CQR 'Occupy' Movement

Res earc her Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com ‘Occupy’ Movement Does the protest against inequality have staying power?

emonstrators protesting income inequality and corporate greed have taken over parks and other public places across the country in the wake of D the Occupy Wall Street protest launched in Sep - tember near New York City’s Financial District. Police have shut down many camps following mass arrests, occasional violence and heavy-handed police tactics, including in New York and Oakland, Calif. Still, while top Republicans have condemned the protesters as divisive and dangerous, some Democratic politicians have

voiced sympathy for their message. The movement’s main claim — Occupy Wall Street activists demonstrate against income inequality and corporate greed on Oct. 11, that the U.S. political and economic system benefits the richest 2011, in the Upper East Side Manhattan neighborhood of News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, oil tycoon David Koch and other affluent Americans. 1 percent to the detriment of the other 99 percent — has put the

issue of economic fairness front and center in the presidential I race. But the Occupy movement faces a long, cold winter and a N THIS REPORT pair of daunting challenges: defining its long-term goals and form - S THE ISSUES ...... 27 ing a leadership structure that can chart a sustainable course for I BACKGROUND ...... 33 the protest effort. D CHRONOLOGY ...... 34 E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 42 CQ Researcher • Jan. 13, 2012 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 43 Volume 22, Number 2 • Pages 25-52 OUTLOOK ...... 45 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 49 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 50 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT CQ Re search er

Jan. 13, 2012 THE ISSUES OUTLOOK Volume 22, Number 2 • Can the Occupy move - New Progressive Era? MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri 27 ment reduce inequality? 45 Scholars disagree on whether [email protected] • Is Occupy good for the Occupy will spark changes. ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch Democratic Party? [email protected] • Is the Occupy move - CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin ment over? SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS [email protected] BACKGROUND Public Backs Occupy’s ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost 28 Concerns, Rejects Tactics STAFF WRITERS: Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel Half of Americans oppose CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, Rising Militancy protest methods. 33 A depression in the 1890s Alan Greenblatt, Barbara Mantel, Jennifer Weeks sparked activism by farm - Top 1 Percent Has ers, factory workers. 29 Biggest Income Gain DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis Rich Americans’ income rose ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa Marching and nearly 300 percent. 36 Occupying FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris War veterans demanded aid Chronology during the Great Depression. 34 Key events since 1885.

Civil Rights and Tracking Occupy’s Evolution 38 Vietnam 35 The movement began in mid- Tumultuous protests September and quickly spread. An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. marked the 1950s and ’60s. Surprising Alliance: Union VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, 36 HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: Globalization Activists, Union Members Michele Sordi 39 “We are united in the belief Liberalized trade rules and our country needs a change.” DIRECTOR, ONLINE PUBLISHING: job outsourcing in the Todd Baldwin 1990s spurred backlash. 40 Movement Mixes Anarchy and ‘Pure’ Democracy Copyright © 2012 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - CURRENT SITUATION Everybody gets to talk . . . lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other and talk . . . and talk. rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. ‘Occupy’ Caucuses No part of this publication may be reproduced 42 43 At Issue electronically or otherwise, without prior written Activists are confronting Will the Occupy movement permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis- President Obama and continue to affect politics? sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of Republican presidential federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. candidates. FOR FURTHER RESEARCH CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional ‘Occupy’ Elections Quarterly Inc. 42 For More Information Activists are backing Eliza - 48 CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- beth Warren’s Massachusetts Organizations to contact. free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 5) Senate campaign. (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. Bibliography 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - 49 Selected sources used. ‘Occupy’ and tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. 44 Anti-Semitism The Next Step Annual full-service subscriptions start at $803. For pric - Critics say the movement 50 Additional articles . ing, call 1-800-834-9020. To purchase a CQ Researcher has become an outlet for report in print or electronic format (PDF), visit www. haters. Citing CQ Researcher cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports start 51 Sample bibliography formats. at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at additional mail - ing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash ing- Cover: AFP/Getty Images/Emmanuel Dunand ton, DC 20037.

26 CQ Researcher ‘Occupy’ Movement BY PETER KATEL

Obama on down to confront THE ISSUES economic inequality. “For years, people were hen hundreds of saying, ‘When are the pitch - demonstrators sud - forks going to come out? W denly app eared in When are people are going New York’s Financial District to get mad?’ But no one was last September — along with doing anything,” says Ken their tents, sleeping bags and Margolies , director of orga - drums — their “1 percent v. nizing programs at Cornell Uni - 99 percent” buzz-phrase de - versity’s Industrial Labor Rela - crying economic inequality tions School. “The Occupy caught on immediately. movement caught the imag - k c

But sympathizers and crit - e ination of the country.” B

ics did have some questions: n The occupiers’ message y

What did the protesters want b was soon buttressed by stud - o R /

to happen? What did they s ies charting substantial income e want government to do? g growth for Americans at the a m

Some thought the campers I top, and relatively meager

y

t 5 would quickly give up and t growth for everyone else. e G

disperse. / (See graph, p. 29. ) P

The Occupy Wall Street ac - F Weeks after the Occupy A tivists held their ground, how - An Occupy protester in Los Angeles on Nov. 5, 2011, movement took off, the non - ever, and the movement grew urges people to move their money from large banks into partisan Congressional Budget in strength. And its objectives small banks or credit unions. “I believe that I am not Office (CBO) reported that became a little clearer. represented by the big interest groups and the big-money from 1979 to 2007 the highest- corporations, which have increasing control of our “People are coming out money and our politics,” said an activist. income 1 percent of the pop - here to voice, you know, their ulation saw after-tax household disapproval with the system income grow 277 percent. By and to voice themselves in contrast, for the 60 percent of a direct, democratic fashion,” said said at the Occupy Los Angeles site the population in the middle, incomes Patrick Bruner, a 23-year-old from at City Hall Park. Demonstrators want grew less than 40 percent. 6 Brooklyn. “It’s really refreshing for “a more equal economy,” she said. 2 The Organisation for Economic Co- people to think that they can effect Mayors of Los Angeles, New York operation and Development (OECD), change in this system that has essen - and other cities sent police to break a policy think tank for industrialized tially made it so that only 1 percent up encampments. Winter weather or nations, reported that the richest 1 per - of the population are citizens.” 1 declining political momentum did in cent of Americans took in 20 percent The New York encampment in some others, though Occupy Wash - of national income — a bigger share Zuccotti Park was the seed from ington was still going in early 2012. than in any other industrialized coun - which hundreds of Occupy move - And other Occupy groups, including try examined. 7 ments sprouted in cities, towns and the original New York movement, Meanwhile, according to a survey college campuses across the country. were still holding meetings as well, released Jan. 11, 2012, by the Pew Re - From one coast to the other, activists though not in a round-the-clock en - search Center, about two-thirds of Amer - spoke in similar tones, often with drum campment. 3 In addition, the most en - icans see “strong conflicts” between circles pounding in the background. gaged activists are meeting face-to-face rich and poor in the United States, in - “I believe that I am not represented and on the Web, and a major revival dicating the income inequality message by the big interest groups and the big of a street presence in the spring seems from Democrats and the Occupy move - money corporations, which have in - virtually certain. 4 Already, the move - ment is seeping into the national creasing control of our money and ment’s image of a country divided be - consciousness. 8 our politics,” Elise Whitaker, 21, a free - tween the “1 percent” and the “99 per - The Occupy movement signifies re - lance script editor and film director, cent” has forced politicians from President fusal to accept more of the same.

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 27 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

Public Backs Occupy’s Concerns, Rejects Tactics Forty-four percent of Americans support the Occupy Wall Street movement while about half agree with the concerns the protests have raised. A similar percentage, however, disapproves of the movement’s tactics, such as staging sit-ins in public places. Public Views of Occupy Wall Street

The Occupy Wall Street The concerns the protests The way the protests are movement have raised being conducted

Other/ Don’t know Don’t know Approve don’t know 22% 22% 23% Support Agree 29% 44% 48% Oppose Disapprove 30% 35% 49% Disagree

* Percentages may not total 100 because of rounding. Source: “Frustration With Congress Could Hurt Republican Incumbents,” Pew Research Center, December 2011, p. 3, www. people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/12-15-11 Congress and Economy release.pdf

Until it appeared, says Rory McVeigh, A closer precedent to Occupy ar - ly unbending opposition to a so-called director of the Center for the Study guably lies not in the 1960s but in “millionaires’ tax” on the earnings of of Social Movements at the University the 1930s, when the left and unions high-income New Yorkers. Occupy ac - of Notre Dame, “The conservative side made common cause — including in tivists had dubbed Cuomo “Governor has been pretty effective in managing the organization of factory occupa - 1 Percent.” 11 public opinion in a way that gets peo - tions. Nevertheless, notes historian Survey data make clear that dis - ple worried about debt reduction and Michael Kazin of Georgetown Uni - content over inequality isn’t limited to not really thinking about consequences versity, “The union movement had no New York. A substantial majority — of joblessness and inequality and stim - problem with leaders.” 77 percent — of respondents to a No - ulating the economy.” The Occupy movement, inspired by vember survey by the nonpartisan Pew Left-wing activists have driven the anarchist principles, rejects hierarchy in Research Center agreed that corpora - movement from the beginning, favor of direction by consensus — in tions and a small number of rich peo - marking the first time since the days other words, “pure” democracy. ( See side - ple wield too much power. And — in of the anti-Vietnam War movement bar, p. 36. ) What’s more, the movement a remarkable loss of faith in a bedrock that ideas from the left have helped lacks a clear-cut program and has little tenet of the American Dream — 40 per - set the national agenda. “It took to point to in the way of measurable cent said hard work and determination three years from the start of the anti- results. “The Occupy movement is root - don’t guarantee success. 12 Vietnam War movement to the point ed in the idea that the political system However, agreeing with some of when the popularity of the war sank is broken to such a degree that we can Occupy activists’ points doesn’t auto - below 50 percent,” Todd Gitlin, a pro - no longer work through the Republi - matically mean supporting the move - fessor at the Columbia University can or Democratic parties,” Tim Franzen, ment. In December, Pew found that journalism school and a participant an Occupy Atlanta activist, told The As - 49 percent of respondents disapproved in and chronicler of the 1960s radi - sociated Press. 10 of the way demonstrations were con - cal movement, told New York maga - To be sure, Democratic Gov. An - ducted — almost the exact share that zine in November. “Here, achieving drew Cuomo of New York in De - registered agreement with the move - the equivalent took three minutes. ” 9 cember suddenly reversed his avowed - ment on issues. ( See graphs, above. )

28 CQ Researcher By then, coverage of the movement had included news accounts of No - Top 1 Percent Has Biggest Income Gain vember street clashes in Oakland, Calif. The after-tax income of the top 1 percent of American households Some featured ultra-radical activists rose nearly 300 percent between 1979 and 2007, while that of other who saw breaking store windows as a groups grew at much slower rates. The bottom 20 percent saw only form of political action. Others featured aggressive police who in one instance an 18 percent rise over the period. fired a tear gas canister that fractured Income Gains, by Income Group, 1979 to 2007 the skull of an Iraq War veteran. 13

“Americans usually like the idea of (Percentage change in after-tax income) g rebellion more than rebellion itself,” r o

300% . s

says Kazin, “not people fighting with n o 250 i cops, even if it’s not the fault of the 277% s n a

200 m demonstrators. They like protest as t r o long as it’s orderly.” 150 p w e n Still, for Democrats, the Occupy 100 65% . s t

38% s movement has opened a window of a

50 18% c d political opportunity. In early De - o 0 p cember, Obama traveled to historic Top 1 81st-99th 21st-80th Bottom 20 Osawatomie, Kan., to deliver a major percent percentiles percentiles percent speech on economic inequality. “The typical CEO who used to earn about Source: Chad Stone, et al. , “A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income 30 times more than his or her work - Inequality,” Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, November 2011, er now earns 110 times more,” he said. www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3629; Congressional Budget Office. “And yet, over the last decade the in - comes of most Americans have actu - who became a multimillionaire in the they viewed the Tea Party unfavorably, ally fallen by about 6 percent. . . . corporate takeover business, defend - and 41 percent favorably — a sharp Today, thanks to loopholes and shel - ed Wall Street financiers in October shift from last March, when the favor - ters, a quarter of all millionaires now against what he called attempts at “find - ability rate was 55 percent . 19 pay lower tax rates than millions of ing a scapegoat, finding someone to The Occupy movement could face you, millions of middle-class families. blame.” 16 But a more recent cam - its own decline — but not for some Some billionaires have a tax rate as paign commercial used hand-written time, say many observers. “Just when low as 1 percent.” 14 signs bearing gloomy economic sta - you thought demonstrations and peo - Osawatomie is a political landmark tistics, seeming to mimic a well-known ple putting bodies on the line was over,” — the site of a 1910 speech by Pres - Occupy technique. 17 says former Democratic Gov. Madeleine ident Theodore Roosevelt urging that Meanwhile, former House Speaker Kunin of Vermont, “it re-emerges.” corporate power be reined in. “The Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., offered some As debate continues over the impact great special business interests too often mocking advice to demonstrators: “Go and future of the Occupy movement, control and corrupt the men and get a job, right after you take a bath,” here are some questions being asked: methods of government for their own he said in November. He went on to profit,” declared Roosevelt, who would disparage them as non-taxpaying Can the Occupy movement reduce soon run again for president as Pro - freeloaders. 18 inequality? gressive Party candidate. 15 The White As the Republicans spoke out, the After reading some of the hundreds House republished Roosevelt’s address Tea Party faction of their party, which of stark, personal accounts offered on simultaneously with the text of Obama’s helped the GOP regain control of the “We Are the 99 Percent” — a website speech. As for the Occupy movement, House in 2011, was heading downward that offers stories behind the statistics, the president mentioned it only once, in public opinion. The trend held true charts and slogans about economic in - and briefly. both nationally and in congressional equality — Rich Lowry, a prominent Republican primary candidates’ re - districts represented by lawmakers Republican commentator and Occupy sponses to Occupy, meanwhile, have identified with the faction, the Pew Cen - opponent, acknowledged that the ranged from equivocal to hostile. For - ter reported in November. In those dis - protest movement had raised some le - mer Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, tricts, 48 percent of respondents said gitimate questions. 20

