It gets them attention.
It, clear, concise, specific…and it will get lost among all the other signs with all the other problems that people are complaining about. But maybe the news crews and those in power will pick out your particular message and focus in on it.
Anything could happen, right?
It’s worth a try.
I like protests and will probably go join in if it really gets going here in Philadelphia, but I haven’t yet.
I think the ‘Occupy’ movement is (so far) very silly. But I dislike so many things about this country I might as well attend protests, even if the ideals or planning of the other protesters isn’t up to my standards.
Between the Tea Party and the Occupy Wall Streeters, I can’t decide which “America” to hate more.
I’ve been looking out my nice corporate window at them. Looks like they’re having a great time in Baltimore,
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bal-bs-md-occupy-balti7-20111004141630,0,5686504.photo
I got my numbers by head-counting the crowd several times during the day. I counted about 500 to 600, not including cops or media. The local news reported numbers ranging from 200 to 800.
My group has moved to a neighboring park for the weekend so as to not interfere with an art festival scheduled for the park in front of city hall, where they had been. I believe they plan to move back to the first park on Monday.
My favorite sign said “I couldn’t afford a politician, so I just made this sign.”
Next week there are some joint events- joining Occupy with an AFL-CIO event and also some Move On ‘Jobs Not Cuts’ events.
The news crews are going to focus on the wack jobs that carry signs that read “CHEMTRAILS ARE MURDER!”…while chain smoking. It happened today in Portland.
Well, the Occupiers at least have good intentions. I respect that. But really, in order to get any real results out of protests, you must focus.
The purpose is civil disobedience, which has been a key ingredient in several successful movements. Yet as of last night, no one else has been arrested downtown STL over the protests, and everyone complied with the officers request to move to the sidewalk, where I guess the curfew does not apply.
And as of midnight when I left for the coffee shop where I am posting, no police presence had shown up to request even that. And some of the protestors do go to their homes, but an increasing number are camping out and plan to stay for the duration and range from college students to union workers to government workers and others.
It is too soon to tell if it has legs or not, but it appears off to a good start. Several people brought food donations and helped out. I also saw several activists from other groups trying to coordinate actions. Many others are showing their support honking and waving as they pass by, including a couple city fire engines. All in all not a bad night. Looking forward to what the weekend crowd will be.
For an event like this to last event a week in St Louis is amazing to me. This is pointedly not New York or Portland or other progressive bastions around the country.
And again, the goal is not to present a coherent or even consistent agenda yet. It is trying to gather enough voices so that any such agenda will have sufficient support to be addressed.
I don’t know what their “intentions” are. Tea Party folk think they have good intentions too. But what it mostly seems to amount to are large crowds of angry, ill-informed people looking for somewhere to focus that anger.
Can someone explain what this “Occupy” movement is? Until I came on this thread I was unaware of these mass protests.
Here in LA, there were some large marches and protests on Thursday. One of them took place outside the offices of Deloitte & Touche, where protesters were jeering employees walking by. One of the local news stations interviewed an DT employee taking a smoke break and asked him what he thought of the protesters. He responded with, “I think they need to find jobs.”
This was my initial reaction, but I’ve been persuaded I was wrong.
There’s a lot of unfocused or misfocused anger among the 99% of Americans; this anger is valid even if some of the naive protesters are confused. If the movement is successful it must eventually get better focus, but meanwhile the confusion is evidence that this is a genuine democratic movement with grassroots origin.
PS: Today I spoke to an American who had just come to Thailand, watched RT News at his hotel, and learned of these protests for the first time. It seems they’re not getting the attention they deserve by America’s own news shows.
That D-T employee and Herman Cain have both expressed that these protesters need “to find jobs.” I think that’s the point. These people are fighting for jobs. The money is all on Wall Street and banks and lobbies and politicians, but there are no jobs. That’s the point of this: Stop the corporate greed and start creating jobs. Close the tax loopholes for the wealthy, and stop this unemployment-inducing austerity. The private sector isn’t hiring, the public sector is being bullied into slashing jobs, but people on Wall Street and in the upper levels of corporate America are rolling in dough.
I’m not in the least bit surprised. The corporate owned media doesn’t have much interest in people taking this movement seriously. They know where their bread is buttered. Their first course of action was simply to ignore it. Now that it’s too big to ignore, they are going to make it look as silly as possible.
While I would love to see more coherence to this protest, this is an organic grassroots movement and there’s no central leadership capable of forcing Orthodoxy on every protestor. That being said, I think it’s quite clear what they are angry about: That our government is catering to the whims of the 1% at the expense of the 99%. The manner in which this is occuring and the solutions to it are extremely complicated and multifaceted and thus is very difficult to ennunciate an exact solution that will fit on a bumper sticker, or even on a sign. Nonetheless, it is fitting that there is now a sizable movement of people willing to publicly call attention to this problem.
Here’s one photo I found of Occupy Portland
I noticed two signs were visible in this photo. One says “Too big to jail? Perp walk Wall Street.” Calling attention to the sad fact that none of the people who helped causes this crisis actually suffered any consequence for it. I think this is a pretty damned important thing to point out.
The second says “The top 1% and their lobbyists have completely bought off 99% of Congress. Now we the 99% of America demand public financing of elections.”
Paul Krugman made some noteworthy comments in this opinion piece, entitled “Confronting the Malefactors”:
Krugman then goes on to explain the history behind the crisis.
They can’t even tell you, man. Which late night show had a skit this week mocking them?
I certainly sympathize with the frustration that the protesters feel because I’ve been bitten by this horrible economy too (hence my search for a p/t job to get the ends closer to meeting), but they make the Tea Party’s goals look very polished in comparison, and you know that despite conservative leanings I’m not one of those people either.
The Tea Party comparisons are certainly apt. I remember all of those Tea Party occupations. Those tea partiers were there day and night… weeks at a time… braving the tear gas… hundreds of arrests.
Speaking as a former Big-4 (D&T/PWC/E&Y/KPMG) consultant, I find it interesting how people who most likely worked pretty hard in school and work long hours for a company where their job is basically helping companies run better and are part of the regulatory process is considered the “bad guy”
I don’t see these angry people doing anything or demanding anything that ultimately will create more jobs