We can no longer argue the fact that the Occupy Wall Street movement has arrived.  This past weekend marked its largest efforts yet, not only with a massive march to Times Squares but also with global protests echoing the message first voiced at Zuccotti Park. It seems that the nation agrees with that message against corporate greed and widespread structural inequality. A recent Time Magazine poll discovered that 54% of Americans have a favorable impression of the Occupy Wall Street protests, while only 23% percent have a negative impression. Yet as the movement escalates and encompasses more and more American cities, one wonders what role it might play in the current political conversation, and especially ahead of the upcoming 2012 elections.

Many have come to classify the Occupy movement as the liberal version of the Tea Party, a principled conservative movement which arose out of a general disgust with the governmental (or Congressional) betrayal of certain essential values like small government and non-interventionism.  In that manner Occupy Wall Street is the principled liberal movement, arising out of disgust with corporate welfare and greed and a general frustration over the unfair and unjust distribution of wealth and the stalled economy.  Following that logic, some suggest that as the Tea Party reenergized the Republican Party and organized its way to a 2010 Congressional victory, so might the Occupy Wall Street movement do the same for the Democratic Party.  To a certain extent Democrats seem to agree with this sentiment, and are trying to harness the energy of these protests. Recently, in fact, the Democratic National Campaign Committee circulated a petition asking 100,000 supporters to stand in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protestors.

Democratic leaders have also come out in support of the movement. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she supported “the message to the establishment, whether it’s Wall Street or the political establishment and the rest, that change has to happen.”  However, the idea of an eventual marriage between these protestors and the Democratic Party has been a contentious issue. Various profiles on the makeup of this movement reveal that the protestors at Zuccotti Park are not merely disgruntled liberals, but rather an assortment of people with different political interests brought together by a disdain of the status quo.  A status quo which they believe has not only been set by corporate money and interests but reinforced by our two party system.  Because of this Democrats have also tried to temper their support showing general approval but far from linking arms with protestors.

But while Democrats tiptoe around an unclear stance on the movement, its participants are much more resolute about maintaining the small democratic spirit of its processions, betrothed only to the issues of the people, and not of any one party.  Proof of this was seen two weeks ago at the Occupy Atlanta General Assembly in Woodruff Park when protestors rebuffed Congressman John Lewis’s attempt to speak to the crowd. Though the Congressman was later offered the opportunity to speak (he refused due to a time constraint), the deference that one would expect a longtime Democratic congressman and civil rights leader to be paid was not. It was up to the masses gathered there whether he would receive the stage and because some spoke up against the special treatment of any one figure, he was told to wait like everyone else.

YouTube: Occupy Atlanta Silences John Lewis

After a video clip of the event surfaced many commentators were quick to criticize the protestors’ disrespect. But the incident illustrates an important lesson in this continuing saga: the protestors do not care about the validation offered by mainstream Democratic approval or support.  Their goal, unlike that of the Tea Party, is not merely to gain a foothold within a relative party, but rather to collectively figure out ways to combat issues like corporate welfare and social inequality, as cumbersome and unattainable as those goals may be.

Photo by getdarwin via Flickr.

Protesters have occupied Zuccotti Park in New York City since September 17^th.  This protest, Occupy Wall Street, has since spread across the United States: from Boston, Los Angeles and Chicago to our own Washington, DC. It started in 2010, when Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission struck down campaign finance laws. It has since allowed corporations to make unlimited monetary donations to political campaign. The protestors are calling for a fundamental change in the role of money and corporate influence in the government and a change in the priorities of government from supporting corporate interests to supporting working people.

The Occupy Together movement, as the wave of protests has become known, operates without a formal hierarchy, unifying under the motto “we are the 99%”. It’s a direct reference to the distribution of wealth in the United States, in which 1% of American society controls approximately 35% of all the private wealth in America. Decisions are made by consensus on a local level in the individual occupations.

Public opinion has been largely favorable to the protestors, with 33% approving, 27% disapproving and 40% holding no view either way. Even more (79%) say they support the statement “The big banks got bailed out but the middle class got left behind.” Many groups have endorsed the protests, including the major labor unions, and many others, including President Obama, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have expressed their support for the protests.

Occupy Wall Street came to DC on October 1^st with the occupation of McPherson square downtown at 15^th and K streets NW. Since then it has continued, with ‘general assemblies’ twice a day and daily marches to protest various corporate lobbies and events, One of their main targets was the Washington Ideas forum attended by Vice President Biden, former Vice President Cheney, Treasury Secretary Geitner, as well as the CEOs of Bank of America and Exxon, among others.

Also happening this past week in DC: ‘Stop the Machine’, a protest organized since last June has been in Freedom Plaza since October 6^th. Primarily organized to protest the 10^th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan, it has since picked up a lot of the rhetoric behind the Occupy Together Movement, such as the “we are the 99%” motto. This has led to a fair amount of confusion between the Stop the Machine protest and Occupy DC.

American University students have been active within both protests, and a large delegation of AU students, organized by the Community Action and Social Justice Coalition (CASJ) joined Occupy DC in the last few days. Junior Jimmy Fagan (CAS/SPA) expressed his reasoning behind participating in the protest.

“We have hope for change, real change, not some empty promise from some politician,” Fagan said.

Junior Chris Litchfield (SPA/CAS), President of AU Democrats and a member of the CASJ organizing collective, has been supportive of the protests and hopes more students get involved.

“This (protest) matters.  Grassroots democratic movements have shaped American public policy in the past ten years,” Litchfield said. “As students, we are invested in the future, and to see folks standing up against our current irresponsible economic practices is refreshing.”

Photos by Ethan Miller