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 29 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

“There are tales of men losing decent- mark the limit of what the Occupy In the weeks leading up to his move, paying jobs and finding nothing com - movement can do, some sympathizers Cuomo had declared unbendable op - parable,” wrote Lowry, editor of Na - acknowledge. position to the tax. Said Tim Dubnau, tional Review magazine, the flagship “We’ve had a wave of columns and an organizer for the Communication of Republican conservatism since news stories based on inequality,” says Workers of America (CWA) who has 1955. “Such downward mobility is a Dean Baker, an economist and co- been working closely with Occupy dismaying constant. . . . The reces - founder and co-director of the Center Wall Street, “There is no doubt in any - sion has added a layer of joblessness for Economic and Policy Research. one’s mind that that is a result of the on top of punishingly dysfunctional “But I don’t think anyone is going to Occupy Wall Street movement edu - and expens ive health-care and higher - say that he changed his position based cating people” about tax policy. education systems.” 21 on the movement.” And Dubnau noted that the tax de - The accounts on the website are by The very nature of the Occupy bate that Occupy amplified is being low-paid workers, unemployed people movement may limit its direct politi - echoed in the nationwide focus on with experience but no job prospects, cal effects, Baker says. “It’s an amor - equality. “In every single paper in the students accumulating debt and suffer - phous group; it doesn’t want to em - country almost every single day for ers of chronic illness months there have been with inadequate stories about how we health insurance — have an unequal soci - or none at all. ety,” he says. “I can’t see Lowry’s take on the that as a bad thing.” issue animating the Nevertheless, New movement may be a York, where labor unions minority view among still carry political weight conservatives. But and leftwing activism is his commentary — deeply embedded in the

though critical of the a state’s history and politi - m

Occupy movement’s a cal culture, may not be T

o politics — illustrated i a national indicator of r a

a point made by re - M Occupy influence. “A / s

porter Dylan Byers e movement is likely to get g of Politico , an influ - a concessions in a sympa - m I

ential Washington y thetic environment,” says t t newspaper. He noted e McVeigh of Notre Dame. G that the term “income Occupy Wall Street activists gather in New York City’s Duarte Square on From a national per - inequality” had Nov. 15, 2011, after police removed them from Zuccotti Park. The police spective, “The polls are soared in frequency action, endorsed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, followed showing a fair number similar moves in Oakland, Calif., and Portland, Ore. in news stories, from of people are fairly sym - 91 appearances be - pathetic to what Occupy fore the demonstrations began to 500 brace politicians,” he says. “One can Wall Street is putting forward, but with - a week in early November. 22 argue about whether that is the most out an intense commitment,” McVeigh Occupiers “already can take credit effective way to proceed.” says. “So it’s risky for anybody in power for starting a national conversation However, activists can point to one to completely embrace the movement about the increasingly inequitable dis - example of a politician who appears and call it his or her own.” tribution of growth that stands as a to have responded to the Occupy mes - Even so, says Cornell University’s profound economic problem in our sage by reversing himself on an im - Margolies, congressional Republi - country,” wrote Jared Bernstein, a se - portant piece of legislation with a di - cans’ internal disagreement over nior fellow at the liberal Center on rect effect on income inequality. Obama’s efforts to extend the pay - Budget and Policy Priorities and for - Cuomo, the New York governor, in roll tax cut may reflect confusion mer chief economist for Vice Presi - early December suddenly embraced over how to deal with the inequali - dent Joseph Biden. 23 and pushed to legislative approval a so- ty issue that Occupy activists have Generating attention and debate, called “millionaires’ tax” on individuals emphasized. “The movement has cer - though an important achievement, might who earn more than $200,000 a year. tainly changed the debate,” Margolies

30 CQ Researcher says. “The Republicans realized they’re “Republicans now are growing Democrat who escalated the Vietnam getting caught by their own rhetoric; very nervous” because Tea Party War] as prime villains,” he says. “I they finally found a tax cut they don’t freshman in the House have been haven’t seen that same hostility and like.” (He spoke before House Re - so adamant against compromise, Nor - hatred for Obama. A lot of core activists publicans caved to pressure from the man Ornstein, a resident scholar at clearly think there is no difference be - White House and their own Senate the American Enterprise Institute tween Republicans and Demo crats , partners, backing a two-month ex - (AEI), a conservative think tank, said but that’s not the same as saying tension of the tax cut.) in December. “By standing so firm that it’s the Democrats’ fault that we But Margolies qualifies his favor - against taxing the rich . . . they lost have economic inequality and a fi - able reading of the movement’s effects. sight of where the zeitgeist was, and nancial crisis.” “A real test would be if it helps a it hurt them.” 24 But Nick Schulz, a fellow at AEI union win a major strike or get a con - But Obama faces problems with - and editor of its online magazine, ar - tract in a tough situation, or helps in his own party, most notably dis - gues that the nature of the Occupy change labor law, or helps a group of illusion among many Democrats movement itself poses a potential workers organize.” over what they see as a lack of problem for Democrats in general and progress on social and economic re - Obama in particular. “I come from the Is Occupy good for the Democratic forms. That disillusion has helped school that says that being positive in Party? animate the Occupy movement. “Peo - your politics is a winning formula,” he In his Kansas speech in Decem - ple went through the experience of says. “That’s not what emerged from ber, President Obama drew on themes 2008 and had their hopes raised sig - Occupy. I understand why people in sounded by Occupy members, con - nificantly by Obama in a way we Occupy are angry, but if the negative necting them to longstanding politi - haven’t seen in this generation,” says animating spirit of Occupy comes to cal traditions that energized the early Amy Muldoon, a CWA union mem - dominate the Democratic Party, that’s 20th-century wave of political and fi - ber participating in an Occupy Wall a political loser.” nancial regulation known as the Pro - Street working group on organized Obama owes much of his success gressive Era. labor. “And now the Occupy move - to his ability to convey optimism, Obama made much of the fact that ment in part is people who went Schulz says. But in the coming elec - the politician who laid the groundwork through that experience and said, ‘it tion, he argues, if voters see the pres - for those changes, President Theodore didn’t deliver for me.’ ” ident’s message as intertwined with Roosevelt, had been a Republican. Muldoon, speaking for herself and Occupy grievances, “The moderately But the president went on to un - not the union, says a significant num - conservative, college-educated cohort derline the difference between Roo - ber of the most engaged Occupy ac - that went in large numbers for Obama sevelt and his party descendants of tivists are “looking past elections as a because they liked his upbeat, aspira - today. “Thanks to some of the same way of changing society.” Democrats’ tional message. If it becomes a nega - folks who are now running Congress, attempts to “utilize what Occupy has tive — ‘we’re going after the rich and we had weak regulation, we had little exposed — with rhetoric about a can - the top 1 percent’ — that will turn oversight, and what did it get us?” he didate for the 99 percent, meaning them off.” asked rhetorically. Obama — I don’t think will fly with Baker of the Center for Economic Whether Obama can draw on the the people who are most involved and Policy Research suggests that Oc - anger that has fed the Occupy move - with Occupy.” cupy likely will benefit some Democrats ment remains unclear, however. A cau - To voters at large, however, argues and hurt others. “It’s bad news for the tionary example comes from the re - Georgetown’s Kazin, the Occupy move - more business-oriented Democrats,” he cent experience of the Republican Party ment has provided an appealing nar - argues, pointing to Robert Rubin — a with its Tea Party faction. The Tea Party rative “as long as people see the econ - Wall Street financier, former director propelled a number of Republican omy in serious trouble and are worried of Citigroup and former Treasury sec - congressional candidates to victory in about their futures.” retary in the Clinton administration 2010, giving the GOP the House ma - Moreover, the electoral alienation of who still wields considerable influence jority. But in the GOP presidential pri - the most committed Occupy activists on administration economic policy. maries, many candidates arguably have doesn’t pose an active threat to Demo - “Their room to maneuver has been tacked so far to the right to appeal to cratic prospects, Kazin says. In the 1960s, sharply reduced by the Occupy move - the Tea Party that they may have alien - “The antiwar movement saw Democrats ment; they certainly don’t see it as ated mainstream Republican voters. and [President Lyndon B. Johnson, a good news.” 25

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 31 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

On the other hand, Baker says, “The says Kunin, the former Vermont gov - spiring,” says the CWA’s Dubnau. labor-progressive wing of the Demo - ernor, summarizing a column she wrote “There are some signs the movement cratic Party certainly does see it as for The Huffington Post website. 26 “If is fizzling with the physical space of good news.” Even so, adds Baker, we’re going to have the voice of the Zuccotti Park lost.” repercussions from Occupy attacks on 99 percent back, we have to change Activists reoccupied the park in early business-oriented Democrats could hurt that system and find a way to do pub - January after city authorities removed the movement’s liberal allies. “The Rubin lic financing or limit contributions.” barricades and checkpoints that had types provide money for campaigns,” The tension between reformers limited the number of people allowed Baker says. “Do you run the risk that and revolutionaries — a natural con - in; but a ban on tents and sleeping you’re going to so antagonize the busi - dition in all social movements — re - bags remained in force. ness wing of the party that you won’t mains unresolved. “At some point, But Dubnau, like many others, ex - be able to run effective campaigns?” movements must take on some form, pects open-air demonstrations to re - vive with the coming of Is the Occupy warm weather. The movement over? movement has struck a The onset of win - chord, he says. “Every - ter, and police evic - one is anxious about tions, have deprived jobs in America; every - the Occupy name one knows what the oc - of its emotional cupiers are talking about.” punch — the occu - Nevertheless, Artur pations themselves Davis, a former Demo - — lending new cratic congressman from strength to questions Alabama and now a e about the move - e Washington lawyer who m ment’s goals. Those a writes political com - N c

questions have been M mentary for Politico , ar -

n circulating virtually i gues that maintaining a W / ever since it began: s physical presence “is a e g

What exactly does a low bar to meet.” The m I

the movement want real test of lasting influ - y t to achieve? And t ence, he says, will be e does it have stay - G the Occupy movement’s Occupy activists demonstrate as Republican presidential candidate ing power? Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista, both at right, arrive at a town hall ability to accomplish Some observers meeting in Littleton, N.H., on Jan. 5, 2012. In November, he told political goals. see change within Occupy demonstrators: “Go get a job, right after you take a bath.” One obstacle so far, the political system He went on to disparage them as non-taxpaying freeloaders. Davis says, is that the as a waste of time. “99 percent” versus “1 per - Many call themselves disenchanted after some identifiable agenda,” the Rev. cent” paradigm is too broad and investing their political energies. Jesse Jackson, a veteran of the 1960s vague. “It equates the interests of a “Obama syndrome: lost hope,” says Sri civil rights movement, told New York hungry child in the Mississippi Delta Louise, who is active in Occupy Oak - magazine. “At some point, water must with a stockbroker who makes six fig - land. “I feel like I’ve been there and become ice.” 27 ures but whose mortgage is under - done that. I have no interest in the Whether many people like camp - water,” he says. “It’s as if the civil rights electoral process.” ing in city parks when water turns movement had said in the 1960s, ‘We’re Others argue that improving that to ice is another question. Neverthe - not going to make this about African- process is the movement’s natural goal. less, some argue that the loss of New Americans, we’re going to make it “If you want to get at the root of York’s Zuccotti Park did take a toll about people who are struggling all what’s wrong with this system, in my on Occupy Wall Street — the national over the country; we’re going to opinion the way we fund and run movement’s starter motor. “The fact equate our interests with those of elections has become skewed in the that people were willing to sleep out white suburbanites who are paying direction of powerful money interests,” in the cold rain and snow was in - too much property tax .’ ”

