Riding on the wings of social media and on the lines of the Egyptian revolution and the rise of the Arab spring, the small but sizable people-powered, high networked movement is gaining ground close to Ground Zero at the very heart of the global financial capital, New York’s Manhattan area.
Manhattan is home to the Wall Street and a maze of American and global financial institutions.
Braving pouring rain and cold, protesters have been living in a park in New York's financial district, close to the Wall Street, for three weeks now. The rampaging bull, the symbol of the New York bourse and the American economy, is just down the road.
Their protest that began on Sept. 17 with an encampment in Manhattan is apparently against ‘evil bankers in the neighborhood’ responsible for the financial mayhem that was destroying the American economy, creating social inequities and leaving thousands jobless and homeless.
“America has lost its way. I do not see real democracy. I do not hear the voice of the people,” a protester said.
“There is only chronic capitalism and an American empire that runs 700 military bases in 135 countries. I see a welfare warfare state that gives billions of foreign aid to fund dictators build armies across the world. Republicans and democrats stand for the same thing. They are the same.”
Anger is indeed in the air.
Staying put on the streets of Manhattan, the protesters insist they have taken inspiration from Tahrir Square and were seeking to emulate the Arab uprising using social media as a vehicle of mass awakening.
The campaign — #occupywallstreet on the micro blogging site Twitter — has described itself as a people powered movement for democracy.
“Inspired by the Egyptian Tahrir Square uprising and the Spanish acampadas, we vow to end the monied corruption of our democracy … join us,” their website beckons. Chants of ‘we are not going anywhere from here’ resonate the area.
“The only way we can find hope is through mounting social pressure,” said a protester.
“This was absolutely inspired by Tahrir Square, by the Arab Spring movement. Enough is enough,” Tyler Combelic, 27, a web designer from Brooklyn and spokesman for the occupiers, was quoted as saying in the New York Times.
They have been camping on the Wall Street for about 20 days now, quietly putting across their views and at times literally laying bare ‘the dark side of Wall Street’ with flash demonstrations, protest marches and sit-ins.
“This financial district is responsible for most of the poverty and suffering on this planet.”
The movement initially dismissed as a joke is slowly gaining momentum and spreading to other major cities of the United States as well. This weekend saw similar protests in Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and many other places. Organizers have called for people to flood the Wall Street area in the days to come.
While the movement is no river on a roar right now, it has surely evolved into a gentle stream steadily making its way into the hinterlands of America and the hearts of its people.
The lack of large numbers is made up by dogged determination adding new cities across the United States and some in Europe as well where economies are also facing a similar downswing to the ‘Occupy list’.
On Wednesday, several local unions and progressive groups impacted by the economic crisis are planning to join the protest demanding that Wall Street and the wealthiest New Yorkers pay their fair share of taxes.
Over the past two weeks, demonstrations have addressed several other issues as well, including police brutality and union busting.
Ironically, in taking a leaf out of the Arab revolution, the protests seem to grow in resonance as the American Fall, the season when leaves change hues and submerge American hinterlands in a sea of yellow, brown and orange, begins.
Is this the real American fall, one that would bring in new hues to the lives of ordinary Americans?