With the evacuation of the Zuccotti Park occupiers on November 15, it seemed to some that the physical disbandment of the Occupy Wall Street meant the end of the OWS movement.
Occupy Wall Street, a protest movement that started on September 17 has spread throughout the nation and the global community. Currently, according to the movement’s communication website, occupytogether.org, there are 2,461 cities in at least 92 countries that are protesting in solidarity with the OWS movement, including Occupy London, Occupy Berlin, and Occupy Rome.
On November 15, at approximately 1 a.m., the protesters at New York’s Zuccotti Park were forced to move off the land for clean-up and sanitation. They were warned that while they would be able to come back, tents, tarps, and sleeping bags were not allowed. About 200 people were arrested for trying to stop the cleaning crews from entering; of the 200 included journalists from the New York Times, Daily News, and Associated Press.
Other members of the media were put a block away, so that there would be no media coverage of the evacuation. Police helicopters stopped NBC and CBS helicopters from filming anything.
The tents, sleeping bags, and personal items of the protesters were removed, including 5,000 books from The People’s Library, a public library that was set up within the OWS. Personal computers were also discovered smashed.
Some critics of Occupy have said that this is the end of the movement. Without a leader, without specific goals, and without political backup, it was surprising they lasted this long, some would say.
But Winnetka resident Gwendolyn Wu disagrees. “Media is expanding so fast that it’s almost painfully obvious that [the movement] will start, or continue, spreading their message through other outlets. If you can’t make a physical impression, you can always make a virtual one.”
Across America, there are hundreds of college campuses and communities that are involved in the Occupy movement, united through different Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, Tumblr blogs, and WordPress websites.
California, alone, has over 50 protest locations and currently is the state with the most protests.
I had the opportunity to go and visit one of the nations’ largest occupy locations: Occupy Los Angeles, with around 250 protesters.
It was like entering a tent city. Colorful drawings of corporate monsters and red-lettered signs (“WE ARE THE 99%”) were nailed onto tree trunks.
I noticed a small pocket of green grass in the Occupy camp, bordering the tent city from the busy street adjacent. On this sloping hill were flowers, peace flags, prayer bottles, and other shrine-like offerings.
Regina Quinones was the soft-spoken woman in charge of this “peace shrine” dedicated mostly to the indigenous people of different nations. The shrine was a reflection on their struggles, an apology, a promise to create a better world.
Defining the OWS as a “global movement,” Quinones said that she was asked to come here to hold a sacred place for the United Nations as a place to represent indigenous people. She is working with the city, state, and the UN and will be going to President Obama with a petition asking him to join the 99% and address broken sovereignties and broken treaties.
“I think we’re in a civil war. The only thing is, [the government isn’t] killing us. They are socializing us, controlling us through media, and relocating us. The government will do anything to stop the movement, and use any dirty tactics they’ve used before,” said Quinones.
With passionate people like Quinones working for the betterment of the world, it seems at this point the Occupy movement will not diminish like a past trend.
“I definitely think that the [OWS is] making an impact on the world. [The problems the movement is fighting against] affect everyone, from the curmudgeonly old man buying a newspaper at the doughnut shop to the struggling high school student trying to save for college,” said Wu.
