A Big Shock For The Capitalism: Occupy Wall Street

In New York, which is the most famous city in the world…  Media, the U.S government and the whole world were in shock! Police and civilians were in conflict and protestors were in a great rage. Then, Occupy Wall Street was born amid all this chaos and confusion. But how, when, and why? Let’s find an answer to all these questions.

What is Mortgage Crisis?

Occupy Wall Street arose due to the economic crisis in 2008. It is also known as the “mortgage crisis” that started in the USA and spread to almost the whole world.

In the mortgage system, individuals obtain the price of the house they want to buy by borrowing from certain banks. With this system, it is possible to own a house more quickly. FED’s decision of keeping interest rates low increased the demand for the mortgage system. So much so that loans were given up to 100% of the housing prices. 

US Subprime Mortgage Crisis, Bele, 2019. (photo credit: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/us-subprime-mortgage-crisis-namita-bele/)

But then, this system suddenly tumbles and a problem starts to arise between customers and banks due to the decision of the FED to increase the interest rates again. There was a high amount of loan borrowing. When individuals who could not pay their housing debts had to put their houses up for sale, the value of the houses decreased and the banks that gave mortgage loans started to go bankrupt one after another due to the loans they provided. 

This financial crisis deeply injured the middle and lower class economy, it became global trouble in a few years and affected many countries. However, the first to feel the damage is middle and lower-class Americans who are homeless and in debt due to the crisis. As a result of a huge rage growth from these economical classes and turns out as protests.

How Does It Start?

Protestors at Zuccocci Park, 2011 (photo credit: https://cdn.nybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Zuccotti-Park-protesters.jpg)

The protests start with a few hundred young people who are mostly students camping in Zuccotti Park in New York. Due to the lack of participants number, this occupation was underestimated by mainstream media. However, their numbers increased day by day. The real issue is no longer the bankruptcy of banks, but the income inequality between economic classes. The inequality of the society gradually garnered backlash. They tried making their voices heard by getting involved in the movement.

Why Wall Street?

Wall Street, the main target of the protests, is located in New York City, USA, and has a symbolic meaning. It is the center of the wealthy and the financial world, which monopolizes the economy and still corresponds to 1% of the US society.

Wall Street in Upper Manhattan (photo credit: https://www.newser.com/story/295806/stock-markets-selloff-continues.html)

In addition, New York is of great importance because New York is quite remarkable as a city classified according to income levels and divided into regions.

One of the four main districts of the city is Manhattan. It is divided into two parts as “Upper Manhattan” where the upper-class lives and “Lower Manhattan” where the middle and lower class live. These separatist students played an active role in making the living spaces of the upper class a target. 

Their slogan was “Walk from Lower to Upper!”

How Does It Spread to All U.S?

Due to the Mortgage Banks Association’s conference in Chicago, the direction of the protests started to expand to Chicago and its surrounding cities.

The eastern states of the USA stand out as higher education, political, economic, and sociocultural resources since the past. For this reason, protests are in a movement from east to west.

The most highly educated states of U.S, 2018. (photo credit: https://www.zippia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/these-are-the-mostly-highly-educated-states.png)

In the early stages of the protests, the actions intensify in such as New York, Boston, Washington D.C, Chicago. But the most notable of these is the state of California, which is the western nearby branch, especially for high-income earners. 

However, the central and southern states are known as the conservative and less growth section of the USA, and they provide the least participation and support to the movement.

What is the Ideology of Occupation?

Since there are individuals from different ideologies among those who took part in the occupation, it would be more correct to talk about the ideas that brought individuals together rather than a single ideology choice. Because the individuals who participated in the movement did not represent any ideology, but because of a common “problem”.

However, it would not be wrong to say that the ideological framework of the occupation is neoliberal policies and their negative consequences. The state’s positive discrimination against the workers and the middle class by taking a cold stance on the capital owners and the failure of the then-president Obama to solve the problem even and the mortgage crisis that followed are perceived as the last straw.

What is the Goal of Occupation?

The Wall Street Occupation basically against the economic and social inequality created by the policies of neoliberalism. “We are ninety-nine against one!” was the occupiers’ statement. That emphasized how big inequality has become in the United States of America. Occupiers took action for this inequality and they demanded fair practices.

Results of Occupy Wall Street

The movement weakened later and the issues were tried to be covered with a few proposals made by the government.

However, the occupation has received attention both in the US media and around the world. It shocked everyone that there was such a protest in the USA, which is considered one of the fixtures of capitalism.

Occupy Wall Street demonstrators stand and cheer in front of the George Washington statue on Wall Street (photo credit:  https://media.nouvelobs.com/ext/uri/sreferentiel.nouvelobs.com/file/rue89/7fa29b3b1442f5a83f1090fa5b0ffc59.jpg)

“Like the 1968 movement, it was able to create an exemplary model for the future,” said Wallerstein who is an American sociologist and activist about the occupation process. “You know the famous saying, Rome was not built in a day.” 

RESOURCES

Levitin, M. (2015, June 15) The triumph of Occupy Wall Street. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/the-triumph-of-occupy-wall-street/395408/

OccupyWallSt. (2019, October 28) Facts about Occupy Wal Street. http://occupywallst.org/