32 CQ Researcher From within the movement, though, bers, about 10 percent of the country’s some lifelong activists who’ve seen nonagricultural workforce, had joined other political waves rise and fall argue BACKGROUND the union. that skeptics are thinking too small. A five-year depression that began Adam Hochschild, a journalist and au - in 1893 saw labor-business conflicts es - thor who co-founded the left-wing Rising Militancy calate into armed confrontations be - Mother Jones magazine in 1976 and tween workers and police and military who has written on the 18th- and conomic transformation capped by forces deployed against them. Presi - 19th-century campaign to abolish E major depression marked the late dent Grover Cleveland sent 10,000 Army slavery in the British Empire, likened 19th century, prompting a wave of ac - troops to Chicago to quell a nation - that effort to Occupy. “By 1792 at least tivism among farmers and factory work - wide strike against the Pullman Palace 400,000 people in the British Isles ers. Wall Street financiers, industrialists Car Co., which manufactured sleeping were refusing to eat slave-grown sugar,” and politicians who served business in - cars for railroads. Thirteen strike sup - Hochschild wrote in the “Occupied terests were their common targets . 30 porters were killed in clashes with anti- Wall Street Journal,” published by In the 1880s, a wave of labor or - union forces. 32 New York activists. 28 ganizing spread across manufacturing, Newly unemployed workers mount - “In combating entrenched power shipping and mining centers through - ed campaigns of their own. The most of a different sort — a system with out the country. Twelve-hour work well-known centered on a march from obscene profits for the 1 percent and days, paltry pay, child labor, the right Ohio to Washington led by evangeli - hardship and a downward slide for to collectively bargain and the often cal businessman Jacob S. Coxey, who many of the rest — I think we’re hazardous nature of the work spurred advocated a major road-building pro - now at about 1792 in this process,” workers to demand change. Many went gram to put jobless men to work. Hochschild wrote. 29 further, demanding that society be re - “Coxey’s Army” was met in Washing - Hochschild and others who see the ordered so that the fruits of labor ton by U.S. marshals, who arrested movement reaching for changes in how were distributed more equitably. Coxey and other leaders, snuffing out wealth and power are distributed Workers had been forming and the effort. 33 agree — in a sense — with some of joining unions for decades, but they Shortly before the 1893 depression their most fervent foes. “The philo - were made up of craftspeople whose struck, a mass movement arose fea - sophical political movement that these skills gave them considerable power turing rural Americans demanding extreme leftists have decided to par - in dealing with employers. As indus - better prices from companies that ticipate in will try to continue,” says trialization advanced in the latter bought their crops, as well as a host David Bossie, president and board decades of the 1800s, a new kind of of other improvements in conditions chairman of Citizens United, a con - union arose. in the countryside. The movement servative advocacy group that special - The Knights of Labor, founded in evolved quickly into a political orga - izes in producing politically charged secret in 1869, grew into an open or - nization — from the Farmers’ Alliance documentary-style movies. * ganization for all skilled and unskilled to the People’s Party, founded in 1892, The encampments reflected the members of the “producing classes.” and soon dubbed “Populists.” movement’s philosophical underpin - (Members included African-Americans In 1892, populist candidates around nings, Bossie says. “It’s the closest f orm and, eventually, women — revolu - the country earned more than 1 mil - of communal living,” he says, tracing tionary policies at the time.) “We de - lion votes. Colorado and Kansas elect - the tent cities to “socialism, commu - clare an inevitable and irresistible con - ed Populist governors, and Populist nism — you name the institutions by flict between the wage system of labor presidential candidate James Weaver which they believe. They believe in and republican system of govern - captured three states, thus winning taking from everyone and giving it ment,” the Knights said, vowing to electoral votes. But ultimately, the third- to them.” fight big-business domination of gov - party effort benefited the Republicans. ernment. 31 In the 1896 presidential election, Re - * Bossie’s lawsuit challenging a Federal Elec - In 1885, the Knights led a success - publican William McKinley defeated tion Commission decision to limit advertising ful strike against one of the country’s William Jennings Bryan, who ran as for a Citizens United work, “Hillary: The leading corporations, the Southwestern both Democrat and Populist. And in Movie,” led to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court Railroad, whose majority owner was 1912, Woodrow Wilson beat William decision overturning restrictions on corporate fabled Wall Street financier Jay Gould. Howard Taft, thanks partly to Theodore political contributions. By 1886, as many as 1 million mem - Continued on p. 36

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 33 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT Chronology 1880s-1920s 1950s-1960s 1990s-Present Organizing drives and strikes Civil rights and anti-Vietnam Left-wing activism targets liber - by industrial workers provoke War movements make mass alized trade rules, job outsourc - repression. protest a major political force. ing and Iraq War.

1885 1955 1993 Knights of Labor leads successful The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. leads Over strong opposition from unions strike against Southwestern Railroad. bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala. and the left, President Bill Clinton pushes North American Free Trade 1894 1956 Agreement (NAFTA) through Congress. Workers strike at Pullman Palace Montgomery desegregates buses. Car Co. in Chicago; President 1997 Grover Cleveland sends troops to 1957 College students organize boycott break the labor action. . . . Men de - President Dwight D. Eisenhower to protest athletic-wear companies manding jobs march on Washington. orders Army troops to enforce de - using sweatshops. segregation in Little Rock, Ark. 1905 1999 Left-wing unionists found anti - 1960 Anti-globalization protesters in capitalism Industrial Workers of Black students sit in at Greensboro, Seattle battle with police at World the World. N.C., lunch counter to challenge seg - Trade Organization meeting. regated seating; tactic spreads. 1910 2003 President Theodore Roosevelt de - 1961 Iraq War sparks a new anti-war nounces corporate power in “Freedom Riders” defy segregation movement. speech in Osawatomie, Kan. in interstate buses and terminals. 2007 1929 1964 Richest 1 percent of population Wall Street crash marks beginning Civil Rights Act prohibits racial dis - sees after-tax income grow by of Great Depression. crimination in public accommoda - about 275 percent since 1979 while tions, public education and most middle-income sector sees modest • employment. growth. . . . Recession begins.

1965 2008 1930s Nation’s worst Voting Rights Act outlaws racial Obama presidential campaign depression sparks massive dis - discrimination in election process. awakens hope for rebirth of left- content, rise of new unions. Democratic Party alliance that 1967 collapsed during Vietnam War. 1932 Tens of thousands march in Wash - “Bonus Army” of 20,000 jobless ington to protest Vietnam War. 2010 World War I veterans sets up camp Energized by Tea Party faction, Re - in Washington but is eventually 1968 publican candidates sweep House routed by Army troops and police. The Rev. King is assassinated in elections, gaining majority . . . . Memphis. Left-wing Obama supporters grow 1934 disillusioned with economic poli - Wagner Act restricts employer in - 1970 cies seen as too timid. terference in union activities. As demonstrations against U.S. in - vasion of Cambodia sweep cam - 2011 1936 puses and cities, National Guard “Arab spring” in Tunisia, Egypt and “Sitdown” tactic spreads to General troops kill four students at Ohio’s elsewhere, and protests against aus - Motors factories; company recog - Kent State University, and police terity programs and inequality in nizes the United Automobile Work - kill two students at Jackson State Spain and Israel prompt U.S. ac - ers union. College in Mississippi. tivists to consider similar efforts.

34 CQ Researcher Tracking Occupy’s Evolution The “Occupy” movement began in September in New York City to protest economic inequality and corporate greed. Since then the movement has spread across the U.S. Here is a timeline of its evolution:

2011 July 13 — Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters calls for a Sept. 17 protest on Wall Street demanding “democracy not corporatocracy.” Sept. 17 — Protests begin as about 1,000 participants walk up and down Wall Street. Protesters settle into Zuccotti Park. Sept. 20 — Police arrest mask-wearing protesters under state law banning non-

Z uccotti Park entertainment masked gatherings. Sept. 24 — About 80 arrested in Manhattan after marching without permit. The use of pepper spray against women earns Occupy movement its first major media coverage. Occupy protests begin in Chicago. Sept. 26 — Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore addresses crowd at Zuccotti Park. Sept. 28 — Transport Workers Union Local 100 in New York City becomes first large union to support Occupy protest. Oct. 1 — Nearly 700 protesters arrested in march across Brooklyn Bridge. Protests begin in

M oore Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. Oct. 3 — Protests begin in Boston, Memphis, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Hawaii and Maine. Oct. 5 — New York labor unions join march through N.Y. Financial District. Oct. 6 — Protests begin in Austin, Houston, San Francisco and Tampa. President Obama says the movement “expresses the frustrations the American people feel.” Oct. 7 — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg says protesters are taking jobs from people and discouraging tourism. Oct. 10 — Bloomberg softens criticism, saying protesters can stay if they obey the law. Oct. 25 — Oakland police clear about 170 protesters from a City Hall encampment, use tear

O bama gas when protesters return. Nov. 5 — “Bank Transfer Day” protesters encourage Americans to move their money out of big banks. Nov. 15 — Police evict protesters from Zuccotti Park under orders from Bloomberg. A judge rules protesters do not have a First Amendment right to camp in the park, but can return without tents. Nov. 17 — Protesters march in front of the New York Stock Exchange to mark movement’s two-month anniversary. Dec. 17 — Protesters mark three-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street by marching across the city. Dec. 20 — Hacker group Anonymous exposes personal information of police officers who

C uomo have arrested protesters. 2012 Jan. 1 — Nearly 70 protesters arrested after attempt to resettle into Zuccotti Park. Protesters march at the end of Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena, Calif., on float made of plastic bags. Jan. 2 — Protesters interrupt speech by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Des Moines, Iowa. Jan. 4 — Protesters attend New Hampshire town hall meeting with Romney prior to state’s primary Jan. 10. Organizers say they plan protests at future primaries, caucuses. R omney Jan. 10 — Protesters are permitted back into Zuccotti Park. All photos/Getty Images

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 35 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

Surprising Alliance: Activists and Union Members “We are united in the belief that our country needs a change.”

s he marched through Lower Manhattan last October national Union (SEIU) declared her solidarity in The Wall Street leading telephone workers side by side with Occupy Wall Journal. “While unions cannot claim credit for Occupy Wall A Street activists, Tim Dubnau, a union organizer for the Street,” she wrote, “SEIU members are joining the protesters in Communications Workers of America (CWA), could tell that the the streets because we are united in the belief that our coun - OWS movement’s message was reaching beyond its natural left - try needs a change.” 4 wing constituency. Amy Muldoon, a phone worker who also works part time “When we passed the World Trade Center, “I chanted, ‘Every with the Occupy movement for the CWA, says activism focused job a union job,’ and the hard-hat people [working on the on social and economic inequality creates a political climate site] were giving us the thumbs up,” says Dubnau, one of a favorable to organized labor. number of unionists across the country building ties with the “The unions recognize,” she says, “that it’s beneficial to ne - movement. gotiate contracts at a time when people are saying the rich A salute from New York City “hard-hats” carries special and banks and corporations get away with whatever they want, significance for left-wing activists. Ever since a contingent of and politicians are bought and sold by them.” construction workers beat up anti-Vietnam War protesters Nevertheless, union-Occupy ties could fray when the pres - (only blocks from the eventual World Trade Center site) in idential race intensifies. Already, some Occupy activists have 1970, the building trades have been considered a bastion of made plain their distance from unions’ long and close ties to working-class patriotism and contempt for the left and the the Democratic Party. counterculture. 1 “There will be debates in the movement about whether peo - But the hardhat reception witnessed by Dubnau during the ple should put their energy into supporting Democrats,” says march to the headquarters of communications giant Verizon — Jackie Smith, a University of Pittsburgh sociology professor and which is locked in a contract fight with the CWA — was only Occupy activist. In that atmosphere, she says, “It will be diffi - one sign of a budding Occupy-union alliance. cult to maintain coalitions with labor.” CWA donated thousands of dollars’ worth of walkie-talkies Relations were tested on the West Coast by Occupy- and air mattresses to occupiers and also provided meeting initiated attempts to shut down two ports on Dec. 12. “U.S. rooms. Other unions have supplied ponchos and storage space. ports have become economic engines for the elite; the 1 per - Unions elsewhere have been generous as well. 2 cent these trade hubs serve are free to rip the shirts off the Top union leaders have been showering the movement with backs of the 99 percent who turn their profits,” the organiz - praise since shortly after the first OWS encampment, at Man - ers of the West Coast Port Blockade announced online. 5 hattan’s Zuccotti Park, went up. “Across America, working peo - In addition to the port of Oakland, Calif., the shutdowns ple are turning out with their friends and neighbors in parks, targeted SSA Marine, a West Coast port operator, and EGT, congregations and union halls to express their frustration — which runs a grain shipping terminal in Longview, Wash., that and anger — about our country’s staggering wealth gap,” Richard is in a contract dispute with the International Longshore and Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, declared in October, vow - Warehouse Union (ILWU). SSA is also partly owned by Gold - ing continued union support for the Occupy movement. 3 man Sachs, a major Wall Street firm, making it an even more Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees Inter - tempting target for Occupy activists. 6

Continued from p. 33 The period was marked by federal and than half a century, between the 1870s Roosevelt’s third-party candidacy. state moves to improve working con - and the 1930s,” writes historian Bev - The labor movement divided as well, ditions. By 1912, 38 states prohibited erly Gage of Yale University, “labor or - with more radical unionists (including or limited child labor, and the feder - ganizers and strikers regularly faced anarchists) forming the Industrial Work - al government had imposed regula - levels of violence all but unimaginable ers of the World (IWW), in 1905, to tions on the banking industry. to modern-day activists.” 34 fight for the overthrow of capitalism. Often forgotten today is the extent The years of union and populist of death and destruction — some of activism, as well as the depression of from the radical side — that accom - Marching and Occupying 1893, presaged the early-20th-century panied the rise of the labor movement “progressive” era, embodied by Presi - and the enactment of laws that grant - he Great Depression that began dents Theodore Roosevelt and Wilson. ed legal protection to unions. “For more T in 1929 brought massive unem -

