Occupy Wall Street movement comes to SLC
Thousands of people are protesting “corporate greed” around the world in a pair of movements called Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together.
Under the slogan “We are the 99 percent,” members of the Occupy movements say corporations — who they say represent the remaining 1 percent — have an unfair level of influence on society and damage the livelihoods of everyone else.
“There are multibillionaires on Wall Street, yet we have people making less than minimum wage,” said Leska Mackie, a senior at USU who said she follows the Occupy movements and hopes to attend some of the events.
Beginning with a protest on Wall Street in September, the movement has now spread to cities across the globe. The first group to demonstrate away from Wall Street was the group Occupy Chicago, which organized outside the Federal Reserve Bank. Occupy Together has staged events in more than 1,400 cities, including cities in Italy and Greece. There is also a discussion on Occupy Together’s official website of organizing an occupation in Logan.
Utilizing social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, Occupy Together and Occupy Wall Street, which work in “solidarity” with one another, have published demands and announced events. Among Occupy Wall Street’s official demands are campaign finance reform, including the reversal of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the forgiving of all student loans and the shutdown of the Federal Reserve.
For a complete list of Occupy Wall Street’s demands, see Briefs on page 3
“These protesters have a core set of complaints that I think are valid — the unholy alliance between corporations and government,” said USU Professor Randy Simmons, who teaches economics and finance. “They mistakenly think that it is capitalism, but what they really are protesting is corporatism.”
Simmons said many students simply want student loans to be forgiven and want to escape paying for their own life choices.
While the protesters’ concerns are legitimate, the group does not provide any suitable answers, he said.
“The unholy alliance between big business during this administration and the last one is sickening and frightening,” Simmons said. “The occupiers, however, do not have good answers. In fact, the most common answer is more government, unless Republicans run the government.
“Many have a magical view of how economies work and assume that putting ‘the people’ in charge will magically make things better,” he added. “Many are genuinely worried that ‘fat cats’ control the economy — these view most economic activity as zero sum and that any profits are taken from their pockets.
“The hive mentality among the protesters is entertaining and frightening — read ‘1984′ and then watch YouTube videos of the Atlanta Occupiers,” Simmons continued, “especially when they refused to let John Lewis talk.”
Simmons said these events illustrate that the occupiers are emotionally charged, but, he added, their solutions aren’t necessarily sound.
Mackie said the goal of the movements is not necessarily that the government will accept all of their demands.
“The main suggestion is to equalize the system just a little bit,” she said. “I understand we aren’t going to ever be making the same amount of money, but there’s such a mess going on between the government and these CEO’s.”
As part of the protests, according to recent news coverage, occupiers set up camps in parks and other public areas, which are the main origin points of many of the marches and demonstrations.
Daily general assemblies, where every person is given the chance to propose legislation as well as vote on other people’s suggestions are also held in most occupant camps. Most camps have separated into committees, allowing the members of the assembly to specialize in the proposals they are designing.
Although the general assembly demands are generally political, Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together both hold that these are not political organizations. The groups also rebuke suggestions that these have come about as a liberal response to the Tea Party.
“I don’t think it’s a liberal movement,” Mackie said. “There’s a lot of different types of people involved. It’s people from all different backgrounds and all different situations that are coming together.”
Simmons, however, said Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Together share many characteristics of the Tea Party, particularly that both are populist movements.
“The Occupiers and the Tea Partiers overlap in more than their fear of big government and big business,” Simmons said. “They are populists who think government can solve problems and should monitor and protect the rest of us — often from ourselves. Tea partiers tend to want to control sexual acts between consenting adults. Occupiers want to control economic acts between consenting adults — which is not to say that sex is an economic activity. Neither group appears to value freedom very much.”
Mackie said the movements will likely become political in the future.
“Just because of the nature of our country, it may get political,” Mackie said. “Which, you know what? It may benefit us. If we can get candidates who will endorse the things we are trying to get, then I think it would be beneficial to get candidates involved and make it more of a political thing.”
– bracken.allen@aggiemail.usu.edu