October 20, 2011
With all the recent attention and coverage of the Occupy Wall Street (#OWS) protest, there is great interest in what exactly is being protested and the movement’s future plans. Here is a roundup of recent articles and blog posts discussing the issues and agenda of #OWS.
#OWS issues:
Mike Konczal uses posts from the #OWS-related “We are the 99%” Tumblr to gather data and identify the common concerns of blog’s posters. His quantitative approach presents the concerns in a simple manner with informative, easy-to-follow charts.
While Henry Blodget does not touch upon all the popular #OWS issues, he does paint a great story through charts about unemployment, corporate profits, income inequality and the financial sector.
Mary Pilon highlights another major #OWS issue, student-loan debt, in the WSJ blog Real Time Economics.
Catherine Rampell’s NYT Economix blog post uses annual income statistics for the top 1%, providing more information about who makes up the 99% and 1% in the United States.
#OWS “agenda”:
Where is #OWS headed? There are great suggestions on what should be included in the #OWS list of demands, however there is no defined #OWS agenda yet, and that’s OK. #OWS is still a young protest (the one-month anniversary was October 17) and the messages will change and develop. Elizabeth Mary King agrees that an evolving agenda is normal, citing a couple historical protests as examples. To supplement King’s article, the six articles below highlight the importance of the #OWS movement itself rather than the need to identify concrete demands this early in the process.
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“Occupy Wall Street Gets What the ‘Very Serious People’ Have Missed for 30 Years”, John Schmitt (AlterNet)
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“What will victory look like for Occupy Wall Street?”, Sally Kohn (CNN Opinion)
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“Why Occupy Wall Street isn’t about a list of demands”, Julianne Pepitone (CNN Money)
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“Protesters Against Wall Street” (NYT Opinion)
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“Why Liberals Should Embrace Occupy Wall Street”, John B. Judis and Jonathan Cohn (The New Republic)
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“It’s a Tremor, Not a Quake. Yet.”, Tom Hayden (Huffington Post)
Although there is no official agenda, future plans are being made. Over the weekend, a group of #OWS protestors formed the Working Group, which has begun organizing a National General Assembly, set to convene on July 4, 2012, and posted the 99% Declaration. The Declaration’s Petition of Grievances is not final and is in no way the official platform of the #OWS movement; however, a very similar petition will likely be voted on by the National General Assembly come July 2012.