36 CQ Researcher But union leadership op - n not a good tactic, you don’t from a i

posed the Longview shut - z the outside say this is a good e s

down. “Support is one n tactic ; you can’t disrespect a j

thing, organization from D them,” he says. “Yeah, it feels

k

outside groups attempting r good to shut down ports; it’s o v

to co-opt our struggle in e relatively easy to do — that K

order to advance a broad - / doesn’t mean it’s a good strat - s e

er agenda is quite anoth - g egy. You can’t do it just be - a

er,” ILWU President Robert m cause it’s militant.” I

y

McEllrath said in a letter to t t local unions a week before e — Peter Katel G the shutdown attempts, Long Beach police arrest an Occupy protester on Dec. 12, “and one that is destruc - 2011, for blocking the road leading to SSA Marine, 1 For newspaper articles and other tive to our democratic a shipping company partially owned by documentary material on the event, investment bank Goldman Sachs. see “The HardHat Riots, an Online process and jeopardizes our History Project,” George Mason Univer - over-two-year struggle.” 7 sity , http://chnm.gmu.edu/hardhats/ In the end, port shutdowns in Longview, Oakland and Port - homepage.html. 2 Quoted in David B. Caruso, “Occupy movement accepts modest help from land, Ore., cost union longshoremen all or most of their day’s the left,” The Associated Press, Nov. 1, 2011. pay. Non-unionized truck drivers weren’t paid at all. “This is a 3 “Statement by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka on Occupy Wall Street,” joke,” driver Christian Vega told The Associated Press. “What AFL-CIO, press release, Oct. 5, 2011, www.aflcio.org/mediacenter/prsptm/pr are they protesting? It only hurts me and the other drivers.” 8 10052011.cfm. 4 Mary Kay Henry, “Why Labor Backs ‘Occupy Wall Street,’ ” The Wall Street Some union longshoremen were happy with the protests. Journal , Oct. 8, 2011, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203 The website of the Southern California ILWU local carried a 476804576615200938120050.html. video in which Anthony, a shutdown-supporting longshoreman 5 “Wall Street On the Waterfront?” West Coast Port Blockade, undated, in Oakland, says that members were split 50-50 on the matter. http://westcoastportshutdown.org/content/wall-street-waterfront. 6 9 “Occupy protesters seek to shut West Coast ports,” The Associated Press, “Some are upset because they lost a day’s pay,” he said. Dec. 12, 2011; Terry Collins, “Protesters halt operations at some western Anthony supported the shutdown as a “warning that the ports,” The Associated Press, Dec. 13, 2011. working class is serious.” But, he added, the Occupy move - 7 “Message from Pres. McEllrath: We share Occupy’s concerns about America, but EGG battle is complicated,” ILWU Local 13, Dec. 6, 2011, www.ilwu13. ment “probably has to get away from that 99 percent slogan, com/message-from-pres.-mcellrath-we-share-occupy’s-concerns-about-america- because then a lot of people say, ‘You’re hurt by the 99 percent but-egt-battle-is-complicated-4580.html. not letting you go to work.’ ” 10 8 Quoted in Collins, op. cit. Even some leftwing union activists found the shutdown 9 “Anthony from ILWU on OccupyOakland.TV,” OccupyOaklandTV, Dec. 12, 2011, www.ilwu13.com/dec.-12th — -anthony-from-ilwu-on-occupyoakland.tv- troubling in ways that suggest that maintaining union-Occupy 4800.html. relations may take some work. “The IlWU is not a corrupt, 10 Ibid. stodgy union,” says Dubnau of CWA. “If they’re saying this is ployment and widespread misery. In of vets began marching on Washing - marchers’ camps. Most notoriously, Army 1932, as the administration of Re - ton from Portland, Ore. As the idea Chief of Staff Douglas A. MacArthur ig - publican President Herbert Hoover caught on, “bonus marchers” from nored orders to the contrary and sent drew to a close, following years in across the country headed for the cap - troops across the Anacostia River to break which he minimized the Depression’s ital. Their encampments eventually up the vets’ biggest tent city. 35 effects and refused to mount a major housed about 20,000 people, includ - Occupation tactics proved far more government response, thousands of ing some vets’ families. successful in the workplace. Follow - jobless World War I veterans demanded After Congress — with Hoover’s sup - ing a wave of strikes in 1934 that de - assistance. Specifically, they wanted port — defeated resolutions to make scended into armed conflict in sever - the government to immediately pay a early payments of the bonus, Washing - al cities, Congress passed the landmark cash bonus they had been promised. ton police and then the U.S. Army Wagner Act, endorsed by President When no help was offered, a group heavy-handedly destroyed the bonus Franklin D. Roosevelt. The law autho -

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 37 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

rized unions to organize and to strike. brought an influx of members that into an irrepressible force in the 1950s With factory production resuming as swelled UAW rolls to nearly 400,000, as it adopted the tactic of mass defi - the economy slowly revived, workers from 30,000 the previous year. And ance of segregation. at the Firestone tire factory in Akron, the union’s example encouraged In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court Ohio, hit on a new tactic in response workers in other industries: 4.7 mil - outlawed school segregation. The fol - to the company’s suspension of a lion took part in strikes in 1937, in - lowing year, the Rev. Martin Luther union activist. 36 cluding 400,000 who joined sitdowns. King Jr. led a boycott of city buses Instead of leaving the factory and That same year, total union strength in Montgomery, Ala., in response to mounting a picket line, the workers reached 7 million. the arrest of NAACP activist Rosa stopped working but stayed in place. Businesspeople and politicians Parks for defying the back-of-the bus The union won: The suspended work - who saw the hand of the Communist law and occupying a “white” seat. er was reinstated, The boycotters won and the occupiers their demand to abol - were paid (though ish segregated seating r e l

at a lower rate) for l on the buses. i M the time they’d In 1957, President s i spent on strike. c Dwight D. Eisenhower n a The occupation r sent Army troops to en - F / s

— or “sitdown” — e force the desegregation g tactic spread rapid - a of Central High School m I ly through the entire in Little Rock, Ark. — a y t t automobile industry e move that a mob of G /

(and even to de - s white residents resisted, e r partment stores and u unsuccessfully. Arkansas t c i

smaller shops in De - P Gov. Orval Faubus

e f troit and Chicago). It i charged that after the L

generally was de - e troop deployment, all of m i

signed to pressure T Little Rock was “an oc - companies into rec - Arkansas National Guard troops block Minnijean Brown, center, and cupied territory.” 38 ognizing and nego - other black students from entering Central High School in Little Rock on These dramatic Sept. 4, 1957. After President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. Army tiating with unions. troops to enforce desegregation at the school, a white mob resisted, events set the stage for Factory takeovers unsuccessfully. Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus charged the troop the politically and so - were marked by deployment had turned Little Rock into “an occupied territory.” cially tumultuous 1960s. workers’ discipline in The decade was only a preventing damage to machinery. Party in the labor upsurge weren’t en - month old when 20 black students Factory takeovers reached their tirely wrong, although major sectors from North Carolina Agricultural & peak in 1936. The standout was the of the movement were led by strong - Technical College in Greensboro occupation of General Motors facto - ly anti-communist socialists. Commu - challenged segregation in public places ries in Flint, Mich., where GM em - nist Party members occupied impor - with a new tactic aimed at lunch ployed about 80 percent of the work - tant positions in the Congress of counters. force. The company fought back, on Industrial Organizations (CIO), the labor After lunch counter sit-ins spread at least one occasion sending police federation to which the new breed of throughout the South — soon forcing to try to retake a Chevrolet plant. more militant unions belonged, as well stores to desegregate — activists re - That move failed. And after sitdown as in steel, automobile, maritime and fusing to obey state “Jim Crow” laws strikes spread to GM factories else - electrical unions . 37 in buses and bus stations in the South where, the company gave in, for - began mounting “freedom rides” in mally recognizing the United Auto - 1961. By year’s end, after the Freedom mobile Workers (UAW) as bargaining Civil Rights and Vietnam Riders had braved mob violence, the agent for workers in the occupied federal Interstate Commerce Commis - factories. he movement for black equality, sion issued a categorical ban on racial By late 1937, the union’s victory T which had been building steadi - segregation in interstate trains, buses against the world’s major carmaker ly throughout the 20th century, grew and terminals. 39

38 CQ Researcher The next major civil rights cam - which preached immediate armed ican Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) paign — challenging exclusion of struggle, and a Maoist group, the Pro - came before Congress for approval in black people from voting in south - gressive Labor Party, which advocated the early 1990s, the globalization ques - ern states — followed demonstra - organizing workers. Less fanatical ac - tion went national. 44 tions throughout the South that tivists fell away and SDS vanished. At first, the NAFTA debate took sparked police violence and killings At the peak of anti-war activism, place almost entirely in the political and bombings by hardcore segre - news in May 1970 of a U.S. military arena, not the streets. Both the De - gationists. The campaign resulted in invasion into Cambodia brought mil - mocratic and Republican parties backed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the lions of war opponents into the streets NAFTA; Democratic President Bill Voting Rights Act of 1965, which throughout the country. Student Clinton pushed it through Congress in outlawed racial discrimination in pub - demonstrations at some 1,350 colleges 1993 after his Republican predecessor, lic accommodations, public educa - and universities involved an estimat - George H. W. Bush, tried but failed tion and most jobs, as well as vot - ed 4.3 million people — 60 percent to do so . 45 ing procedures. 40 of the country’s total student popula - Opposition to globalization sim - King and some other civil rights tion. Four students at Kent State Uni - mered through the 1990s, drawing much leaders followed those victories by versity in Kent, Ohio, were shot and of its inspiration from movements in shifting their focus to poverty, includ - killed by National Guard troops dur - more politicized societies in Latin Amer - ing in northern cities. King was as - ing a demonstration; and two students ica, Asia and Africa. In the United States, sassinated in Memphis in 1968 as he at predominantly African-American one major form of activism, starting lent support to sanitation workers, all Jackson State College in Mississippi on campuses in 1997, centered on boy - of them black, striking over discrimi - were shot to death by police. 42 cotts of firms whose running shoes, natory pay and working conditions. A The anti-war movement faded away sweatshirts and other apparel were more radical wing of the civil rights with the U.S. military withdrawal from made in foreign and domestic sweat - movement embraced a black nation - Vietnam in 1973. Many members whose shops. Garment-workers unions played alist doctrine in which economic goals goals transcended an end to the war a major role as well, an early sign that were subordinated to political objec - — that is, they sought a more equi - unions and the left were rebuilding tives, especially a rejection of racial table society — continued their ac - their historic alliance. 46 integration. 41 tivism. (An SDS founder, Tom Hayden, A more significant sign of that con - As debate raged over the civil rights was a California legislator from 1982- vergence came in 1999 during street movement’s future, opposition to the 2000.) But since the draft ended in demonstrations in Seattle that disrupted Vietnam War was expanding, espe - 1973, America’s military campaigns a meeting of the World Trade Orga - cially on college campuses. Tens of haven’t mobilized an opposition even nization (WTO) convened to negoti - thousands of male students were be - close to the size and intensity of the ate international commerce rules. The coming eligible for the draft upon anti-Vietnam War movement. 43 demonstrations, which attracted as graduation (or dropping out), ensur - many 50,000 globalization opponents, ing that the escalating war command - included a small contingent of self- ed their attention. Globalization styled anarchists who smashed win - By the late 1960s, the anti-war move - dows in chain stores and committed ment became polarized between ultra- ssues that aroused the left in the other acts of vandalism. leftist radicals and traditionally mind - I post-Vietnam years included nuclear Seattle police were by their own ac - ed leftist activists who wanted to focus power (opposed), U.S. policy in Cen - counts unprepared and overwhelmed. on electoral politics. tral America (opposed) and environ - They responded by declaring a 50-block On the radical left, the only anti - mental protection (supported). In the area of the city a “no-protest” zone, at war mass organization — Students for 1990s, these concerns largely gave one point declaring an all-night cur - a Democratic Society (SDS) — im - way to opposition to the package of few in the area and deploying mas - ploded in 1969 after a bitter conflict liberalized foreign trade rules and job sive amounts of tear gas. Police Chief between the “Weatherman” faction, * outsourcing known as “globalization.” Norm Stamper, who resigned follow - Opposition had been building for ing the event, said recently that he un - * The name came from a line in a Bob Dylan years among unions and residents of wittingly escalated conflict by using song, “Subterranean Homesick Blues:” “You industrial areas in the Northeast and tear gas. Police who have recently don’t need a weatherman to know which way Midwest, which were losing jobs to used pepper spray against Occupy the wind blows.” foreign factories. When the North Amer - demonstrators are repeating his error,

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 39 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

Movement Mixes Anarchy and ‘Pure’ Democracy Everybody gets to talk . . . and talk . . . and talk.

hat’s the difference between pure democracy and Holmes, told The New Yorker. 4 She developed a proposal for anarchy? The Occupy movement’s decision-making a “Spokes Council” that would run the encampment’s day-to- W process offers some answers. But one thing is cer - day affairs. In late October, the G.A. approved the plan. (Though tain: The process isn’t neat and tidy. And sometimes it can be the 24-hour Wall Street camp no longer exists, the G.A. and pretty raw. the Spokes Council are still meeting.) 5 At each occupation site, a General Assembly (G.A.) of all Anarchism is popularly linked with wild-eyed bomb-throwers, the activists present makes decisions through a process of “di - who were indeed a presence in the late 19th and early 20th cen - rect” democracy: Everyone votes on everything, everyone gets turies. But anarchism as a political philosophy that traced social to speak. And speak. And speak. . . . ills to hierarchical control had a deep influence on the early labor Some of them shout as well. At a December meeting of and radical movements, including the militant Industrial Workers Occupy Oakland, one G.A. attendee periodically yelled four- of the World (IWW). Its accomplishments included a landmark letter obscenities during the assembly. victory in a textile workers’ strike in Lawrence, Mass., in 1912, But occasional shouts are a price that the anarchist-inspired led in part by anarchists. 6 activists behind Occupy have been willing to pay. They launched Later, the antifascist side in the Spanish Civil War — which Occupy Wall Street as a deliberately anti-hierarchical movement, inspired generations of U.S. leftwingers — had a major an - providing a model for the entire nationwide movement and its archist presence. Though anarchism in theory rejects state sometimes chaotic decision-making process. power, four Spanish anarchist leaders became ministers in the During preparations for a G.A. meeting in Manhattan in late Republican government that was under attack by right-wing October, a man approach the Facilitation Working Group, which military forces. 7 would run the meeting, and proposed that the G.A. demand Many European anarchists had become convinced years be - jobs for everyone. “The G.A. already said this is a movement fore, says Stephen Schwartz, a historian of the Spanish con - without demands,” another man said. “So how can there be a flict, that their movement needed strong leaderships because working group on demands?” 1 “the anarchist workers could not attain on their own the nec - In reality, the entire Occupy movement embodies a demand essary quality of leadership they needed to prevail in a major for change in an economic and political system that activists political conflict.” 8 view as deeply unequal. “We come to you at a time when Among U.S. radicals, anarchist influence has more recent corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over roots as well. “There were strong anarchist streaks in the justice and oppression over equality run our governments,” says New Left of the 1960s,” wrote Todd Gitlin, a professor at the “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City,” adopt - the Columbia University School of Journalism who was pres - ed by the Occupy Wall Street G.A. last Sept. 29. 2 ident of the radical Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) How to change the system? The declaration isn’t specific: in 1963-64. 9 “Create a process to address the problems we face, and gen - An SDS slogan, “Let the people decide,” Gitlin added, erate solutions accessible to everyone.” 3 “meant in practice, ‘Let’s have long meetings where everyone That hard-to-disagree-with goal reflects organizers’ initial vision gets to talk.’ ” The eventual effect, he adds, was that “tiny hier - of a movement that welcomed all comers and gave them all equal archies” of highly ideological Marxist-Leninists were able to voice. But anarchists, while opposed to hierarchy and political take over the organization, which eventually splintered and domination, don’t necessarily oppose leadership and structure. fell apart. 10 “The G.A. is beautiful, but it’s not an effective decision-mak - But that outcome only encouraged even deeper suspicion of ing body,” an Occupy Wall Street organizer, filmmaker Marisa hierarchies in later radical movements. And when the collapse he told the BBC. “Today it is being welcomed the participation of labor Los Angeles Times , describing outreach used indiscriminately,” he said, “and unions, which saw globalization as a to union members. 48 that is really appalling.” 47 job-killer. “We told people, if you pick In 2001, the Sept. 11 terrorist at - The Seattle demonstrations were a up a CD or a paper cup or a stereo, tacks transformed the political land - forerunner of the Occupy movement under this [WTO] system, this product scape. Left-liberal activists — those not in other respects as well. Activists used has more protections than the work - transformed into hawks by the attacks email, Web chat rooms and cell phones ers producing it,” Ron Judd, executive — threw themselves into anti-Iraq War — all in their infancy at the time — secretary of the King County Labor organizing, as well as civil liberties to mobilize and strategize. And they Council in Washington state, told the work and opposition to the George W.

