prev
next
Occupy Wall Street has raised $300,000
Occupy Wall Street participants stage a protest on Times Square in New York, October 15, 2011. / Getty Images
NEW YORK - The Occupy Wall Street movement has close to $300,000, as well as storage space loaded with donated supplies in lower Manhattan. It stared down city officials to hang on to its makeshift headquarters, showed its muscle Saturday with a big Times Square demonstration and found legions of activists demonstrating in solidarity across the country and around the world.
Could this be the peak for loosely organized protesters, united less by a common cause than by revulsion to what they consider unbridled corporate greed? Or are they just getting started?
There are signs of confidence, but also signs of tension among the demonstrators at Zuccotti Park, the epicenter of the movement that began a month ago Monday. They have trouble agreeing on things like whether someone can bring in a sleeping bag, and show little sign of uniting on any policy issues. Some protesters eventually want the movement to rally around a goal, while others insist that isn't the point.
"We're moving fast, without a hierarchical structure and lots of gears turning," said Justin Strekal, a college student and political organizer who traveled from Cleveland to New York to help. "... Egos are clashing, but this is participatory democracy in a little park."
Even if the protesters were barred from camping in Zuccotti Park, as the property owner and the city briefly threatened to do last week, the movement would continue, Strekal said. He said activists were working with legal experts to identify alternate sites where the risk of getting kicked out would be relatively low.
Wall Street protesters are intent on hanging on to the momentum they gained from Saturday's worldwide demonstrations, which drew hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in the U.S. and Europe. They're filling a cavernous space a block from Wall Street with donated goods to help sustain their nearly month-long occupation of a private park nearby.
They've amassed mounds of blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, cans of food, medical and hygienic supplies — even oddities like a box of knitting wool and 20 pairs of swimming goggles (to shield protesters from pepper-spray attacks). Supporters are shipping about 300 boxes a day, Strekal said.
The space was donated by the United Federation of Teachers, which has offices in the building.
Close to $300,000 in cash also has been donated, through the movement's website and by people who give money in person at the park, said Bill Dobbs, a press liaison for the movement. The movement has an account at Amalgamated Bank, which bills itself as "the only 100 percent union-owned bank in the United States."
Strekal said the donated goods are being stored "for a long-term occupation."
"We are unstoppable! Another world is possible!" Kara Segal and other volunteers chanted in the building lobby as they arrived to help unpack and sort items, preparing them to be rolled out to the park.
While on the streets, moments of madness occasionally erupt in the protest crowd — accompanied by whiffs of marijuana, grungy clothing and disarray — order prevails at the storage site.
It doubles as a sort of Occupy Wall Street central command post, with strategic meetings that are separate from the "general assembly" free-for-alls in the park. One subject Sunday was data entry: protesters are working to get the names and addresses of donors into a databank.
The movement has become an issue in the Republican presidential primary race and beyond, with politicians from both parties under pressure to weigh in.
President Barack Obama referred to the protests at Sunday's dedication of a monument for Martin Luther King Jr., saying the civil rights leader "would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing those who work there."
Many of the largest of Saturday's protests were in Europe, where protesters involved in long-running demonstrations against austerity measures declared common cause with the Occupy Wall Street movement. In Rome, hundreds of rioters infiltrated a march by tens of thousands of demonstrators, causing what the mayor estimated was at least euro1 million ($1.4 million) in damage to city property.
U.S. cities large and small were "occupied" over the weekend: Washington, D.C., Fairbanks, Alaska, Burlington, Vermont, Rapid City, South Dakota, and Cheyenne, Wyoming were just a few. In Cincinnati, protesters moved their demonstration out of a park after hearing that a couple was getting their wedding photos taken there — but the bride and groom ended up seeking them out for pictures.
More than 70 New York protesters were arrested Saturday, more than 40 of them in Times Square. About 175 people were arrested in Chicago after they refused to leave a park where they were camped late Saturday, and there were about 100 arrests in Arizona — 53 in Tucson and 46 in Phoenix — after protesters refused police orders to disperse. About two dozen people were arrested in Denver, and in Sacramento, California, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan was among about 20 people arrested after failing to follow police orders to disperse.
Activists around the country said they felt that Saturday's protests energized their movement.
"It's an upward trajectory," said John St. Lawrence, a Florida real estate lawyer who took part in Saturday's Occupy Orlando protest, which drew more than 1,500 people. "It's catching people's imagination and also, knock on wood, nothing sort of negative or discrediting has happened."
St. Lawrence is among those unconcerned that the movement has not rallied around any particular proposal, saying "policy is for leaders to come up with."
