Occupy Wall Street
This subject has been lingering on the edges of my perception for some time. I would see random clippings in the news as well as text crawlers during football games. I never paid attention to them until the two trade magazines I read, The Hollywood Reporter, and Daily Variety, mentioned them as headlines on October 3rd.
For background on Occupy Wall Street, please go to this site that I found very helpful:
The call to arms happened with this poster made by Adbusters:
The main question that most seem to be asking, ironically the poster asks it as well, “What are the protestors demands?” Considering they claim “decisions are made by a "General Assembly" that is "a horizontal, autonomous, leaderless, modified-consensus-based system," it would appear obvious that they don’t even know what they seek. I work with the mayors and commissioners of Orlando and see protestors come in with groups that have no single leader with 20 or so people all using the public forum to voice their opinions. However the problem with this is that no one knows how to really appease them. Solutions are offered and at once rebutted, so most of the time it would appear that these people just want to have their voices heard… about something, anything… as long as they get their five minutes.
The most basic intention behind Occupy Wall Street has been described as, “a series of protests…. against social and economic inequality, corporate greed, and the influence of corporate money and lobbyists on government, among other concerns… Adbusters states that, "Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America." (Wikipedia)
International Business Times had this to say which I found most interesting; “The protest's organizers hope that the protestors themselves will formulate their own specific demands, expecting them to be focused on "taking to task the people who perpetrated the economic meltdown.” The reason I found this interesting is because protestors SHOULD look at their message as if they are formulating a business plan. They have to have a goal they are trying to achieve, a plan to reach that goal, and milestone markers to ensure that those steps are being reached. They also need to have a leader, I cannot stress this enough. They need someone to state their demands, negotiate on their behalf, and guide the protestors to the finish line of their goal. They also need to understand that they are going against businesses and businessmen respond positively to language they understand and negatively to people that do not have a plan. So protestors that belong to Occupy Wall Street, please get a leader to stand behind, with a plan of action, and goals that you want to achieve so that you and the people whose work you are disrupting can reach a peaceable agreement.
Sources:
Daily Variety
The Hollywood Reporter
International Business Times | New York
http://newyork.ibtimes.com/articles/215511/20110917/occupy-wall-street-new-york-saturday-protest.htm
Wikipedia
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