40 CQ Researcher of the Soviet Union seemed to spell pology at the University of Lon don and the end of Marxism-Leninism as a a Wall Street occupation planner, said viable model, and Western European before the movement began. “Nothing socialist governments failed as well, annoys forces of authority more than Gitlin wrote, “Anarchism’s major com - trying to bow out of the disciplinary petitors for a theory of organization game entirely and saying that we could s

11 e

imploded.” g just do things on our own. Direct ac - a

But none of that makes running m tion is a matter of acting as if you were I 13 y

a non-hierarchical organization any t already free.” t easier. One question already prompt - e G / — Peter Katel, with reporting in ing debate is whether Occupy ac - P F

tivists will work in the 2012 pres - A Oakland by Daniel McGlynn / F

idential campaign — conducted F within a hierarchical, centralized, O 1 Quoted in Mattathias Schwartz, “Pre-Occupied,” Vladimir Lenin, main founder of the corporate-influenced political sys - The New Yorker , Nov. 28, 2011, www.newyorker. Soviet state, clashed with anarchists. In com/reporting/2011/11/28/111128fa_fact_schwartz. tem. Many, anarchists or not, are the 1960s, young American radicals 2 “Declaration of the Occupation of New York City,” disinclined. “A lot of activists, my - inspired by Lenin clashed with anarchist- New York City General Assembly, www.nycga.net/ self included, we vote, but we don’t inspired counterparts, hastening the resources/declaration. necessarily put much energy into eventual collapse of Students for a 3 Ibid. 4 the electoral process,” says Jackie Democratic Society. Schwartz, op. cit. 5 New York City General Assembly, /www.nycga. Smith, a University of Pittsburgh so - net/events/event/general-assembly-2012-01-05/. ciology professor who is working with the Occupy move - 6 Dorothy Gallagher, All the Right Enemies: The Life and Murder of Carlo ment in her city. Tresca (1988), pp. 35-40; Michael Kazin, American Dreamers: How the Left Some activists, members of small groups formed under the Changed America (2011), pp. 127-129. 7 Hugh Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (1961), pp. 44, 318. Occupy umbrella, are more interested in what anarchist theo - 8 For background see Victor Alba and Stephen Schwartz, Spanish Marxism reticians call “direct action” — the other side of the sometimes Versus Soviet Communism: A History of the P.O.U.M. in the Spanish Civil cumbersome G.A. process. War (2009). In Oakland, one young group of activists who constitut - 9 Todd Gitlin, “The Left Declares Its Independence,” The New York Times , Oct. 9, 2011, Section SR, p. 4. ed Occupy Oakland’s Tactical Action Committee took over a 10 Ibid. foreclosed house in a tough section of West Oakland, in - 11 Ibid. tending to use it as a base to organize resistance to fore - 12 Jason Cherkis, “Occupy Atlanta Helps Save Iraq War Veteran’s Home From closures (as Occupy activists have done in Brooklyn, Chicago Foreclosure,” Huffington Post , Dec. 19, 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/ and Atlanta). 12 19/occupy-atlanta-saves-iraq-veterans-home-from-foreclosure_n_1158097.html; Adam Martin, “Occupy Our Homes Takes Over Properties in New York and Occupying homes to prevent foreclosure reflects a classically Chicago,” The Atlantic Wire , Dec. 6, 2011, www.theatlanticwire.com/national/ anarchist approach — the opposite of, say, asking a bank not 2011/12/occupy-our-homes-occupies-its-first-home/45832/. to foreclose, or a sheriff not to evict occupants. 13 Ellen Evans and Jon Moses, “Interview With David Graeber,” The White Review , 2011, www.thewhitereview.org/interviews/interview-with-david- “The reason anarchists like direct action is because it graeber. means refusing to recognize the legitimacy of structures of power,” David Graeber, an American professor of anthro -

Bush administration. alliance that was crucial to the suc - years,” wrote Columbia University’s Many commentators saw the 2008 cess of twentieth-century liberalism,” Gitlin after Occupy Wall Street began, Obama presidential campaign and the Julian Zelizer, a Princeton historian, “Barack Obama got the benefit of early phase of his administration as wrote in the liberal Dissent magazine the doubt from fervent supporters — the rebirth of a liberal movement in in 2010. “The 2008 election depended I’d bet that many of those in Lower sync with the Democratic Party — an on a broad Democratic coalition that Manhattan during these weeks went alliance not seen since before the bridged left and center.” 49 door-to-door for him in 2008 — and Vietnam War. “President Obama has But the consensus is that the coali - that support explains why no one a historic opportunity to restore an tion is, at best, badly frayed. “For two occupied Wall Street in 2009.” 50

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 41 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

In Iowa, activists’ main targets were But while the New York events re - Republican candidates for the presiden - sembled past confrontations between CURRENT tial nomination. For them, the Iowa cau - Occupy and the New York Police De - cuses — that state’s more complicated partment, the attempt to bring the move - SITUATION version of a primary election — were a ment to the caucuses apparently repre - critical step in the process by which the sented the first collision between Occupy list of contenders gets narrowed down. and the electoral process. ‘Occupy’ Caucuses On the last day of 2011, 18 Occu - Occupy activists aren’t neglecting py protesters were arrested in sepa - events that may enjoy higher visibili - s the 2012 presidential race rate episodes outside the Iowa head - ty than primary elections. On New A moves into full swing, Occupy quarters of Republican candidates Year’s Day, several thousand Occupy demonstrators are trying to turn the Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota rep - marchers followed the Rose Bowl pa - primary-election process for evaluating resentative who subsequently dropped rade in Pasadena, Calif., with a parade presidential candidates into the latest out of the presidential race after fin - of their own. Their props included a theater of action. ishing sixth in the state’s caucuses; and 250-foot banner that said “We the Peo - The Iowa caucuses, held Jan. 3 former House speaker Gingrich, who ple,” and a 70-foot plastic octopus in - and narrowly won by Romney by finished fourth, and Santorum. 53 tended to represent the tentacles of just eight votes over former Penn - Most of those arrested — members corporate greed. 58 sylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, provid - of a contingent small enough to fit in ed a preview of the Occupy efforts. three r ented buses — were arrest- Activists who organized “Occupy Iowa hardened veterans of previous Occu - ‘Occupy’ Elections Caucuses” vowed to confront both py demonstrations. One of them, 16- Republican contenders and support - year-old Heaven Chamberlain, had ne political campaign stands out ers of President Obama. “President been arrested at an Occupy demon - O as the best test case so far of the Obama and the other bought-and- stration at the Iowa state capitol in Occupy movement’s effect on voters paid-for candidates who give us the October. She professed pride in her and candidates. brush-off when we try to ask real record. “It shows that I’m active with Elizabeth Warren, the front-runner for questions will be forced to hear us the community,” she told The New the Democratic nomination for the 2012 as we converge upon their campaign York Times , “and that I care about peo - Senate election in Massachusetts, is the headquarters,” organizers said on a ple’s opinions.” 54 closest thing to an Occupy candidate website set up for the occasion. “We Her mother and fellow Occupy ac - within the two-party system. will chase the candidates and their tivist shares that view of the teenager’s A Harvard Law School professor Wall Street cronies around the state rap sheet. “For her record I don’t worry, of commercial law who gained na - of Iowa. . . . We are taking American because she’s standing up for what’s tional attention as a fierce critic of democracy back!” 51 right,” Heather Ryan told The Times. 55 the financial industry, Warren launched When the Republican primary road Iowa is not the only place in which her candidacy after President Obama show moved to New Hampshire in the movement has been trying to backed off nominating her to head early January, Occupy activists followed. demonstrate a 2012 presence. “Whose the new Consumer Financial Protec - Their numbers were not large, though year? Our year!,” chanted several hun - tion Bureau. He bowed to massive Occupy New Hampshire members did dred people gathered in New York’s opposition from Republicans, echoing manage to draw attention by attend - Zuccotti Park on New Year’s Eve. 56 the position of industries the bureau ing GOP candidates’ campaign events, Their attempt to reclaim the park ended is charged with overseeing. Warren, a sometimes chanting slogans. One of as did several of the Occupy events specialist in consumer debt, largely their targets, Romney, won the prima - of 2011 in New York — with arrests, wrote the legislation that created the ry with 39.3 percent of the vote. Rep. including at least one police use of bureau. 59 Ron Paul, R-Tex., came in second, with pepper spray. 57 The Oklahoma-born Warren’s ad - 22.9 percent, followed by former Utah Activists reoccupied the park in early vocacy on behalf of ordinary con - Gov. Jon Huntsman, 16.9 percent; Gin - January after city authorities removed sumers who sign up for credit cards grich, 9.4 percent; and former Sen. barricades and checkpoints that had and take out mortgages has done Rick Santorum, 2.2 percent. All vowed limited the number of people allowed wonders for the campaign treasury of to pursue their candidacies in the South in; but a ban on tents and sleeping her possible general-election oppo - Carolina Republican primary. 52 bags remained in force. Continued on p. 44

42 CQ Researcher At Issue:

Wilyes l the Occupy movement continue to affect American politics?

DEAN BAKER NICK SCHULZ CO-DIRECTOR , C ENTER FOR ECONOMIC DEWITT WALLACE FELLOW , AND POLICY RESEARCH AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , JANUARY 2012 WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , JANUARY 2012

he Super Committee, the big topic of conversation in Wash - he current movement protesting income inequality aims its ington in early October, was the longstanding dream of guns at the wrong targets. As long as that is so, it will not t many D.C. deficit hawks. It had the power to produce a t have much of an effect on American politics. deficit-reduction plan that would be fast-tracked through Congress. Most Americans aren’t interested in redistributing income But as it turned out, the Super Committee produced no from the rich to the poor as a way of addressing inequality. plan to send to Congress for a vote. Its deadline passed, and They are more interested in living in a society with adequate the committee became just another deficit-reduction plan to be social mobility — where a person can climb the socioeco - tossed into history’s dustbin. nomic ladder through talent and hard work. To the extent that Part of the committee’s story was undoubtedly the intransi - envy animates today’s anti-inequality movement, it will fail to gence of Republican members who refused to go along with gain sufficient political traction. anything that could raise taxes. However, part of the story Upward mobility in America today requires an individual to was the constraints perceived by Democrats who were openly possess adequate amounts of human, social and cultural capi - willing to include cuts to Social Security and Medicare as part tal. In order to address the obstacles to upward mobility, we of a deal. could start by thinking about what I call a different kind of As the Ocycupy Wall Street movemens t spread across the “home economnics”: the economico consequences of America’s country, the obsession with deficit reduction dwindled. Almost changing family structure. The collapse of intact families over every major news outlet ran one or more major stories on the the last half-century, manifest in rising numbers of single-parent rise in income inequality over the past three decades. The dis - homes and rising out-of-wedlock birthrates, has eroded vital tinction between the “1 percent” who were the big gainers in human and social capital, and it has had baleful economic the economy over the last three decades and the “99 percent” consequences as a result. This is a problem for which there is who had almost nothing to show became a standard feature no easy solution, but it is a mistake to ignore it as a driver of of political debate. economic outcomes. In this context, it became almost inconceivable for the We could also think creatively about another critical institution Democrats on the Super Committee to “reward” the 99 per - for inculcating and developing essential human and social capi - cent with big cuts in Social Security and Medicare. The party tal — schools. There are good ideas across the ideological that has pretenses of protecting working people and the poor spectrum for reforming and strengthening schools. But genuine could not be seen slashing these two essential programs at a reform will require a period of messy experimentation and time when the country is still suffering from the recession. trial and error. As a nation we must be open to radical ways President Obama’s December speech in Osawatomie, of thinking about education as entrepreneurs find new ways Kan., which focused on inequality and helping ordinary of educating students; develop new business, academic and workers get ahead, should also be seen in this context. management models; and build new technology. There is a renewed commitment — at least in rhetoric — To the extent that today’s movement to protest inequality is to pursue an economic agenda that advances the interest of comfortable with the educational status quo, it will fail to the vast majority. make a genuine difference. In this context it is striking to see the surge in interest in a While relative income and living standards matter, absolute financial-speculation tax. This is the sort of measure that gets living standards matter most of all. Ask yourself if you’d prefer to the heart of the Occupy agenda. It would strike a big blow to live in an unequal country with the living standards of the directly against the financial speculation that has dominated United States or an equal country with the living standards of Wall Street in the last few decades, while raising hundreds of Congo. The point is that snapshots of a nation’s income in - billions of dollars over the next decade. The fact that this tax equality matter less over time to a nation’s welfare than eco - and other comparable measures are now part of the national nomic growth and increases in productivity. It’s not that in - debaten o is directly attributable to the Occupy movement. come inequality doesn’t matter; it’s just that many things matter a great deal more.

