ABSTRACT

In 2011, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement was a major news story. On the surface, it seemed to be a protest directed against “big money” individuals and corporations. Its theme was “the 99% versus the 1%” since the protesters saw themselves as individuals who represented 99% of the income earners versus the top 1%. Its popularity grew considerably and what started as a local phenomenon in Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan mushroomed into a national and international movement. But contrary to popular opinion, OWS is not antirich people or corporate America per se. It was concerned about those well-to-do individuals and corporations who came to dominate much of our national, state, and local public policies. In the first two paragraphs of its declaration, OWS stated:

As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.

As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.

(Occupy Wall Street Declaration, 2011)