE: Well, I was skeptical. Embed Transcript A close look at Occupy Wall Street reveals a lasting legacy. So I just kept going back to the planning meetings, and then we actually kicked off here - we had chosen Indigenous People's Day, sometimes called Columbus Day, October 10th - as the launch, officially, of Occupy Oakland when we set up the tents. The explosion was so powerful that it reverberated through the streets and sent a car flying into the 34th floor of the Equitable Building, before crashing down to the ground. 'We showed it was possible to create a movement from almost nothing Here in Columbus, Ohio, we've been around for 122 days. You can find a link to that at our website. So my kids can say they take ownership, and Yaya's only 12 years old. It wont be easy. NURSE: Well, just seeing the amount of people come together and the conversations that were going on in the park, it really felt very vibrant and energetic. The Nation: The 99 Percent Rise Up : NPR Vanderbilt was a grieving widower whom the sisters had targeted with seances. Who were the participants in the Occupy Wall Street protesters? I got involved as an original facilitator with Occupy Pensacola with a lot of other people, along with my children. So I think the conflict with the police brings that conflict with violence into stark relief, and that's happened here. The occupation of Zuccotti lasted for one month and 29 days. Streets on fire: how a decade of protest shaped the world In operation until 1762 at the site of one of the original Wall gates on Pearl Street, the market was a wooden building that provided the city with tax dollars from the active trade inside. I stayed there a couple of nights. But first, Kalle Lasn is the editor and founder of Adbusters, the reader-supported Canadian magazine that ignited the idea for Occupy Wall Street, and he joins us by phone from his home in Vancouver. Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 by Edward G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, published by Oxford University Press, 2000. Below, we've compiled a few indicators that attempt to answer this question, from conditions in Zuccotti Park to the movement's global spread. There are people organizing for re-occupation in the spring. There's a ton of activity, and a lot of people are looking to the next few months to really come back strong. The movement aimed to display the large income equality in the United States. And a lot of people really feel like they haven't had a voice. Footage of the incident quickly goes viral online, prompting the school's chancellor to place the offending officers on leave and order an investigation. Like the Occupy Wall Street movement . Sept. 28Transport Workers Union Local 100 becomes the first big union to support Occupy Wall Street via a member vote. And every day in our lives, you know, the food we eat and the medical attention we get, and every aspect of our life is somehow controlled by megacorporations. Occupy got the diagnosis correct. Income inequality is the crisis du joura problem that all 2016 presidential candidates must grapple with because they can no longer afford not to. We'll hear from Occupy Oakland in a few minutes. But this time, I predict that we are not going to fizzle out. NURSE: I don't know if I'd call myself a leftie per se. Living on the red side of the blue state, I was really impressed that we actually beat Seattle with our Occupy movement in Spokane. The park became a very, very large stage where a lot of people came and used that to be seen. And we got really involved, I would say, after that first outbreak of police violence on October 25th at that point, and leading up to the general strike. December 13, 1711: Wall Street was made the site of the government-sanctioned slave market in New York City. NICHOLA TORBETT: Great to be here, Neal, thank you. As people gravitated to Occupy encampments, teach-ins, and demonstrations across the country, that energy easily transferred into the fight against climate change. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. How long did the Irish Rebellion of 1920 last? CONAN: All three branches of government in one day? The signees first set up offices at the Tontine Coffee House, on the corner of Wall Street and Water Street. Most of the encampments have since been dismantled, but in the space of just a few months, Occupy changed the conversation and many people's lives. How long did the riot last in Charleston? Inequality and the wealth gap are now core tenets of the Democratic platform, providing a frame for other measurable gains spurred by Occupy. [11] These efforts intentionally created a reputation for the movement, as the protesters made little effort to look polished or elite during their efforts. A three-year investigation by the Bureau of Investigation never yielded any arrests. The "Occupy" Factor: Successful protest movements aren't about occupation, per se. Although the protesters had varied backgrounds, some traveling in from New Jersey or Connecticut to take part in the protests, each protester embodied the spirit of the city throughout the duration of these protests.