Occupy Wall Street Sets Up Camp For An American Revolution

(Newsroom America) -- A month after a small protest on Wall Street began thousands of Americans are now camped out in the heart of New York's financial district trying to start a revolution, employing tactics they say were used in the Middle East recently to overthrow governments with social media and mass protest at its heart.

The protest web site http://occupywallst.org/, said Occupy Wall Street was a "leaderless resistance movement" and the "one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%.

"We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants." The "Arab Spring tactic" is reference to the recent protests in countries such as Egypt and Libya to overthrow government with sustained campaigns of civil resistance, including rallies, strikes, and marches. Many have been arrested after hundreds of protesters tried to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Wall Street protests began with a small group of college students who were filmed being pepper sprayed by the New York Police Department (NYPD). The video was posted on You Tube and went viral, with thousands now joining protests and occupations of public parks in New York and other metropolitan cities in the United States. Among their vocal supporters are a diverse group including unions, Hollywood stars such as Alec Baldwin and Michael Moore, and even President Obama who said on Thursday the movement was resonating with Americans all over the country who are equally frustrated with some of the financial sector's business practices.

The protesters started complaining about inequalities in employment and economic classes, but said on its web site there was "No official list of demands," and in another posting said "We are not a political institution."

A posting which was "user submitted" has offered some demands including banning private insurers from the health insurance market, free education, open borders migration and adopting a "Fortress America" approach to trade by re-imposing tariffs on imported goods. An Admin user posted a disclaimer saying "This is not an official list of demands. This is a forum post submitted by a single user and hyped by irresponsible news/commentary agencies like Fox News and Mises.org. This content was not published by the OccupyWallSt.org collective, nor was it ever proposed or agreed to on a consensus basis with the NYC General Assembly. There is NO official list of demands."

The "General Assembly" refers to the politic body of the movement which is the "NYC General Assembly," which on September 29 issued a "Declaration of the Occupation of New York City."

"We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known," said the declaration which also contained a long list of grievances.

As of Saturday 8 October, the Occupy Wall Street Facebook page had about 45,000 followers with about 43,000 followers on Twitter for the @OccupyWallStNYC account. One Twitter message said "#WallSt usually sees 30-50K people walking down it /day. Since the police barricade, that number has dwindled." Twitter accounts from other cities in the United States are appearing, including @OccupyLA which has about 8,000 followers on Twitter.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader gave a speech at the protest calling on Congress to enact a financial speculation tax to help curb the "wheeling and dealing" on Wall Street.

Mr Nader claimed the frustration seen in the Occupy Wall Street protests demonstrates a widespread and growing citizen discontent with the two political parties in Washington, D.C. and with a political system he said was dominated by corporate interests.

"It is time for citizens to push their elected officials to break the corporate stranglehold on our economy. Congress should start by enacting a financial speculation tax that would help curb the wheeling and dealing on Wall Street and that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue to help with the our country's economic recovery," he said.

Mr Naper said Congress has done more to bail out Wall Street than Main Street. "Wall Street crooks have avoided penalties and prosecution and continued to receive bonuses and excessive compensation while pensions and savings have been looted.

"Wages have remained stagnant while the largest corporations and executives have seen record profits and bonuses year after year. Congress has done little in the face of a staggering - and growing - income inequality in this country, where the top 1 percent of the population has financial wealth equal to the combined financial wealth of the bottom 95 percent of the people," he said, echoeing one of the protesters mantras.

He said Corporate Political Action Committees are corrupting the electoral process and blocking the voices and concerns of millions of people.

"These are not the signs of a healthy democracy."

(C) Newsroom America 2011