"I don't think the underlying theme is a mystery," he said. "We saw what the banks and financial institutions did to the economy. We bailed them out. And then they went about evicting people from their homes," he said. He added that although he is not in debt and owns his own home, other people in his neighborhood are suffering and "everyone's interests are interconnected."
In Richmond, Virginia, about 75 people gathered Sunday for one of the "general assembly" meetings that are a key part of the movement's consensus-building process. Protester Whitney Whiting, a video editor, said the process has helped "gather voices" about Americans discontent, and that she expects it will eventually take the movement a step further.
"In regards to a singular issue or a singular focus, I think that will come eventually. But right now we have to set up a space for that to happen," Whiting said.
Some U.S. protesters, like those in Europe, have their own causes. Unions that have joined forces with the movement have demands of their own, and on Sunday members of the newly formed Occupy Pittsburgh group demanded that Bank of New York Mellon Corp. pay back money they allege it overcharged public pension funds around the country.
New York's attorney general and New York City sued BNY Mellon this month, accusing it of defrauding clients in foreign currency exchange transactions that generated nearly $2 billion over 10 years. The company has vowed to fight the lawsuit and had no comment about the protesters' allegation about pensions.
Lisa Deaton, a tea party leader from southern Indiana, said she sees some similarities between how the tea party movement and the Wall Street protests began: "We got up and we wanted to vent."
But the critical step, she said, was taking that emotion and focusing it toward changing government.
The first rally she organized drew more than 2,500 people, but afterward, "it was like, `What do we do?"' she said. "You can't have a concert every weekend."
The Wall Street protesters' lack of leadership and focus on consensus-building has help bring together people with different perspectives, but it's also created some tension.
"Issues are arising — like who is bringing in sleeping bags without permission," said Laurie Dobson, who's been helping a self-governed "working group" called "SIS" — for Shipping, Inventory and Supplies.
Sleeping bags were among items cited by Zuccotti Park's owner, Brookfield Properties, as not allowed on the premises — along with tents, tarps and other essentials for the encampment. By Sunday, all those items were back.
Strekal didn't see that as a problem. Protesters could do it, he said, "because we're winning the PR war."
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Port Authority releases photo of One WTC workers at dizzying heights 116 Comments
- Massive train collision takes down highway overpass
- Washington state bridge collapses 20 Photos
- Best U.S. beaches 2013 10 Photos
- Bridge collapse blamed on tractor-trailer 324 Comments
- Frantic 911 calls reveal chaos in Okla., following tornado
- Deadly Angel Flight crash in upstate New York
- Sandy-shocked Jersey Shore seeks summer comeback
Most Popular
-
01
-
02
-
03
-
04
-
05
Most Shared
Most Discussed
But this is clearly wrong. In fact, calling the protests "anti-capitalist" seems like it is mainly designed to discredit the protests by painting them as anti-free enterprise and anti-free markets. But if we actually had free markets, would we have felt the need to bail out banks and huge multi-national corporations? Or would CEO have received huge bonuses even though their companies lost money and laid off employees?
As Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed out at a teach-in at the site of the occupation, it is not capitalism when you socialize losses and privatize gains. Nor is it capitalism when corporations have more political power than real people.
If you don't get it, Douglas Rushkoff explains what is important about the Occupy Wall Street protests and why the mainstream media is clueless at http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/05/opinion/rushkoff-occupy-wall-street/
What next quoting The Huffington Post or maybe Keith Olberman. After all they are both impartial unbiased news sources right?
It's been a long time coming...but the time is now.?We the people are waking up...after a long long sleep. And OWS is helping to open their eyes. But besides occupying Wall Street and hundreds of other places...we also need to occupy Congress. Not by force, but by helping elect progressives who will bring about systemic change. We had brave Freedom Riders in the 60's. We need dedicated 2012 Freedom Riders now: ?occupying --and bringing their messages-- to each and every state, in order to insure a progressive 60 votes in the Senate, and a progressive Majority in the House. Our political system has been high-jacked by the rich, the militarists, and the Tea-publicans. They did it - and so can we! We need to get the system back, and to get it back on track - for the people, by the people, and of the people - not the 99%. THANK YOU to all those beautiful hardy souls in OWS, shivering and wet in an increasingly chilly New York Autumn: I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!
President Barack Obama referred to the protests at Sunday's dedication of a monument for Martin Luther King Jr., saying the civil rights leader "would want us to challenge the excesses of Wall Street without demonizing those who work there."
My take:
In the 2008 election, President Obama took more money from Wall Street than any elected President in the history of this nation. He is the last person who has any credibility regarding so called excesses in Wall Street. The problem is not with how much money anyone at Wall Street makes, the problem is a continued 9% unemployment rate caused by the failed economic policies of President Obama and other progressives.
