The message of economic inequality has been around as long as money has been around, maybe even longer.
I think what the major turning point that happened here, was a group in new york stumbled on a new tactic, that suddenly got a group that would otherwise be ignored, nation attention.
And that's pitching tents.
This tactic, very much like the kids game of "i'm not touching you", is meant to provoke and draw a response. And that it did.
And as others saw a game changing tactic, they also adopted not only the tactic, but the name of the group that started it.
Protest groups everywhere jumped in on it, even though they had already been protesting. And suddenly, it became about camping, not the original cause that the protestors on Wall Street were about, which was economics.
In my home town of Oakland (which is about as opposite of Wall Street as you can get), the Occupy groups is made up mainly of the "stop the injunction" (anti-gang injunction group financed by the Nortenos that caused the Oscar Grant riots), "cause justa::just cause" (local immigration rights group), and a number of union organizers, with their usual union rights things, and a few anti-war protestors.
The biggest reason that there is no clear message is once the Occupation left Wall Street, and the tactic and catch-all name got adopted by organizations elsewhere, is that each individual group has their own message. Ask any one of the protestors, and they will give you very specific reasons for their protests. Ask two protestors, and you will never get the same answer.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-12-12 07:11 pm (UTC)I think what the major turning point that happened here, was a group in new york stumbled on a new tactic, that suddenly got a group that would otherwise be ignored, nation attention.
And that's pitching tents.
This tactic, very much like the kids game of "i'm not touching you", is meant to provoke and draw a response. And that it did.
And as others saw a game changing tactic, they also adopted not only the tactic, but the name of the group that started it.
Protest groups everywhere jumped in on it, even though they had already been protesting. And suddenly, it became about camping, not the original cause that the protestors on Wall Street were about, which was economics.
In my home town of Oakland (which is about as opposite of Wall Street as you can get), the Occupy groups is made up mainly of the "stop the injunction" (anti-gang injunction group financed by the Nortenos that caused the Oscar Grant riots), "cause justa::just cause" (local immigration rights group), and a number of union organizers, with their usual union rights things, and a few anti-war protestors.
The biggest reason that there is no clear message is once the Occupation left Wall Street, and the tactic and catch-all name got adopted by organizations elsewhere, is that each individual group has their own message. Ask any one of the protestors, and they will give you very specific reasons for their protests. Ask two protestors, and you will never get the same answer.