With all this talk about the “Great Recession” in our class and after having just read “Globalization from Below” I thought of an article that I saw on CNBC.com today that talk about a group called Occupy Wall Street. About a week ago this leaderless group asked followers to bring beds, chairs and whatever they would need in order to occupy Wall Street for a month. It’s supposed to be a peaceful gathering of protesters. They hope this gathering will open people’s eyes, not only the big banks who are still handing out millions of dollars of bonuses, but also our government. They hope there will be some sort of intervention to get us out of the recession that never seems to end.
I believe this movement is hugely interesting, because if one looks at the attention that protesters are given in the United States it usually surrounds social issues like gay marriage. Little attention has been given to protestors that want to stand up to The Street and say this is where our problems are stemming from. This movement to stand up to the business tycoons and plead our government to intervene could be stemmed from the protests that have been occurring all throughout Europe these past few months. Regardless what the motivation or start of this was I think it is important for more Americans to voice their opinions on things like this that truly matter and will affect our country for years to come. I hope the big banks and business of Wall Street will also stand up and realize that in order for employment to increase and jobs to be created it needs to come from them.
Biz Gov Soc 
I agree that the fact that people are taking a hands on approach about our economy is a good thing. The more people that are informed, the better. My one issue is that they are saying that the government should have more control over big business. I don’t think this is what should happen. They are still companies that are owned by the stockholders and should not be overly regulated by the government. If companies want to give out big bonuses to their employees, that’s their prerogative.
I also like how social networking enables these kind of gatherings to happen so easily. These things no longer require days of planning and coordination is no longer a nightmare. We see that the hash tag “@occupywallst” was trending on twitter, a quick website was set up, and a movement was born.
What is the relationship between protest and being informed or taking a hands-on approach?
Edit: talked.
also, drop the comma after because. See #4 here
Wasn’t it government involvement that kept the banks solvent in 2007-2009? Did you disagree with that involvement?
I do not disagree with that involvement at all and I’m not trying to say that I disagree with government intervention at all. What I was trying to get across was that people in general are fed up with the government and how they are regulating Wall Street. Clearly what is being done is not curbing the unemployments problems that we have in the US, which I believe is the paramount economic and social issues.
This was a great video, but I don’t think that protesting against the wall street banks is anything new. This summer I read an article (http://www.cbc.ca/news/offbeat/story/2011/08/02/wall-street-naked-art.html) where people were protesting naked on Wall Street and I am sure protests have occurred countless times in the past, especially since the recession around 2008
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More information about the “leaderless” occupy wall street. This is their about page, as best I can tell.
I was unsure why the fellow in your clip was talking about brothers and sisters in Egypt and in other Arab Spring countries. Are frustrations with the political economy here the same as frustrations with corrupt leaders in Egypt? The web page above sheds some light: they see a similarity in tactics of mass occupation.
A more general management or organization question they pose in their style is whether you can separate leadership from leaders