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 43 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

Continued from p. 42 But Republicans kept up nent. Finance-industry their strategy of portraying executives are pouring Warren as comrade-in-arms money into the cam - of radical demonstrators. paign of Sen. Scott One TV ad produced by Brown, R-Mass., whom an affiliate of American Warren would oppose Crossroads, a so-called in the November elec - “super PAC” not subject to tion if she wins the funding or spending re - primary race in Sep - strictions for its political ad - tember. 60 vocacy, juxtaposed images “Elizabeth is about of Warren with those of 99-1-99,” a Wall Street demonstrators, to illustrate executive, Anthony that she “sides with ex - Scaramucci, managing treme left” demonstrators partner of Skybridge who “attack police, do drugs Capital, told The New and trash public parks.” 66 York Times , referring Strikingly, the next ad in to former Republican g the Crossroads campaign n presidential primary o took an entirely different W

x tack. Apparently respond - candidate Herman e l A

Cain’s “9-9-9” tax plan. / ing to poll data showing s e

“She thinks the 99 per - g voter discontent with a cent want to tax the m banks and big business, I

y

t the follow-up commercial 1 percent 99 percent. It t 61 e is a failed strategy.” G depicted Warren as overly The Center for Re - Elizabeth Warren, front-runner for the Democratic nomination friendly to Wall Street. The sponsive Politics reports for the 2012 Senate election in Massachusetts, is a favorite of the ad focused on Warren’s role Occupy movement. The Harvard Law School professor gained that the securities and national attention as a fierce critic of the financial industry. as staff director of a con - investment, law and She launched her candidacy after President Obama bowed to gressional investigation of real-estate industries are massive opposition from Republicans and backed off nominating Treasury Department ad - among the top five her to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ministration of the $700 bil - sectors of Brown’s cam - which she largely created. lion financial industry paign contributors. bailout. “Congress had They account for about $3.2 million of noted that two Occupy Boston demon - Warren oversee how your tax dollars $5.3 million in donations Brown has strators had been arrested for alleged - were spent, bailing out the same banks received since he began his national ly selling heroin. “Professor Warren has that helped cause the financial melt - political career, winning a special elec - yet to comment on whether these were down,” Crossroads declared . 67 tion in January 2010 for the Senate seat also some of the individuals that she’s Warren shot back, calling the charge vacated by the death of Democratic now claiming to have provided the ‘in - “ridiculous” in an ad of her own. 68 Sen. Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy. 62 tellectual foundation’ for as well,” Walsh If her Wall Street enemies didn’t suf - said in a press release. 64 fice to link Warren with the Occupy Warren then followed up her re - ‘Occupy’ and Anti- movement, she herself drew the con - mark by drawing a line between her Semitism nection in late October soon after en - campaign and the Occupy movement. tering the primary race. “I created much “What I meant to say was I’ve been f all the accusations hurled at of the intellectual foundation for what protesting Wall Street for a long time,” O the Occupy movement, the po - they do,” she said of the movement, then she told The Associated Press. “The Oc - tentially most damaging is that it’s in its second month. 63 cupy Wall Street [Movement] is organ - become an outlet for haters who fol - Republicans leapt to attack. A Na - ic, it is independent, and that’s how it low a classic anti-Semitic script by tional Republican Senatorial Campaign should be.” And she pointedly opposed arguing that Jews pull the strings on Committee spokesman, Brian Walsh, law-breaking by demonstrators . 65 Wall Street.

44 CQ Researcher Jewish supporters of Occupy re - reawakened the original conflict over look or excuse the indefensible,” sponded immediately, noting that an Occupy as a refuge for anti-Jewish sen - wrote Jonathan Neumann, a fellow at author of the accusation is a Repub - timent, given the long-running debate the magazine who specializes in the lican strategist. But that conflict has over when anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian Middle East. 76 morphed into a debate within the amor - politics cross the line into anti-Semitism. One of the targets of Neumann’s crit - phous movement itself over what role That highly charged issue runs through icism, staff writer Marc Tracy of Tablet , it should take, if any, on the conflict all debate over Israel, especially on the an online magazine on Jewish affairs, between Israel and Palestinians. left and most especially among Jews. responded: “The main reason I did not The anti-Semitism charge surfaced One of the events that prompted enjoy seeing certain OWS [Occupy Wall almost as soon as the movement the conflict was a Nov. 4 sit-in at the Street] protests adopting an anti-Zionist began. A Web-broadcast video fea - Israeli consulate in Boston by about agenda is because I saw neither the rel - tured clips of anti-Jewish statements 20 Occupy members who had marched evance nor the connection between anti- and placards from people at Occupy from a downtown encampment in Zionism and OWS’s ‘1 percent’ message, Wall Street. 69 Dewey Square. 73 and I didn’t see the connection because The video — which also featured The action was intended to sup - I am in fact a Zionist who also supports cautious expressions of sympathy for port a failed attempt to bring supplies OWS’s economic message.” 77 the demonstrators by President Obama, by ship to Gaza, a Palestinian enclave former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- under Israeli military control, in defi - Calif., and former New York Attorney ance of an Israeli maritime blockade. General Eliot Spitzer — was produced In New York, Occupy Wall Street is - OUTLOOK by the Emergency Committee for Israel sued a Nov. 3 tweet of support for (ECI), whose chairman, William Kristol, the blockade-running effort. But the editor of the Weekly Standard , is a tweet was deleted, on the grounds that prominent Republican of the hawkish the entire Occupy Wall Street movement New Progressive Era? neoconservative school. 70 hadn’t taken a position on the matter, Aimed at rallying opposition to the the nonpartisan JTA news service on f all the forecasts about the pos - movement, the video prompted im - Jewish affairs reported. 74 O sible future of the Occupy move - mediate counterattacks from within Some in the movement were de - ment, one of the most far-reaching comes the Jewish community. manding that it oppose Israeli poli - from Jeffrey D. Sachs, an influential “It’s an old, discredited tactic: find cies. But Daniel Sieradski, an Occupy economist who directs the Earth Institute a couple of unrepresentative people in activist who organized Occupy Judaism, at Columbia University. a large movement and then conflate which held Jewish services at Zuccotti “A third progressive era is likely to be the oddity with the cause,” said a state - Park, has been working to keep Occu - in the making,” Sachs wrote in The New ment signed by 15 prominent liberal py open to supporters as well as foes York Times in November. The Occupy Jewish Occupy supporters. “Occupy of Israeli policy by keeping the move - movement, he argued, is harbinger and Wall Street is a mass protest against ris - ment out of Middle Eastern matters. engine of a 21st-century version of the ing inequality in America.” 71 “We are being sidetracked by some in periods of the late 1800s and early 1900s The nonpartisan Anti-Defamation our community and some outside our and the 1930s characterized by sweep - League, a nearly century-old organiza - community who are insisting on inte - ing social and regulatory legislation. 78 tion that fights anti-Semitism, declared grating this into the Occupy Wall Street “Twice before in American history, in October that “anti-Semitism has not platform,” Sieradski told JTA. 75 powerful corporate interests dominated gained traction more broadly with the A long piece in the neoconserva - Washington and brought America to a protesters, nor is it representative of tive monthly Commentary criticized state of unacceptable inequality, insta - the larger movement at this time.” 72 that approach as a dodge to avoid bility and corruption,” Sachs wrote. “Both Before long, however, the issue of grappling with the challenges posed times a social and political movement Occupy and anti-Semitism shifted from by anti-Israel sentiment on the left — arose to restore democracy and shared an argument between politically op - often, the Jewish left. “The blind quest prosperity.” 79 posed foes and supporters of the move - for ‘social justice’ in its left-wing under - Kazin, the Georgetown University ment. Activists began arguing over standing, despite the onslaught of left - historian and veteran of the 1960s anti- whether the Occupy movement should ist hatred for the Jewish people and war movement, offers a more cautious involve itself in the fight between Is - the Jewish state, demonstrates the de - assessment. “Movements of this kind,” rael and the Palestinians. That debate gree to which too many Jews over - he says, “especially ones that are this

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 45 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

fluid and rise quickly, may also frag - Davis, the former Democratic con - Jan. 3, 2012, www.cnn.com/2012/01/02/us/ ment quickly.” He adds, however, that gressman, who describes himself as a occupy-migration/?hpt=us_c2 ; New York City the large community of activist young centrist, argues that the movement’s fu - General Assembly, www.nycga.net/events/event/ people suddenly made visible by Oc - ture depends on whether activists de - general-assembly-2012-01-05 /. 4 cupy is likely to remain engaged, given cide to remain outside the convention - John Heilemann, “2012=1968,” New York magazine, Nov. 27, 2011, http://nymag.com/ the persistence of the economic con - al political system. “You can influence news/politics/occupy-wall-street-2011-12 ; Sean ditions underlying the movement. society simply by making a point over Captain, “Occupy Geeks Are Building a Face - If Kazin is wary of declaring the and over again, which is relatively easy book for the 99%,” Wired (Threat Level blog), dawn of a new age, he has the ex - to do,” he says. “Influencing politics is Dec. 27, 2011, www.wired.com/threatlevel/ perience of having written in 1999 that much harder. It requires mobilizing peo - 2011/12/occupy-facebook . the anti-globalization demonstrations ple, keeping them energized, raising 5 For background, see the following CQ Re - in Seattle likely represented the birth money, building a structure.” searcher reports: Peter Katel, “Child Poverty,” of a new populist movement. 80 Yet Moreover, he says, the movement Oct. 28, 2011, pp. 901-928; Maryann Hager - Kazin in that piece may simply have will have to develop a clearer analy - ty, “Business Ethics,” March 6, 2011, pp. 409- been ahead of his time. “Something sis of America’s ills — moving beyond 432; Marcia Clemmitt, “Income Inequality,” like Occupy would have come much frequently voiced complaints about Dec. 3, 2010, pp. 989-1012; Marcia Clemmitt, “Financial Industry Overhaul,” July 30, 2010, sooner if not for 9/11,” says Muldoon, the burdens of college loans. “I haven’t pp. 629-652; Peter Behr, “Fixing Capitalism” the CWA union member working with heard Occupy Wall Street spend any (CQ Global Researcher ), July 1, 2009, pp. 177- the Occupy movement in New York. time talking about 35 million children 204; and Thomas J. Billitteri, “Middle Class “It was like someone threw the emer - being income-insecure,” he says, “Those Squeeze,” March 6, 2009, pp. 201-224. gency brake.” children have a higher moral priority 6 “Trends in the Distribution of Household As for the future, Muldoon says, “I than people paying student loans.” Income Between 1979 and 2007,” Congressional think you’ll be able to look back and Occupy’s future also depends on Budget Office, October 2011, p. ix, www.cbo. say that things shifted.” She adds, “Some the nature of authorities’ response, ar - gov/ftpdocs/124xx/doc12485/10-25-Household of this is up to us about how signif - gues the CWA’s Dubnau. Repression, Income.pdf . 7 icant a shift.” he notes, has been known to radical - “Divided We Stand: Why Inequality Keeps Also up to the movement and its ize its targets. Rising — An Overview of Growing Inequalities in OECD Countries,” OECD, 2011, p. 38, www. tentative allies in the Democratic Party Dubnau cites widely circulated oecd.org/dataoecd/40/12/49170449.pdf . is whether and how to bridge the pro - video footage of a University of Cali - 8 Sabrina Tavernise, “Survey Finds Rising Per - found differences between believers and fornia, Davis, police officer squirting ception of Class Tension,” The New York Times , nonbelievers in the two-party system. pepper spray into the faces of stu - Jan. 11, 2012. Columbia University’s Gitlin ac - dents conducting a peaceful sit-in on 9 Heilemann, op. cit. knowledged: “Of course, it’s also con - campus. 82 “You get pepper-sprayed,” 10 Quoted in Beth Fouhy, “Democrats see ceivable that the structural divergences he says, “you’re going to come out minefield in Occupy protests,” The Associated are so great that they can’t be bridged. a different person.” Press, Nov. 17, 2011; Michael Kazin, “Anarchism Sometimes these things blow up and * Freelance writer Daniel McGlynn Now: Occupy Wall Street Revives an Ideology,” leave everything in ruins.” 81 contributed reporting from Oakland. The New Republic , Nov. 7, 2011, www.tnr.com/ Among Occupy opponents, Bossie article/politics/97114/anarchy-occupy-wall- street-throwback . of Citizens United, the producer of 11 Thomas Kaplan, “Albany Tax Deal To In - conservative videos, describes in a tone Notes crease Rate For Top Earners,” The New York of deep satisfaction what he says will Times , Dec. 7, 2011, p. A1; Andrew Rosenthal, be the short and unremembered life 1 Quoted in “Inside Occupy Wall Street: A “Fighting the ‘Governor One Percent’ Label,” of Occupy. “I don’t think the move - Tour of Activist Encampment at the heart of The Loyal Opposition blog, The New York ment had any effect except to tell the Growing Protest,” “Democracy Now,” Sept. 30, Times , Nov. 30, 2011. 12 American people just what they don’t 2011 , www.democracynow.org/2011/9/30/inside_ “Frustration with Congress Could Hurt Re - want America to become,” he says. occupy_wall_st_a_tour . publican Incumbents,” Pew Research Center, Alliances with conventional politicos 2 Quoted in Erik Eckholm and Timothy Dec. 15, 2011, pp. 3-4, www.people-press.org/ are doomed, Bossie says. “The leftist politi - Williams, “Anti-Wall Street Protests Spreading files/legacy-pdf/12-15-11%20Congress%20and cians are now trying to distance them - to Cities Large and Small,” The New York %20Economy%20release.pdf . 13 Adam Gabbatt, “Scott Olsen injuries prompt selves from it, because they understand Times , Oct. 4, 2011, p. A18. 3 review as Occupy Oakland protests continue,” the American people are so turned off Paul Courson, “Occupy DC demonstrators bolstered by migrating NYC Occupiers,” CNN, The Guardian , Oct. 26, 2011, www.guardian. by this really sick movement.” co.uk/world/2011/oct/26/scott-olsen-occupy-

