Protesters in Kiev, Ukraine, catch fire as they stand behind burning barricades during clashes with police on February 20, Kiev's Independence Square had been the center of anti-government protests since November , when President Viktor Yanukovych reversed a decision on a trade deal with the European Union and instead turned toward Russia.
Riot police use pepper spray as they clash with pro-democracy protesters outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on September 28, Demonstrations began in response to China's decision to allow only Beijing-vetted candidates to stand in the city's election for chief executive.
Protesters say Beijing has gone back on its pledge to allow universal suffrage in Hong Kong, which was promised "a high degree of autonomy" when it was handed back to China by Britain in The umbrella has become the defining image of the protest movement, used to shield protesters from tear gas and the elements. A protester in Ferguson, Missouri, stands in front of police vehicles with his hands up on November 24, A grand jury's decision not to indict police Officer Darren Wilson in the killing of Michael Brown prompted waves of protests in Ferguson and across the country.
The "hands up, don't shoot" gesture became a rallying cry and protest symbol. A man attempts to calm a fellow demonstrator as they face police in Baltimore in April Riots broke out after the funeral for Freddie Gray , who died of a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody. His death sparked protests in Baltimore and raised long-simmering tensions between police and residents. Story highlights Saturday marks the fifth anniversary of the birth of Occupy Wall Street movement Group spurred grass-roots activism such as Black Lives Matter, Bernie Sanders campaign.
From the shade of honey locust trees in Zuccotti Park near the New York Stock Exchange, the group's creed against income inequality, corporate greed and the influence of money in politics helped spawn a variety of causes -- from Black Lives Matter to the ascent of Bernie Sanders to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's quiet protest against institutional racism. On Saturday, the fifth anniversary of the birth of their movement, Occupy veterans will gather at the Lower Manhattan park and later march to police headquarters.
Read More. Kalle Lasn, co-founder of the counterculture magazine Adbusters , took to Twitter and some websites in to help organize a campaign encouraging tens of thousands of Americans to hold nonviolent protests in Lower Manhattan. The campaign was inspired by the social-media fueled uprisings in places such as Egypt and Tunisia.
The populist demonstrations against authoritarian regimes in North Africa and the Middle East became known as the Arab Spring. Adbusters' protest campaign, with the hashtag occupywallstreet, began with the launch of a website calling for a march through the streets of Lower Manhattan and a sit-in at the stock exchange -- just as demonstrators did in Tunis' November 7 Square and Cairo's Tahrir Square. More Videos The New York campaign got a sizable boost from the hacktivist group Anonymous , which released a short video urging supporters to participate in Occupy Wall Street.
Drawing fascination and ridicule. On September 17, , a few hundred protesters descended on the ultimate symbol of American capitalism: the Financial District in Manhattan. Drawing both fascination and ridicule, the movement quickly spread to encompass headline-grabbing protests around the globe.
President Barack Obama expressed sympathy for the protesters' views. Celebrities flocked to the encampments. Mass Occupy arrests made the news every week. But Occupy as a political project had already begun to fray by the time the New York Police Department, acting on orders from then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, cleared the park, arresting more than protesters nearly two months after the "occupation" had begun.
Many activists had become baffled or frustrated by the avant-garde in their midst and had largely soured on the spectacle. Despite the inner tumult and outside mockery, aspects of the message behind the protests -- which eventually spanned more than 1, locations across the country -- have become part of the current political discussion. Conversation about 'white role in black oppression'. For a movement without any tight list of goals, like Occupy, it's harder.
Press coverage has also dropped off. A crude search of the Nexis database of UK press articles on Occupy London shows there were stories in October , dropping to 43 in , three in and 14 in October this year. We were trending second on Twitter for our last action. We have an organic reach of a million on Facebook. We also have a newsletter which we distribute to a few thousand. We look at engagement per action. Seeing a spike during an action is what makes us feel satisfied.
Stafrace runs Occupy London TV, which features footage from their various protests. It has accumulated 80, views - 50, of which she says have been added this year. Of course, for some protests, it is easier to measure effectiveness. Protests there led directly to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak. The Spanish Indignados movement, which protested in and for a radical change in Spanish politics, led to the creation of left-wing political party Podemos meaning "we can".
The anti-austerity party, led by a university lecturer, won five seats in the European Parliament in May. Occupy have claimed victories. The New York Times attributed to Occupy a decision by Bank of America to scrap plans to charge additional fees for use of debit cards.
Occupy Sandy activists set up distribution sites for blankets, clothes and hot food to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. They ferried volunteers to the worst-hit areas and set up "construction teams and medical committees".
There are a number of less visible, local-level successes, supporters say. Nearly four years after the precipitous rise of Occupy Wall Street, the movement so many thought had disappeared has instead splintered and regrown into a variety of focused causes.
Income inequality is the crisis du jour—a problem that all presidential candidates must grapple with because they can no longer afford not to. Inequality and the wealth gap are now core tenets of the Democratic platform, providing a frame for other measurable gains spurred by Occupy. The camps may be gone and Occupy may no longer be visible on the streets, but the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is still there, and growing.
What appeared to be a passing phenomenon of protest now looks like the future of U. In , numerous cities and states including four Republican-dominated ones—Arkansas, Alaska, Nebraska, and South Dakota—voted for higher pay; will see more showdowns in New York City and Washington, D.
The grassroots movement composed of fast-food workers and Walmart employees, convenience-store clerks, and adjunct teachers seized on the energy of Occupy to spark a rebirth of the U. This renaissance was most recently visible on April 15, when tens of thousands of workers marched in hundreds of cities to demand better pay and conditions. We have an entire world to win. Occupy also reshaped the U. As people gravitated to Occupy encampments, teach-ins, and demonstrations across the country, that energy easily transferred into the fight against climate change.
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