Transcription
As Congress debates a three-and-a-half trillion dollar bill to expand the nation's social safety net and to increase taxes on the rich, we look back at Occupy Wall Street, the movement that reshaped the national debate on economics and inequality. Yes, it was 10 years ago today, September 17, 2011, when Occupy began. Democracy Now! was one of the only national outlets to report on the first day of the action. Our producer, Sam Alcoff, filed this report:
On Saturday, thousands of protesters took to the streets of downtown Manhattan for what was described as an action to occupy Wall Street, inspired by the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring and the European anti-austerity movements. Adbusters, a Vancouver-based culture jamming magazine, put out a call for Saturday's protest on Wall Street. In July, the goals were various, from limiting corporate contributions to political campaigns to auditing the Federal Reserve to challenging all of global capitalism.
Protesters included 71-year-old Mary Ellen Mourinho of Princeton, New Jersey. "I came because I'm upset with the fact that the bailout of Wall Street didn't help any of the people holding mortgages. All the money went to Wall Street, and none of it went to Main Street. And we've just learned that Geithner was actually asked to split up Citibank, and he didn't do it, and Obama didn't do anything about it."
The plan wasn't simply for a one-day protest but an ongoing and creative occupation of the financial district itself. Organizer Lorenzo Cerna said, "The idea is to have an encampment like this. This isn't a one-day event. We're hoping that people come prepared to stay as long as they can, and that we're there to support each other."
But on Saturday, after hundreds arrived, the NYPD shut Wall Street down itself, barricading activists off from Wall Street and forcing a move to the nearby Zuccotti Park. Despite sometimes tense standoffs with the police, hundreds slept in the park and maintained that they would stay until their demands were met.
Two days later, Democracy Now! interviewed the activist and anthropologist David Graeber, who has been credited with coining Occupy's defining rallying call: "We are the 99 percent." He talked about how Occupy had been inspired by earlier protests in Europe. "Well, what people are doing in Europe is essentially trying to reinvent democracy. The idea is that all of the