Article:
"I don't think the underlying theme is a mystery," he said. "We saw what the banks and financial institutions did to the economy. We bailed them out. And then they went about evicting people from their homes," he said. He added that although he is not in debt and owns his own home, other people in his neighborhood are suffering and "everyone's interests are interconnected."
My take:
Well, this is the first concise statement I have read regarding the purpose of this movement. If this is the REAL concern of this movement, I can understand the frustration. However, Wall Street again is not the problem here. The frustration is misdirected, as the cause of this problem was bad judgment exercised by politicians in Washington. Before leaving office, President Bush pushed a bailout - and I didn't like it. The federal government has no business deciding which businesses succeed and which fail. Later, President Obama went nuts handing out bailouts. Washington is the problem.
The original mortgage collapse was due to Congress (Barney Frank helped lead this) pushed banks and mortgage companies to make loans to people who could not pay the money back. This was a Washington problem again. Washington attempted to micromanage business from a political sense, and it screwed things up.
Article:
"In regards to a singular issue or a singular focus, I think that will come eventually. But right now we have to set up a space for that to happen," Whiting said.
My take:
It sounds like the "occupy people" really don't know what they want. This still looks like frustrated people, most probably unemployed, who are angry at the way a wide variety of things are - and they don't really know who to lash out at. Many may have struggles making ends meet, so they lash out at people who are still successful - people who don't seem to be in the same struggle. When money gets tight, we always see people doing crazy things.
During the Great Depression, a little man rose up in Germany. Hitler pointed to the Jews, and he told the German people that they had all the money that "rightfully" belonged to the people of Germany. The Jews were an exclusive group, who looked of for each other. The German people believed him, and they saw nothing wrong with forcefully taking the possessions of the Jews. As time went on, then they saw nothing wrong with taking their homes and putting them in work camps. We have seen this mentality before, and it is dangerous. We need to remember that it is not a certain occupation that is the problem in this nation, but rather the corruption and bad judgment of our elected leaders in Washington.
We need to be careful not to make our neighbors out to be our enemies, and we need to look for the real source of economic problems. It is not Wall Street, and it is not capitalism. Capitalism is nothing more than free market trade, and independent freedom from government oppression. Free market trade has been one of the reasons our nation grew to become one of the strongest economies the world has ever seen. Those who make our capitalism as being the problem are absolutely wrong
1) Obama, Wall Street and the problem: OWS isn't protesting how much money people make on Wall Street, at least not directly. They are protesting economic injustice - that we are taking from the poor to give to the rich and that the rich control the game so that the poor can middle class cannot get ahead. Over the last 30 years the rich have gotten dramatically richer while the middle class and poor are getting poorer - the exact opposite of the previous 50 years when the rising economy benefited all Americans.
Unemployment and the last 3 years are not what they are angry about.
2) "This is the first concise statement about the purpose of the movement." Conservative propaganda. The movement has been clear from the beginning that it is about economic justice. Bailouts were just one part of the injustice. They aren't saying Washington isn't a problem - it is. They aren't saying its Republicans and not Democrats - they are mad at both parties. But the core issue is that we have a plutocracy (government of the rich) instead of democracy and the wealthy put their puppets in Washington to do their bidding - so just being mad at Washington is an attempt by the plutocrats to shift the focus away from the core problem.
The statement "the original collapse was due to Congress and Democrats helped lead it is also conservative propaganda. The meltdown was caused by many things and both parties are accountable, but the amendments to the Community Reinvestment Act that you refer to were passed by Republicans and nothing in the CRA says banks should lend money to people who can not pay AT ALL. Selling toxic mortgage assets as AAA paper wasn't done by an act of Congress ot by Fannie and Freddie, it was done by Wall Street.
3) OWS is not an Astroturf movement like the Tea Party that came pre-equipped with talking points because the Koch brothers set it up that way. OWS is organized around a singular theme - economic justice - but they are debating the specifics, and since they actually represent w die cross section of citizens it make take a little while before they can put out a list.
4) OWS Is not anti-capitalist, that is also conservative propaganda. It is not capitalism when the rich can gamble using our money, stick us with the losses when they lose but keep all the gains when they win. It isn't capitalism when the puppets of the plutocracy rig the political game to protect the advantages of corrupt companies so that the free market can not address them.
OWS isn't against capitalism, it's against economic injustice.
This is so funny!
It is legal for a business to lie to its customers, and profit from intentionally misleading them, but it is wrong.
------
In which state?
It is illegal to commit fraud, but the legal definition of fraud is stringent and a great deal of lying and misleading is not fraud,. The biggest loophole is that to be fraud the "liar" has to be the primary source of information about the issue - and the courts consistently rule that many things are things "consumers could figure out for themselves" and thus not fraud.