Occupy Wall Street
Since September 17, 2011 the Occupy Wall Street movement has grown from a core group of protestors who began occupying Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, renaming in Liberty Plaza. Solidarity protests have taken place in thousands of US and Canadian cities. Though police crackdowns have since cleared most, if not all, of these Occupy encampments, the spirit of the movement continues, made manifest in continued protest throughout the United States.
At the core of the movement: A reining in of corporate control of the US and global economy, and politics. It comes as the US economy has greater economic inequality than many developing nations (including India, China, and Iran), joblessness is on the rise, and social mobility is nearly at an all-time low. Calling themselves the 99%, they align themselves against the richest 1% of the US population, who control a percentage of US wealth and income unmatched since the Great Depression.
As much as what the movement itself has brought to the table, the response from civic government has been illustrative of the state of affairs, and polarizing. From police officers repeatedly pepper-spraying peaceful, non-violent protestors, to intimidating and arresting members of the media, the reaction of those in power has shed light on deep imbalances in the American political system and public life. In fact, as a result of the reaction to Occupy protests around the nation, the US has fallen 20 spots in international rankings of press freedom, falling to number 47 in 2011.
Featured Stories in Occupy Wall Street
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Why I'm Occupying Wall Street with the Green Movement Today
Since the Occupy Wall Street movement began, there's been plenty of long-winded pontificating about what it stands for or what it doesn't stand for or what it should stand for and so on. (Most of that pontificating
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#OccupyWallStreet, Food Prices, Civil Unrest: It All Comes Back To Oil
There is a direct connection between the Occupy Wall Street movement, the price of food, and the price of oil.
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Memo to #OccupyWallStreet: It's Not Just Neoliberalism That's Destroyed the Environment
When it comes to protecting the environment, it is true that the current neoliberal globalized economy hasn't done a very good job at protecting nature, at all. But historically speaking, neither has any other economic system.
Tag: Occupy Wall Street
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Forget Black Friday and Buy Nothing Day; Re-Occupy Main Street and Remember Small Business Saturday
Our Main Streets are key to building a new green economy and it's time we got serious about supporting them
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Will We Vote Our Values or Fears? TreeHugger Interviews Green Party Presidential Hopeful Jill Stein
TreeHugger talks with the Green Party candidate for president, Dr Jill Stein about her Green New Deal, energy, climate, agriculture, and health policy, and more.
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Dawn of the Sixth Sun: Has the Occupy Movement Started a Sacred Human Transformation?
The Mayan prophecy of the Sixth Sun says that the People of the Corn will give way to the People of the Honey, who will recognize their connection with the living earth. Perhaps the occupiers have poured the first drop of honney in the human heart.
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TreeHugger Radio: A Final Episode and Nine of Our Favorite Moments With Amazing People
In this final installment we step back through time into some of our favorite conversations.
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Occupy's GlobalMay Manifesto Has Lots of Points Green Movement Should Get Behind
If you still have lingering doubts that the aims of the Occupy movement and the green movement are largely in alignment, this should but those doubts to rest.
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Earth Day Gets #Occupied
#Occupy Wall Street interrupted regularly scheduled corporate Earth Day programming, and offered a glimpse of the grassroots environmental activism the event was originally about.
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Coal Rules, Occupy Wall Street Sucks: Coal Industry (Video)
The coal industry launches its election season ad campaign by making fun of Occupy Wall Street.
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Four Arrested at Occupy Wall Street's 'Disrupt Dirty Power' Protest
Last Tuesday, #Occupy protests took to the U.N. to protest the influence of the financial sector on polluting power.
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Gus Speth Envisions America the Possible (Podcast)
James Gustave Speth, founder of the World Resources Institute, discusses his new book and the political reform America so dearly needs.
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Best of Green Readers' Choice: Energy
Who are the best ambassadors for clean energy, energy industry innovators, activists, and more? Vote here.
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Economist Jeffrey Sachs on Poverty, Politics, Pipelines, and Protests (Podcast)
Author and economist Jeff Sachs discusses politics, Occupy, Keystone XL, the need for nuclear, and lots more.
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Why Environmentalists Should Think Like Pro Athletes
From footballers to artists, successful human beings learn to evoke a heightened state of consciousness. The environmental movement must do the same.
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George Monbiot on Junk Science, Rational Thought, and The Tragedy of Giving Up Nuclear (Podcast)
The Guardian's George Monbiot talks about climate deniers, junk science, and the need for nuclear.
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Yoko Ono Delivers "Peace Postcards" to Occupy Wall Street Protesters
You have to give her credit -- Yoko Ono is 78 years old and she is still going strong with her world peace mission.
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Energy News Recap: More Shale Gas Cuts Renewable Energy Investments, Solar PV Cheap As Fossil Fuels in Mideast, More
Plus, more on misinformation about Keystone XL and US energy independence, New Yorkers speak out against fracking, plus Occupy Wall Street energy bikes redeployed to Occupy DC.
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Montana Court Says Citizens United Ruling Doesn't Override State Ban On Corporate Political Spending
"Issues of corporate influence, sparse population, dependence on agriculture and extractive resource development...make Montana vulnerable to...corporate control" - Montana Chief Justice Mike McGrath
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"There Goes the Neighborhood." Two Ways to Deal with Foreclosed Homes
While some cities are tearing down thousands of vacant homes, Occupy Our Homes movement offers a compassionate alternative.
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Woody Guthrie's 1942 New Years Resolutions Resonate Today
The great folksinger had 33 resolutions for the year; no record of how it turned out in the end
