The Occupy Wall Street protests are now entering their fourth week. The movement which began in New York City on September 17th has garnered the support of most of the big unions, numerous celebrities, intellectuals, the hactivist group Anonymous, and even some key politicians.
Occupy Wall Street has been growing rapidly and picking up steam as protests pop-up in more and more cities across North America and even Europe (the Occupy Montreal protest begins on Sat Oct 15th). Major media outlets have even started covering this movement seriously (except for Fox News obviously) but this wasn’t the case when it first started.
There are a variety of issues that people are protesting but primarily they are calling for an end to crippling corporate greed and for the government to sever ties between itself and the US banking sector. Since the financial collapse in 2008 many Americans have lost their homes, lost their jobs and the country as a whole has been struggling through a recession.
The banks and corporations (some deemed “Too Big to Fail”) successfully secured bailouts and loans to ensure that they would remain profitable. The weakened economy was felt most by ordinary citizens who, many already struggling with crippling debt, were trying to feed their families, keep a roof over their heads, get access to health care and/or seek an education.
Many people have to make difficult choices as the aforementioned liberties are no longer guaranteed pillars of the American way of life and some people even have to make choices between basic necessities. From this has also sprung the call to arms “We are the 99 Percent“!
Here are some images and videos from the movement so far:
This is a message from Anonymous which details part of the problem and the issues people are facing.
