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Occupy Wall Street’s global origins
By nemo | February 8, 2012
Occupy Wall Street: Its global origins
To some people, like me, Occupy Wall Street seemed to have started out of the blue, but if you look at the global events of 2011, you will realize that Occupy Wall Street was just one the many protests that occurred around the world. The way each protest started right after the last seems to resemble the Domino Theory, with one of the last dominoes falling in America. The first domino to fall was Mohamed Bouazizi.
Mohamed Bouazizi was abused by cops on December 17, 2010, a Friday morning, and went to the provincial-capital building to complain. He got no response. He drenched himself in paint thinner and lit himself on fire. His daughter told Kurt Anderson, the TIME magazine reporter, that, “in Tunisia, dignity is more important than bread,” (Anderson, 2011). That was the first domino that fell in 2011. That afternoon, two other produce sellers and townspeople went to join the Bouazizi family in their protests against the governorate, which was videotaped by a cousin. Since a third of all Tunisians use the internet, other protests in other cities were inspired. By Janurary 4th, the day Mohamed died from his burns, the protest had reached a critical mass. More than a dozen were killed by police. More and more Tunisians were ready to die to protest their corrupt government, as Anderson quoted teacher Lina Ben Mhenni, “I [Lina Mhenni] was ready for anything, even death,” (Anderson, 2011).
This Tunisian domino would next knock over the Egyptian domino, as Shady el-Ghazali Harb tells Anderson, “It wouldn’t have happened without them,” (Anderson, 2011). Khaled Said hacked a cop’s cell phone, which exposed the cop’s corrupt drug trade. Said was arrested and beaten to death. Wael Ghonim, a Google executive, created a Facebook page in memory of Said. Going viral, Ghonim went to Egypt from Dubai and helped plan a protest for Jan. 25 in Tahrir Square. When they ran into huge crowds heading to Tahrir, they knew it was going to be big.
Mohammed Ramadan, a filmmaker said, “in my whole life I’d never seen protests like that. Girls! Some wore hijabs, some didn’t, Christians, Muslims-I’d never seen that” (Anderson, 2011). There were all different people protesting for the same thing, and that has never happened on such a large-scale in Egypt. At midnight of the first night, a member of the Brotherhood, said that despite, “the police’s violent clearing of the square happened and [that] the protesters didn’t run away and go home…” (Anderson, 2011). This was not just an angry protest. This was a revolution.
Americans got angry when a photo surfaced of a cop pepper spraying a group of protestors in Occupy UC Davis that were huddled around on the ground. In other countries, such as Tunisia, the protestors there face tear gas and real bullets as they peacefully protest their corrupt governments. Despite the risk of losing their lives, people still protested. A minimum of 4.5 million Egyptians protested for three weeks. Hisham Kassem, an independent journalist recalls seeing, “…people shot next to me,” and when he returned on the day of the camel, “…it was war-I almost got mauled to death by the thugs” (Anderson, 2011). Around the world, the protests were not as peaceful as those in America.
If protesting in these countries is so dangerous, than why do they do it? As Abdo Kassem told a TIME reporter, “The day Mubarak stepped down…I was crying. For me, that was like bringing down a fake god” (Anderson, 2011). After all of the protesting that had costs lives, Mubarak stepped down, something that had before seemed impossible. By the spring, these types of protests were beginning to occur in Europe.
The Outraged or Los Indigandos went to Peurta del Sol plaza in Madrid, along with several tens of thousands of other cities, united by their frustration with unemployment, the lack of opportunity, and politics that were not progressing. This one-day march turned into an encampment that spanned for several months. 6 million out of the total population of Spain’s 46 million joined the Indigandos protests.
Just ten days after the Indigandos march, Greece saw the same thing happen. On the first Sunday of the protests in Greece, about 100,000 showed up at Syntagam Square in Athens, and a week later, about 500,000 people had shown up. As Christina Lardikou, an Athenian says, “Our protests…all started from the Indignados” (Anderson, 2011). These Greek protests lasted until around the same time 150 young Israeli protestors set up tents in Tel Aviv. The complaints were all similar: no jobs, a high cost of living, corrupt politicians and the wealthy that are only getting richer. Over 100 encampments were set up in Israel. In early September about 400,000 Israeli citizens marched chanting “The people demand social justice!”
Editors of Adbusters, an international magazine for activists that were fighting to change the way information flows, ran a photo of a ballerina on top of Wall Street’s Charging Bull statue, with a background full of gas-masked insurgents in a tear-gas fog. Four lines of copy read: “What is our one demand? #occupywallstreet Septmeber 17th. Bring tent” (Anderson, 2011). Along with the photo, they sent out an email “America needs its own Tharir” (Anderson, 2011). This emial shows that the other protests from around the globe were used as an example for Americans to follow.
At the end of July, in New York’s financial district, the Occupiers met with protestors from Spain, Greece and North Africa to figure out what “Occupy Wall Street” might mean. David Graeber, with friend, Georgia Sagri, were the ones who initially gave the group the idea of an encampment in a public space without pre-appointed leaders, where everyone was devoted to critiquing the U.S. economy, with its corrupt politics, but without any call for specific action. He also made their slogan, “We are the 99%”. On the last Saturday of the summer, a few thousand people showed up. Around a hundred slept overnight. The first arrests started on the third day of people who was wearing Guy Fawkes masks, which was in violation of a New York anti-insurrection statute. This domino would set off mini dominos in America, and the Occupy movements would spread across the U.S.
For more on the roots of the Occupy movement, check out Time Magazine’s coverage: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102132,00.html
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