Occupy Archive Digital Exhibits: Spring 2020 CWRUMain MenuOccupy Archive Digital ExhibitGrievances of the 99%At its roots, the Occupy Wall Street Movement was an anti-capitalist, anti-corporation movement composed of people angered by the selfish and greedy financial practices of the country’s upper class. Proponents of Occupy thought the American Dream was no longer possible and protested the stifling lack of opportunity available to non-privileged citizens. As a result of the Great Recession beginning in 2008, the 99%, the people paying the price for the actions of the country's elites, advocated for regulation and oversight of this corrupt 1%. The Occupy Movement rooted their activism in an understanding that an economic system exclusively benefiting the top 1% at the expense of everyone else is unsustainable and antithetical to the idea of democracy."Spillover"Our group's central theme is 'spillover', describing the ways that the actions described through our images reflect events and initiatives occurred as a consequence of the Occupy movement and its mentality.Policing as a Response to Occupy (and Social Movements in General)By: Darnelle Crenshaw, Michele Lew, Kyle Jones, and Virginia SquiresCreditsHeather McKee Hurwitz5475560673ea0735a10b6e6d3d625f3b9ffa12d7Julia Barnett99ba46e1a90a7c1df20f21922190310f6f3efdd5Olivia Condonc9140ebeac749df292dcdb314b72f0421fd3b153Darnelle Crenshaw El698b5260fd87a6ad0bc33689d5f2d8d45ba709d8Maria Fallavollita80c688f6c729eba0508714a2d4be84dad57ff6fdMichael Grantc56a32fdaf3bdefdbea0262874aacdc2bc18f0e2Avi Horwitz86de03d4466bf83c7ef82d3fdfb9344a5a531f67Kyle Jones061ae84fb0af3ee4257d662c0654a6ffc248e2d5Roshana Krishnappae0efb0ba054c32db4767f895dc7d5696b3ce193bGloria Lee6a607995fcf70c624683f646ed74c7eed6383c13Michele Lew4e5de8e7b6de054339aed342bf927a814a7d2a19Will Schwartzman11715609fe7faf2d6f0a77333d2d3b45da0d31e1Virginia Squires3251adeef9fda64a96c1b0502ba068a372db97beTianyi Zhangdf4f70f56ee96771ef9e03bd733312d96d3463edClaire McDermott Keannac220f01cd16fa51a4e7fb66bbb768248db30c4c2
One year after the the Occupy Movement began, organizers issued a call to action for “education, celebration and resistance to economic injustice" in the New York City Financial District. The flyer and accompanying artwork for the events not only offers a deep representation of how the 99% was brought together through the Occupy Movement in protest of an incompatible economic systems’ driving forces and the immense organizing potential behind it, but also lends perspective on how failing to create an truly intersectional foundation dashed hopes for a sustained, all-inclusive coalition.
The interwoven “streets” used to reflect the deeply rooted connections between a multitude of societal inequalities issues effectively illustrated the movement slogan that, "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%"(Gautney, 2013). Centering protest around the common grievances felt by around Wall Street and an unjust is economic system was key to the initial coalition of occupiers in New York that was just part of a greater worldwide wave of protest (Gautney, 2013).
While the flyer's artwork does the reflect the interconnected nature of inequalities, including racism's connection to mass incarceration and environmental destruction, it fails to explicitly recognize the how the those among the 99% do not equally feel oppressive consequences of Wall Street and Capitalism on their lives. Emphasizing the commonality between the 99% may have been able to initially mobilize masses, but failed make the disproportionate consequences for systematically marginalized communities such as women, the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, indigenous communities etc a core aspect of their cause.
The United States is a county that has been built on the systematic inequalities, culminating in the formation of a general population, including the 99%, whose worldview is deeply influenced by deeply rooted values such a racism and sexism. This flyer is evidence of the failure to explicitly recognize that differences even within the umbrella of the 99%, An examination of the role of Gender and Race in the Occupy Movement by Heather McKee Hurwitz concludes that, "Followers who are guided by gendered and racial prejudices fall back on and recreate traditional gender and racial hierarchies" (Hurwitz, 2019).
Gautney, Heather. 2013. “Occupy Wall Street movement.” The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements, Blackwell Publishing.
Heather McKee Hurwitz. 2019. "Gender and Race in the Occupy Movement: Relational Leadership and Discriminatory Resistance." Mobilization: An International Quarterly: June 2019, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 157-176.
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12020-03-02T19:29:22+00:00Olivia Condonc9140ebeac749df292dcdb314b72f0421fd3b153Grievances of the 99%Maria Fallavollita21At its roots, the Occupy Wall Street Movement was an anti-capitalist, anti-corporation movement composed of people angered by the selfish and greedy financial practices of the country’s upper class. Proponents of Occupy thought the American Dream was no longer possible and protested the stifling lack of opportunity available to non-privileged citizens. As a result of the Great Recession beginning in 2008, the 99%, the people paying the price for the actions of the country's elites, advocated for regulation and oversight of this corrupt 1%. The Occupy Movement rooted their activism in an understanding that an economic system exclusively benefiting the top 1% at the expense of everyone else is unsustainable and antithetical to the idea of democracy.splash14102020-03-04T19:47:49+00:00Maria Fallavollita80c688f6c729eba0508714a2d4be84dad57ff6fd
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12020-02-26T19:41:59+00:00OA01_followthemoney_015.pdf3plain2020-02-26T19:43:55+00:00New York CitySeptember, 2012