46 CQ Researcher oakland-review ; Joshua Holland, “Who’s Behind 20 “We Are the 99 Percent,” http://wearethe 34 Beverly Gage, “Lessons for Occupy Wall the Mayhem at the Occupy Oakland Protests?,” 99percent.tumblr.com . Street,” Slate , Nov. 2, 2011, / www.slate.com/ar AlterNet , Nov. 11, 2011, www.alternet.org/ 21 Rich Lowry, “Heed the 99 Percent,” National ticles/business/moneybox/2011/11/occupy_ media/153053/who’s_behind_the_mayhem_at_ Review , Oct. 14, 2011, www.nationalreview. wall_street_how_how_the_protesters_should_ the_occupy_oakland_protests/?page=entire . com/ articles/280104/heed-99-percent-rich- respond_to_esca.single.html . 14 “Remarks by the President on the Econo - lowry . 35 “The Bonus March,” “American Experience,” my in Osawatomie, Kansas,” The White House, 22 Dylan Byers, “Occupy Wall Street is win - PBS, undated, www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mac Dec. 6, 2011, www.whitehouse.gov/the-press - ning,” Politico , Nov. 11, 2011, www.politico. arthur/peopleevents/pandeAMEX89.html . office/2011/12/06/remarks-president-economy- com/blogs/bensmith/1111/Occupy_Wall_Street_ 36 Jim Pope, “Worker Lawmaking, Sit-Down osawatomie-kansas . is_winning.html #. Strikes, and the Shaping of American Industrial 15 “From the Archives: President Teddy Roo - 23 Jared Bernstein, “On Inequality: Why Now?,” Relations, 1935-1958,” Law and History Review , sevelt’s New Nationalism Speech,” The White On the Economy (blog), Dec. 6, 2011, http:// Spring 2006, www.historycooperative.org/jour House Blog, Dec. 6, 2011, www.whitehouse. jaredbernsteinblog.com/on-inequality-why-now /. nals/lhr/24.1/pope.html . gov/blog/2011/12/06/archives-president-teddy- 24 “A Report Card for the Tea Party,” “Week - 37 Ibid. roosevelts-new-nationalism-speech . end Edition Sunday,” NPR, Dec. 25, 2011, www. 38 Quoted in “Desegregation of Central High 16 Nicholas Confessore, Christopher Drew and npr.org/2011/12/25/144248297/a-report-card- School,” National Park Service in Encyclopedia Julie Creswell, “Buyout Profits Keep Flowing to for-the-tea-party-2011 . of Arkansas History and Culture , updated Sept. Romney,” The New York Times , Dec. 18, 2011, 25 Neil Irwin, “Hamilton Project relaunches in 28, 2011, http://encyclopediaofarkansas. net/ www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/us/politics/ a more friendly environment,” The Washington encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID= 718 . retirement-deal-keeps-bain-money-flowing-to- Post , April 22, 2010, p. A17 . 39 “Freedom to Travel,” in “Freedom Riders,” romney.html?pagewanted=all . See also Sarah B. 26 Madeleine Kunin, “Occupy Congress,” The PBS, 2011, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperi Boxer, “Mitt Romney zings ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Huffington Post , Dec. 9, 2011, www.huffington ence/freedomriders/issues/freedom-to-travel . and praises Herman Cain in N.H.,” CBS News, post.com/madeleine-m-kunin/occupy-congress_ 40 “Major Features of the Civil Rights Act of Oct. 11, 2011, www.cbsnews.com/8301-5035 b_1138870.html . 1964,” Dirksen Congressional Center, undated, 44_162-20118511-503544.html . 27 Heilemann, op. cit. www.congresslink.org/print_basics_histmats_ 17 Meg Handley, “Romney Conjures Occupy 28 Adam Hochschild, “Common Threads: We civilrights64text.htm ; “The Voting Rights Act of Wall Street in New Campaign Video,” U.S. Are Not Alone,” Occupied Wall Street Journal , 1965,” U.S. Justice Department, undated, www. News & World Report , Dec. 28, 2011, www.us Nov. 18, 2011, http://occupiedmedia.us/2011/ justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_b.php . news.com/news/blogs/ballot-2012/2011/12/28/ 11/wearenotalone . 41 “1968 AFSCME Memphis Sanitation Workers’ romney-conjures-occupy-wall-street-in-new- 29 Ibid. Strike Chronology,” AFSCME, undated, www. campaign-video ; “We Are the 99 Percent,” http:// 30 Stephen Brier, et al. , Who Built America?: afscme.org/union/history/mlk/1968-afscme - wearethe99percent.tumblr.com . Working People & the Nation’s Economy, Politics, memphis-sanitation-workers-strike-chronology ; 18 Quoted in “Newt Gingrich on Occupy Wall Culture & Society (1992), pp. 68-154. Daniel Levine, Bayard Rustin and the Civil Street: Protesters Should ‘Get a Job’ and ‘Take 31 Ibid. , pp. 111-112. Rights Movement (2000), pp. 191-192. a Bath,’ ” Huffington Post , Nov. 19, 2011, www. 32 Richard Schneirov, “The Pullman Strike and 42 Jerry M. Lewis and Thomas R. Hensley, huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/19/newt-gingrich- Boycott,” Illinois During the Gilded Age (2007), “The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University: occupy-wall-street-job-bath_n_1103172.html . http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/pullman/events The Search for Historical Accuracy,” Prof. Jerry 19 “More Now Disagree With Tea Party — Even 3.html . M. Lewis website, http://dept.kent.edu/sociology/ in Tea Party Districts,” Pew Research Center , 33 Amanda Wisner, “ ‘General’ Jacob S. Coxey,” lewis/lewihen.htm ; Kirkpatrick Sale, SDS (1974), Nov. 29, 2011, www.people-press.org/2011/ Massillon (Ohio) Museum, 2006, www.massillon pp. 635-636. 11/29/more-now-disagree-with-tea-party---even - museum.org/research_massillonhistory_coxey. 43 Drummond Ayres Jr., “Political Briefing; Sys - in-tea-party-districts . html . tem Catches Up With Tom Hayden,” The New York Times , Aug. 27, 2000, www.nytimes. com/2000/08/27/us/political-briefing-system- About the Author catches-up-with-tom-hayden.html?src=pm . 44 For background, see Peter Katel, “Reviving Peter Katel is a CQ Researcher staff writer who previ - Manufacturing,” CQ Researcher , July 22, 2011, ously reported on Haiti and Latin America for Time and pp. 601-624. Newsweek and covered the Southwest for newspapers in 45 “NAFTA and Democracy,” Public Citizen, New Mexico. He has received several journalism awards, undated, / www.citizen.org/trade/nafta/votes ; including the Bartolomé Mitre Award for coverage of drug “NAFTA,” Duke Law Library & Technology , up - trafficking, from the Inter-American Press Association. He dated January 2011, www.law.duke.edu/lib/ holds an A.B. in university studies from the University of researchguides/nafta . 46 New Mexico. His recent reports include “Child Poverty ” Liz Featherstone, “Students Against Sweat - shops: A History,” in Daniel E. Bender and and “Reviving Manufacturing .” Richard A. Greenwald, eds., Sweatshop USA:

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 47 ‘O CCUPY ’ M OVEMENT

The American Sweatshop in Historical and Global Perspective (2003), pp. 247-264. 47 Quoted in Chloe Hadjimatheou, “Ex-Seattle FOR MORE INFORMATION chief: ‘Occupy’ police used ‘failed’ tactics,” BBC News, Nov. 28, 2011, www.bbc.co.uk/news/ Center for the Study of Social Movements , University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 ; http://nd.edu/~cssm . The center’s blog includes discussion and magazine-15929017 . analysis of developments in the Occupy movement. 48 Quoted in Kim Murphy and Nancy Cleeland, “Labor Unions Revive Powerful Past as WTO Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , 820 First St., N.E., Washington DC 20002 ; March Looks to New Future,” Los Angeles Times , 202-408-1056 ; www.cbpp.org . Liberal think tank and major center of research on in - Dec. 4, 1999, p. A18. equality, unemployment, and policies to counteract them. 49 Julian E. Zelizer, “Carter, Obama, and the Left-Center Divide,” Dissent , June 9, 2010, www. Citizens United , 1006 Pennsylvania Ave., S.E., Washington, DC 20003 ; 202-547-5420 ; dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=361 . www.citizensunited.org . The conservative media-production and advocacy group is 50 Todd Gitlin, “The Left Declares Its Inde - preparing a movie on the Occupy movement. pendence,” The New York Times , Oct. 9, 2011, Opinion Section, p. 4. Congressional Budget Office , Ford House Office Building, 2nd and D Streets, S.W., 51 “First in the Nation Caucus Occupation,” Washington DC 20515 ; 202-226-2602 ; www.cbo.gov . Nonpartisan agency that has con - Occupy Iowa Caucuses, undated, www.occupy ducted research on inequality and other issues raised by the Occupy movement. iowacaucuses.org . 52 “New Hampshire Primary Results,” The New New York City General Assembly , www.nycga.net . Website has information on York Times , Jan. 10, 2012, http://elections.ny meetings of the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly and of many single-topic times.com/2012/primaries/results/live/2012-01-10 . working groups. 53 Brian Bakst, “Occupy Protesters Arrested Outside Republican Presidential Candidates’ York Times , Nov. 18, 2011, www.ny times.com/ League, updated Nov. 1, 2011, www.adl.org/ Iowa Campaign Headquarters,” The Associated 2011/11/19/us/politics/wall-street-rallies-around - main_Extremism/occupy_wall_street.htm . Press ( Huffington Post ), Dec. 31, 2011, www. scott-brown-for-senate-race.html?pagewanted 73 Dennis Trainor Jr., “Occupy Boston Occupies huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/31/occupy-protests - =all . Israeli Consulate,” ncftv, YouTube, Nov. 4, 2011 , iowa-caucuses-2012_n_1177997.html?ref= 61 Quoted in ibid. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd1uO29UwzY . occupy-wall-street . 62 “Total Raised and Spent, 2012 Race: Massa - 74 Dan Klein, “Pro-Palestinian activists push 54 Quoted in Will Storey, “For ‘Occupy the chusetts Senate,” Center for Responsive Politics, cause within Occupy Wall Street movement,” Caucus’ Protesters, a Successful Day of Ar - updated Dec. 30, 2011, www.opensecrets.org/ JTA, Nov. 15, 2011, www.jta.org/news/article- rests,” The New York Times (The Caucus blog), races/summary.php?cycle=2012&id=MAS1 . print/2011/11/15/3090241/pro-palestinian- Dec. 31, 2011, http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes. 63 Quoted in Jacobs, op. cit. activists-face-pushback-within-occupy-wall- com/2011/12/31/for-occupy-the-caucus-pro 64 Quoted in Andrew Miga, “Warren claims street-movement?TB_iframe=true&width=750& testers-a-successful-day-of-arrests . credit for Occupy Wall St. protests,” The As - height=500 . 55 Quoted in ibid. sociated Press, Oct. 25, 2011. 75 Quoted in ibid. 56 Quoted in Colin Moynihan and Elizabeth 65 Quoted in Bob Salsberg, “US Senate hope - 76 Jonathan Neumann, “Occupy Wall Street A. Harris, “Surging Back Into Zuccotti Park, ful Warren clarifies protest remark,” The As - and the Jews,” Commentary , January 2012, www. Protesters Are Cleared by Police,” The New York sociated Press, Oct. 27, 2011. commentarymagazine.com/article/occupy-wall- Times (City Room blog), updated Jan. 1, 2012 , 66 Quoted in Andrew Miga, “Outside groups air street-and-the-jews . http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/31/ barrage of ads in Mass. Race,” The Associated 77 Marc Tracy, “How Jewish is Occupy Wall protesters-surge-back-into-zuccotti-park . Press, Dec. 27, 2011. Street?,” Tablet , Dec. 29, 2011, www.tabletmag. 57 Ibid. 67 Quoted in Puzzanghera, op. cit. com/scroll/87123/how-jewish-is-occupy-wall- 58 “Rose Bowl parade gets occupied,” The 68 Miga, op. cit. , “Outside groups.” street /. Associated Press (CBS News), Jan. 2, 2012, 69 “Hate at Occupy Wall Street,” Emergency 78 Jeffrey D. Sachs, “The New Progressive Move - www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57350999/ Committee for Israel, Oct. 13, 2011, www.you ment,” The New York Times , Nov. 12, 2011, www. rose-bowl-parade-gets-occupied . tube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded& nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/the- 59 Samuel P. Jacobs, “Warren Takes Credit for v=NIlRQCPJcew#!. new-progressive-movement.html . Occupy Wall Street,” Daily Beast , Oct. 24, 2011 , 70 “Emergency Committee for Israel,” www. 79 Ibid. www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/24/ committeeforisrael.com . 80 Michael Kazin, “Saying No to W.T.O.,” The elizabeth-warren-i-created-occupy-wall-street. 71 “Jewish Leaders Denounce Right-Wing New York Times , Dec. 5, 1999, Sec. 4, p. 17. html ; Jim Puzzanghera “U.S. Senate race puts Smears of Occupy Wall Street,” Jewish Leaders 81 Heilemann, op. cit. spotlight on Wall St.,” Orlando Sentinel , Dec. 30, Against Smears, Nov. 1, 2011, http://jewish 82 “UC Davis Protesters Pepper Sprayed,” Aggie 2011, p. A13. leadersagainstsmears.wordpress.com . TV, Nov. 18, 2011, www.youtube.com/watch? 60 Quoted in Nicholas Confessore, “Vilifying 72 “ ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Demonstrations: Anti- v=6AdDLhPwpp4 . Rival, Wall St. Rallies for Senate Ally,” The New Semitic Incidents Surface,” Anti-Defamation

48 CQ Researcher Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Meighan , Patrick , “My Occupy LA Arrest,” myoccupyla arrest.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html . Flank , Lenny , ed., Voices From the 99 Percent: An Oral An Occupy LA demonstrator gives a long, angry account History of the Occupy Wall Street Movement , Red and of his arrest and contrasts the gratuitous brutality he says he Black , 2011 . and others suffered with the non-prosecution of bankers. Participants tell the movement’s brief story thus far. Packer , George , “All the Angry People,” The New Yorker , Gessen , Keith , et al., eds., Occupy: Scenes from Occupied Dec. 5, 2011 , www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/12/05/ America , n+1 , 2011 . 111205fa_fact_packer . A series of reports and essays by sympathetic observers A writer specializing in political movements covers Occupy chronicle the movement and examine its possibilities. New York through the experience of a previously apolitical par - ticipant, a high-tech specialist who lost his job in the recession. Kazin , Michael , American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation , Knopf , 2011 . Wallsten , Peter , “Lending a little organized labor to Occupy A Georgetown University historian, sympathetic but not naive, Wall Street,” The Washington Post , Oct. 21, 2011 , p. A1 . examines the role of the left in U.S. history. Ties are growing between Occupy and unions.