[3]. The demonstrators are joined by members of the Occupy Wall Street offshoot Occupy D.C., and among them is conservative magazine editor Patrick Howley, who later admits to joining the protest to "mock and undermine" it. While this movement encompassed the attitudes of thousands of New Yorkers and millions of Americans, it did not come without controversy. Accuracy and availability may vary. Forced out of Zuccotti Park on November 15, 2011, the Occupy movement shifted its actions to other locations, organizing activist groups in the long term that re-emerged during the 2016 presidential election. The camps may be gone and Occupy may no longer be visible on the streets, but the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is still there, and growing. . But this is just something that came out of our brainstorming sessions. And then on the righthand side of the rainbow, we have these militant people, these black-block people, the Oakland types who are really angry at the way the authorities are behaving. But in the United States, I mean, there is also a kind of a regime, and it's kind of an oppressive regime, you know, it - certain very rich people and financial-type people on Wall Street who control much of the economy, and in Washington, D.C., you have corporations and lobbyists somehow controlling a lot of the laws that are passed and the policies that are implemented. Federal Hall was later the first home of the New York Historical Society but was demolished in 1812. CONAN: How many people there in the tent? Occupy prompted a grassroots anti-fracking movement that pushed cities, counties and states to enact bans on the controversial drilling processfrom Athens, Ohio, to Mendocino County, California, and in states like New York and Maryland. We've compiled a few indicators that attempt to answer the question. [8] This became extra motivation for the protesters, as they used this as a greater fuel for the movement going forward. Iowa's GOP-led legislature passes 6-week abortion ban, New immigration law hits Florida construction and agricultural workforces, Judge limits how Biden officials can communicate with social media companies, How Texas became a 'clean energy powerhouse'. Reuters Just a few short years after the global financial crisis, a. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the protests quickly became a subject of ridicule. March 8, 1817: After visiting and observing the Philadelphia Merchants Exchange, the Buttonwood traders used that as a model for their own version which they called the New York Stock and Exchange Board. Today, we're going to get some oral history with three guests. The labor on the wall is believed to have been performed by slaves. Although the Occupy Wall Street movement was abruptly ended, it had far-reaching implications for the wide range of economic protests that have occurred in the years since the occupation of Zuccotti Park. The grassroots movement composed of fast-food workers and Walmart employees, convenience-store clerks, and adjunct teachers seized on the energy of Occupy to spark a rebirth of the U.S. labor movement. Occupy Wall Street hit the 32-day mark Tuesday, tapping into a growing sense of worldwide economic anxiety. The Real Story of Occupy Wall Street Is What's Happened Since He has since expanded pre-K education for tens of thousands of students, created municipal ID cards for undocumented immigrants, increased affordable housing, and guaranteed sick days for workers in Americas largest city. 800-989-8255. So we had people sleeping there overnight. And then we chose that 17th of September, and after that, it just had a life of its own. 1731: A first attempt at creating a public library was made by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, located in City Hall on Wall Street. Oct. 1Some 700 protesters are arrested in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge. This was especially true on college campuses, where a student-led divestment movement has rid more than $50 billion in fossil-fuel assets from universities and institutional investment funds worldwide. NURSE: The way I understand it, and I'm speaking for myself only, is there was a small group of about three individuals who had several contingency plans, and Zuccotti was the third one. Occupy Wall Street - How Long, How Many, Which Cities? - WSJ The diversity of the movement brought a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives together, as they fought for the bettering of economic conditions. For the duration of the protest, the financial district of the city was truly occupied, as protesters used tents to camp overnight and consistently continue the protest. Read The Vanity Fair Article "Revolution Number 99". Click on TALK OF THE NATION. Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York in October 2011. . BRANDON: That will be in Charlotte, North Carolina. Protestors set up an encampment to draw attention to economic inequality and call for the prosecution of the banks behind the financial crisis.
