(NEW YORK) MintPress — One year after demonstrators took to the streets near Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park to protest the growing disparity between rich and poor, Occupy Wall Street-inspired encampments are largely gone, but the problems the movement highlighted still persist, and with just weeks to go before the November elections, the debate over how to resolve them is perhaps even more lively than it was in 2011.
“The issues that brought us together a year ago haven’t gone away,” said 25-year-old Amin Husain. “Things have only gotten worse.”
“There are lots of different messages,” explained 22-year-old Alexis, who traveled to the park from New Jersey. She was holding a banner that said, “No Bull” and depicted an image of the famous Charging Bull statue that is an icon of Wall Street.
“I don’t know if we all agree, but we all think something is unfair and we are coming together to say things need to change,” she explained.
Indeed, the signs ran the gamut from, “We are the 99 %” and, “Tax Wall Street” to, “Health Care not Wealth Care,” “End AIDS” and “Stop Passing your Fracking Gas.”
But the thousand or so people who came to the square throughout the day had one common message. “Our main goal is the resurgence and reorganization of Occupy,” asserted Ken Collins, 47, from Andover, N.J.
Redefining the movement
The protesters never actually occupied Wall Street. Planning for what became the Occupy protests began in the summer of 2011 when Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters called for people to “flood into Lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street” following the rise of the Arab Spring.
And they did, in a makeshift camp in Zuccotti Park, one that was soon followed by more than 100 others across the country and overseas.
The police sometimes arrested protesters in controversial circumstances. Then, in mid-November 2011, they cleared Zuccotti Park, arresting about 200 people in the process.
Without a home base, the movement became less visible. Protesters often joined other projects, such as disrupting the auctions of foreclosed homes, opposing the construction of a natural gas pipeline under the Hudson River and planning a campaign to unify people affected by debt.
The anniversary, however, was a chance to unify participants who hadn’t gathered for a large-scale public demonstration since May Day, when tens of thousands of protesters marched through the city.
Focusing on the future
One thing the movement had steered clear of was both big political parties. It was therefore a major shift when the race for the nation’s top job was first and foremost on the agenda this week.
“We want to say we are not going to let you run the country from Wall Street,” stated Collins. “We will elect people who won’t let Wall Street run the White House.”
His first choice: Green Party candidate Jill Stein, who was a candidate for governor of Massachusetts in the 2002 and the 2010 gubernatorial elections.
Sixty-year-old Charles R. Helms from Nutley, N.J. disagrees. “We have two choices, a corporate mogul and Obama,” he said. “Obama is the man for the job. We can’t have a corporate mogul.
“We don’t need more greed,” he continues. “We need more for the middle class and the poor.”
When asked if the president had done anything to meet those needs, Helms responded, “Yes. But due to the rise of the tea party, everything Obama tried to do was blocked. He could not have done a better job.
“We can only hope people see that. It seems the tea party is who’s been running the country,” he continued.
Unemployed construction worker Barry from Bergen County, N.J. concurred. “The guy running for president wants to have an elevator to lift his cars into his house,” he charged. “I don’t have health insurance.”
Barry also said that 23 percent of his industry is unemployed: “That is a depression.
“I’m not talking about what ideology, left or right, I’m talking about what’s happening,” he added. “The people at the top are getting fat, the working class are getting screwed, and the poor have no chance of getting anywhere.”
But Obama had his detractors, and challenger Mitt Romney his supporters, as well. One young bearded man wore his heart on his chest. Emblazoned across the front of his T-shirt: “You got hope f****d.”
Professional protester Jack, sporting a full mane of white hair, concurred. “Obama is a nice guy,” he said, “but he is a bad businessman.”
He was holding red, white and blue banners proclaiming, “Romney is for capitalism, Obama is for socialism.”
“Romney is the best choice of the two evils,” he concluded.
Nearby stood a young man waving a red flag embellished with an imprint of the Communist Party’s yellow hammer and sickle.
It’s the economy, stupid
There were also some more concrete ideas on possible economic steps moving forward, including the introduction of a so-called Robin Hood Tax, which would add a sales tax of one-half of 1 percent on Wall Street trades of stocks, bonds, derivatives and other financial transactions.
The tax was first introduced by the National Nurses Union during protests at the NATO summit in Chicago in May.
Proponents say it could fund 9 million new jobs that pay an average of $38,844 a year or save 1.7 million homes from foreclosure and guarantee health care for all.
“Economically, over the last 30 years, many in the U.S. have treaded water, but most have gone backward,” said Fred Wood, 60, from upstate New York. “People need two incomes, if they can find it. There has also been a reduction of pay for the remaining jobs.”
Plus, he pointed out, there is a major credit crunch. “The system has encouraged people to take out more debt, and now that is another major problem.”
Can Occupy really help to solve these problems? “It needs to come up with more solutions that can be implemented,” contends Wood. “Part of this is showing the movement is still here, without encampments.
“The hope is that phase two will have a clearer message and a total vision that people can take to their communities and cities everywhere.”