Articles Whoriskey , Peter , “Growing wealth widens distance be - tween lawmakers and constituents,” The Washington Post , Abelson , Max , “Bankers Join Billionaires to Debunk ‘Im - Dec. 26, 2011 ; and Lichtblau , Eric , “Economic Downturn becile’ Attack on Top 1%,” Bloomberg , http://mobile.bloom Took a Detour at Capitol Hill,” The New York Times , Dec. berg.com/news/2011-12-20/bankers-join-billionaires-to- 26, 2011 . debunk-imbecile-attack-on-top-1-.html . In two major and similar reports, reporters detail lawmak - Wealthy Americans explain their anger at, in their view, ers’ increasing affluence. being vilified for their success. Reports and studies Colin , Chris , “A teepee grows in Oakland,” Salon , Nov. 30, 2011 , www.salon.com/2011/11/30/a_teepee_grows_in_oak “Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between land /. 1979 and 2007,” Congressional Budget Office , October 2011 , A writer chronicles Occupy Oakland activists’ search for di - www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/124xx/doc12485/10-25-Household - rection after the forcible closing of their encampment. Income.pdf . In painstaking detail, the nonpartisan congressional agency Dupuy , Tina , “The Occupy Movement’s Woman Problem,” documents the growth and extent of the wealth gap. The Atlantic , Nov. 21, 2011 , www.theatlantic.com/ politics/archive/2011/11/the-occupy-movements-woman- “Frustration with Congress Could Hurt Republican Incum - problem/248831 /. bents,” Pew Research Center , Dec. 15, 2011 , www.people- A journalist sympathetic to the Occupy movement reports press.org/files/legacy-pdf/12-15-11%20Congress%20and%20 on gender imbalance in the encampments. Economy%20release.pdf . One section of the nonpartisan center’s report analyzes sur - Gage , Beverly , “Occupy Wall Street: How the protesters vey responses on the Occupy movement and inequality. should respond to escalating violence,” Slate , Nov. 2, 2011 , www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2011/11/occu On the Web py_wall_street_how_how_the_protesters_should_respond_ to_esca.html . Occupy Wall Street page , Huffington Post , www.huffing A Yale historian puts repression of Occupy demonstrations tonpost.com/news/occupy-wall-street . in the context the violent birth of the labor movement. Daily coverage by the liberal-leaning news site.

Lowry , Rich , “Heed the 99 Percent,” National Review On - Occupy Videos , http://occupyvideos.org . line , Oct. 14, 2011 , www.nationalreview.com/articles/280 Videos sympathetically documenting Occupy activities. 104/heed-99-percent-rich-lowry . Though critical of the Occupy movement, a conservative We Are the 99 Percent , http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com . magazine editor acknowledges the economic and social dis - Individual accounts by those who call themselves part of tress that prompted its rise. the “99 percent.”

www.cqresearcher.com Jan. 13, 2012 49 The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Democratic Party Wolfgang , Ben , “Parties See Protests As Two Sides of Coin,” The Washington Times , Oct. 10, 2011 , p. A1 , www. Bierman , Noah , “Warren Walks Fine Line on Occupy Move - washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/9/parties-see-protests - ment,” The Boston Globe , Oct. 26, 2011 , p. 1 , articles. bos as-two-sides-of-coin/?page=all . ton.com/2011-10-26/news/30324894_1_tea-party-move Many Democrats and Republicans see many similarities be - ment-elizabeth-warren-protesters . tween the Occupy and Tea Party movements. Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic Massachusetts candidate for the Senate, has backed the Occupy movement’s message but Young , J.T. , “Democrats’ Buy-In to Occupy Is a Risky Bet,” has avoided close ties with the movement itself. The Washington Times , Nov. 28, 2011 , p. B4 , www.wash ingtontimes.com/news/2011/nov/26/democrats-buy-in-to- Kochakian , Charles , “OWS Golden Ticket for Democrats?” occupy-is-a-risky-bet/?page=all . New Haven (Conn.) Register , Oct. 22, 2011 , p. A8 . The potential for violent conflict makes the Occupy move - Occupy protesters’ demand for “economic justice” may pro - ment a risky association for Democrats, according to a former vide Democrats with political capital to enact more Wall Republican congressional staffer. Street reforms. Inequality Lorber , Janie , “Occupy, Liberals Can’t Get Together,” Roll Call , Dec. 14, 2011 , www.rollcall.com/issues/57_74/Occu Filice , Carlo , “Protesters Complaining About a Lack of py_Liberals_Tensions-211034-1.html . Social Equality,” Buffalo (N.Y.) News , Oct. 19, 2011 , p. A6 , Democrats are adopting the Occupy movement’s “99 percent” www.buffalonews.com/editorial-page/from-our-readers/ language but retreating from its anti-capitalist rhetoric. another-voice/article599544.ece . Wealth inequality does not necessarily mean the economic Robinson , Eugene , “Occupy Movement Is a Largely Un - system is unfair as the Occupy movement suggests, according deserved Windfall for Democrats,” Contra Costa (Calif.) to a philosophy professor at the State University of New York Times , Oct. 18, 2011 , www.contracostatimes.com/ci_191 at Geneseo. 39409 . Democrats may reap benefits from the Occupy movement Schulz , Nick , “Three Inconvenient Truths for Occupy even though President Obama hasn’t sought many funda - Wall Street,” Los Angeles Times , Nov. 30, 2011 , p. A27 , mental Wall Street reforms. articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/30/opinion/la-oe-schulz- occupy-20111130 . Rothenberg , Stuart , “Do Democrats Face More Trouble The Occupy Wall Street movement is not fully aware of From OWS?” Roll Call , Dec. 8, 2011 , www.rollcall.com/ the factors that contribute to income inequality, according issues/57_71/democrats_face_more_trouble_occupy_wall_ to a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. street-210865-1.html . The Occupy movement may have yet to redefine the International Protests country’s politics, but it could still be a factor in the 2012 elections. Adam , Karla , “United in Anger, Occupy Wall Street Pro - testers Go Global,” The Washington Post , Oct. 16, 2011 , Scherer , Michael , “Inside the Organized Left’s Courtship p. A20 , www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/occupy- of Occupy Wall Street,” Time , Oct. 13, 2011 , swampland. wall-street-protests-go-global/2011/10/15/gIQAp7kimL_ time.com/2011/10/13/inside-the-organized-lefts-courtship- story.html . of-occupy-wall-street/#ixzz1ahIhcspA . Occupy protests have been held in more than 900 cities The potential of the Occupy movement has already been across Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United discussed at the highest levels of the Obama administra - States as a rallying cry against the global financial system tion. and corporate greed.

Ward , Louis C. , “Can Wall Street Protests Help Obama?” Chu , Henry , “Brits Protest With Cheeky Creativity,” Chicago Orlando Sentinel , Oct. 31, 2011 , p. A23 , articles.orlando Tribune, Oct. 20, 2011 , p. 23 . sentinel.com/2011-10-31/news/os-ed-wall-street-obama- The British public has been staging rallies similar to Occupy myword-103111-20111028_1_republican-front-runner-mitt- Wall Street but with more unconventional forms of protest. romney-obama-wall-street-s . Using the Occupy movement as a strategy against Repub - Gardner , Daniel K. , “China Is Ripe For Its Own Occupy licans comes with risks for Obama because many of his se - Protests,” The Christian Science Monitor , Nov. 8, 2011 , nior advisers have ties to the financial industry. www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/1108/

50 CQ Researcher China-is-ripe-for-its-own-Occupy-protests . street-and-labor-movement-forming-uneasy-alliance/2011/ Occupy protests have yet to spread to China, but the Chi - 10/19/gIQAkxo80L_story.html . nese government has already cracked down on media cov - Some Occupy activists regard their protests as a chance to erage of the movement. push the increasingly weak union movement into a more aggressive posture. Preston , Jennifer , “Occupy Wall Street, And Its Global Chat,” The New York Times , Oct. 17, 2011 , p. B7 , query.ny Leadership times.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E3D61238F934A2 5753C1A9679D8B63 . Braun , Bob , “Why a Movement Defined By Equality May The Occupy Wall Street movement has gone global largely Be Undone By It,” Star-Ledger (Newark, N.J.), Oct. 9, 2011 , because of the online conversations facilitated by Twitter , Face - p. 1 , blog.nj.com/njv_bob_braun/2011/10/braun_why_a_ book and YouTube. movement_defined_b.html . Occupy’s long-term chances of effecting change are un - Labor Unions certain amid the movement’s lack of a coherent strategy and leadership structure. Fagan , Kevin , “Occupy, Labor Look At Forming Alliance,” The San Francisco Chronicle , Nov. 6, 2011 , p. A1 , articles. Brisbane , Arthur S. , “Who Is Occupy Wall Street?” The sfgate.com/2011-11-06/news/30368140_1_labor-unions- New York Times , Nov. 13, 2011 , p. SR12 , www.nytimes. organized-labor-labor-movement . com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/who-is-occupy-wall- The Occupy movement and labor unions both support tax - street.html . ing wealthy corporations and boosting the rights of work - Occupy Wall Street is a movement that naturally abstains ing people. from leadership structures and formal demands.

Fletcher , Ed , “Unions Press for Alliance With Occupy Sacra - Davis , Paul , “Occupy Wall Street Needs Leadership to mento,” Sacramento (Calif.) Bee , Nov. 18, 2011 , p. B1 , Be Politically Relevant,” American Banker , Oct. 27, 2011 . www.sacbee.com/2011/11/18/4063788/unions-press-for- Occupy Wall Street must develop a leadership structure if alliance-with.html . it wants to influence the 2012 presidential race, according Unions have organized “we are the 99 percent” rallies as a sign to a University of Virginia political analyst. of solidarity with the Occupy movement in Sacramento, Calif. Wood , Daniel B. , and Gloria Goodale , “Does ‘Occupy Wall Greenhouse , Steven , “Standing Arm in Arm,” The New Street’ Have Leaders? Does It Need Any?” The Christian York Times , Nov. 9, 2011 , p. B1 , www.nytimes.com/ Science Monitor , Oct. 10, 2011 , www.csmonitor.com/USA/ 2011/11/09/business/occupy-movement-inspires-unions- Politics/2011/1010/Does-Occupy-Wall-Street-have-leaders- to-embrace-bold-tactics.html?pagewanted=all . Does-it-need-any . Unions are starting to embrace some of the bold tactics Politicians and the media are scrambling to identify Occupy’s and social-media skills of the Occupy Wall Street movement. leaders, but the movement wonders whether it needs any.

Greenhouse , Steven , and Cara Buckley , “Seeking Energy, Unions Join Wall Street Protest,” The New York Times , CITING CQ RESEARCHER Oct. 6, 2011 , p. A1 , www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/nyre Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography gion/major-unions-join-occupy-wall-street-protest.html? include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats pagewanted=all . Labor union leaders believe they can tap into Occupy Wall vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. Street’s vitality, while protesters think they can benefit from the unions’ money, membership and stature. MLA STYLE Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11,” CQ Researcher 2 Sept. Johnson , O’Ryan , “‘Occupy,’ Unions Connect in Protest,” 2011: 701-732. Boston Herald , Oct. 14, 2011 , p. 4 , bostonherald.com/ news/regional/view/2011_1014occupy_unions_connect_ APA S TYLE in_protest_local_labor_workers_join_forces_to_blast_verizon . Jost, K. (2011, September 2). Remembering 9/11. CQ Re - The protesters of Occupy Boston have joined forces with , 701-732. organized labor to support electrical workers in a stalemate searcher, 9 over negotiations with Verizon. CHICAGO STYLE Wallsten , Peter , “Lending a Little Organized Labor to Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher , September Occupy Wall Street,” The Washington Post , Oct. 21, 2011 , 2, 2011, 701-732. p. A1 , www.washingtonpost.com/politics/occupy-wall-

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Civil Liberties Education Health/Safety Remembering 9/11, 9/11 Digital Education, 12/11 Preventing Disease, 1/12 Government Secrecy, 2/11 College Football, 11/11 Military Suicides, 9/11 Cybersecurity, 2/10 Student Debt, 10/11 Teen Drug Use, 6/11 Press Freedom, 2/10 School Reform, 4/11 Organ Donations, 4/11 Crime on Campus, 2/11 Genes and Health, 1/11 Crime/Law Preventing Bullying, 12/10 Eyewitness Testimony, 10/11 Environment/Society Legal-Aid Crisis, 10/11 Fracking Controversy, 12/11 Politics/Economy Computer Hacking, 9/11 Water Crisis in the West, 12/11 Reviving Manufacturing, 7/11 Class Action Lawsuits, 5/11 Google’s Dominance, 11/11 Foreign Aid and National Security, 6/11 Cameras in the Courtroom, 1/11 Managing Public Lands, 11/11 Public-Employee Unions, 4/11 Death Penalty Debates, 11/10 Prolonging Life, 9/11 Lies and Politics, 2/11 Upcoming Reports Combating Financial Misconduct, 1/20/12 Youth Volunteering, 1/27/12 Presidential Election, 2/3/12

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