Alex Calvin
The year 2011 has been no stranger to protests, television news and twenty-four hour news programs showing pictures of angry people, protesting and arson. The Arab Spring and London riots are still in the recent memory, but these protests are different. There is a memetic feeling of anger towards the rich and the greedy, which has spread across the globe, and these people have no idea who to be angry towards.
What started out as a protest localised to Wall Street in New York and organised by the Canadian anti-capitalist side Adbusters, it seems to have set off a spark in the minds of people all over the world. This started out as a simple statement; ÔÇÿWe are the 99%ÔÇÖ. Protestors were demonstrating against social inequality, and the greed of many of the rich in America, as well as corporate greed; the 1%.
With the Forbes Billionaire list for 2011 featuring 1,210 names, this means that there is at least $1,210 billion in the United States, with this wealth being very unfairly distributed. Most of these riches and these corporations also benefit from tax cuts that the 99% want to see repealed.
The 1% contains people who earn more than $593, 000 per year. That said, protestors are not only speaking out against the huge in-balance in wealth, but they are also protesting against how this 1% have managed to augment said wealth in the aftermath of the financial crisis, when most Americans are either losing wealth or remaining constant. The fact that these people have managed to develop and grow their wealth over this time, while the rest of the nation is still suffering, is a point of great anger.
The protests have cost the city of New York $3.2 million in police overtime.
All the more shocking is the media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street. Protestors have been labelled as ÔÇÿanarchistsÔÇÖ, ÔÇÿunpatrioticÔÇÖ and ÔÇÿanti-AmericanÔÇÖ. The protestors have been criticised for not having a list of demands, and lacking a universal voice.
[pullquote]The protests have cost the city of New York $3.2 million in police overtime[/pullquote]Only on day 24 of the riots did Mayor Bloomberg of New York condone the protests, saying ÔÇÿpeople want to express themselves, and so long as they obey the laws, weÔÇÖll allow themÔÇÖ, while on day 30, Barrack Obama himself said he is not only supporting the protestors, but he is working in the interests of the 99%.
In October, the protests spread to Washington DC, Los Angeles and San Francisco, to name a few.
On the 15th October, the protests crossed the Atlantic to London, beginning in solidarity with the American Occupy protests, and being backed by the UK Uncut movement. These took place outside the London Stock Exchange, with protestors now camped out over night outside St PaulÔÇÖs Cathedral. Like their brothers in America, the British protestors are acting out against how the government and bankers have dealt with the economic crisis. They are angry that cuts are being made to the general population, while bankers are still making vast sums of money, all of this after we, the people, bailed the banks out.
Protestors are said to be after ÔÇÿaccountabilityÔÇÖ. One protestor appeared on the steps of St PaulÔÇÖs Cathedral dressed as Jesus, holding a sign that read ÔÇÿI threw the moneylenders out for a reasonÔÇÖ, obviously protesting the inherent evil of money.┬á On the 17th, protestors issued a nine-point manifesto, calling the current system ÔÇÿbroken, undemocratic and unjustÔÇÖ and saying the people ÔÇÿrefuse to pay for the bankersÔÇÖ crisisÔÇÖ. Only eight arrests have been made at the time of writing.
Out of all the protests, only one was actually violent; Rome.  200, 000 people gathered to   protest in solidarity against the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who the governments of Europe have had to bail out. At least one hundred and thirty people have been injured, as police threw tear gas and used a riot hose on the crowd, though this is more a case of a peaceful protest being hijacked by a small violent element, known as black bloc.
Witnesses have stated that protestors have been trying to stop violent protestors setting fire to cars, defiling religious iconography, and attacking buildings, causing at least $1.4 million in damages.
As said earlier, these protests seem to be memetic, spreading because of a general feeling that something is not quite right with the world at the moment. People are angry at the economic situation, and how governments seem to be more concerned with pleasing the banks and the corporations than the people they have been voted in to serve.
[pullquote]103 protesters killed in Rome[/pullquote]When the recession happened, people argued that it was a logical continuation of the capitalist system, the biggest flaw of a system that relies on eternal growth. These protests too are a logical continuation of a system that relies on growth and greed. The people are sick of the bankers and the rich hoarding all the money of the nation, in a manner that would make Ayn Rand proud.
I think we are about to witness the next step of capitalism in the next few years, one that deals with the greed and masses of wealth acquired by a small percentage of the population where the people take back the power from the corporations. Either way, these protests show no sign of curbing any time soon. I am surprised they have not happened sooner.
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