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They're Baaaa-aaack: OWS Protesters Return to Zucotti Park

by Jack Palmer 01-11-2012 | 1:17pm
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 The Occupiers have returned to Zucotti Park!

The barricades that have kept them out since the park was cleared November 15 are gone and steady streams of protestors are returning to their adopted home.

 

It remains to be seen whether the camp will be allowed to return to its former glory, or whether the security guards who have been controlling entry to the plaza will keep the returning protestors on a tight leash. According to The Associated Press

One security guard told a group of protesters: "No sleeping bags allowed, either, OK, folks?"

The removal of protestors from the park almost two months ago did not, as some predicted at the time, bring an end to the now-worldwide movement that sprung to life in September of last year. Encampments remain in many major cities in the United States, and well as prominent groups of protestors in London and other global centers. Sojourners CEO Jim Wallis spent time visiting Occupy London in November and you can read his thoughts on the experience HERE.

The Occupy movement has also been on something of a road-trip in recent months. Campaigners concerned with the growing inequality seen in the United States have been taking their concerns and challenges to the Republican Presidential candidates as they stumped in Iowa and New Hampshire.

So (geographically at least), Occupy Wall Street is back where it started. But in terms of its message, it is continuing to have an important impact in the election and beyond. The language of equality is heard far more regularly now than it was before the movement began. As we enter a pivotal year for the United States, let’s hope that this message can continue to be proclaimed loud and clear.

Jack Palmer is a communications associate at Sojourners. Follow Jack on Twitter @JackPalmer88.

 

 

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by: Arachne646

01-11-2012 @ 4:11pm

Zuccotti Park was only a start. Welcome back, and thanks for all those months you camped there until anyone, including Sojournor's, in the media noticed you. Now the subject of income and wealth inequity is actually discussed, instead of only being an idea in economics and the fight against globalism. Because of Occupy Wall Street, a second look by the public is being taken at all the criminals in suits who crashed the world's economies and continue to take it out on taxpayers. Because of Occupy Wall Street, non-violent protestors were beaten, attacked with firearms and chemical weapons and attacked again for attempting to give aid to the injured by typical militarized police forces in the USA. This time, primarily white middle-class people were attacked by the drug-war armed police. The church responded by showing up on both sides--on almost every occupation site with the demonstrators, and often, as the owners of property the institutional Church wanted occupations kept off. What the camps did best--give homes and validity to homeless in the cities they occupied--has been what some of them have been most criticized for.


The Occupy movement hasn't given the media what they've demanded most--a list of demands and a leader/spokesmodel. There's plenty of meat for a special issue of a newspaper in any small town that still has a real-estate and such paper though--they probably had an #OccupyPlainsville twitter and a short camp in the square.


 

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by: Arachne646

01-11-2012 @ 4:11pm

Zuccotti Park was only a start. Welcome back, and thanks for all those months you camped there until anyone, including Sojournor's, in the media noticed you. Now the subject of income and wealth inequity is actually discussed, instead of only being an idea in economics and the fight against globalism. Because of Occupy Wall Street, a second look by the public is being taken at all the criminals in suits who crashed the world's economies and continue to take it out on taxpayers. Because of Occupy Wall Street, non-violent protestors were beaten, attacked with firearms and chemical weapons and attacked again for attempting to give aid to the injured by typical militarized police forces in the USA. This time, primarily white middle-class people were attacked by the drug-war armed police. The church responded by showing up on both sides--on almost every occupation site with the demonstrators, and often, as the owners of property the institutional Church wanted occupations kept off. What the camps did best--give homes and validity to homeless in the cities they occupied--has been what some of them have been most criticized for.


The Occupy movement hasn't given the media what they've demanded most--a list of demands and a leader/spokesmodel. There's plenty of meat for a special issue of a newspaper in any small town that still has a real-estate and such paper though--they probably had an #OccupyPlainsville twitter and a short camp in the square.