Occupy

The streets surge with the endless passion of people punching their fists into the air, and airing every last strand of emotion and idea out into the ether of global awareness. You walk amongst the throngs, curiosity encouraging you to explore the vast sea of sights and sounds, giving you the opportunity to evidence history in the making with your own two eyes. The Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against social and economic inequality. The movement started in Kuala Lumpur on July 30, 2011, with Occupy Dataran, followed by New York City on September 17, 2011, with Occupy Wall Street. By October 9 Occupy protests had taken place or were ongoing in over 95 cities across 82 countries and over 600 communities in the United States. On May 30, 2011, a leader in the Spanish Indignants movement, inspired by the Arab Spring, made a call for a worldwide protest on October 15. In mid-2011, the Canadian-based group Adbusters Media Foundation, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, address a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions behind the recent global financial crisis. According to the senior editor of the magazine, "[they] basically floated the idea in mid-July into our [email list] and it was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world, it just kind of snowballed from there." One of the inspirations for the movement was the Democracy Village set up in 2010, outside the British Parliament in London. The protest received additional attention when the internet group Anonymous encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and Occupy Wall Street". The first protest was held at Zuccotti Park in New York City.