Active support for Occupy Wall Street
- Estimated number of protests
- Growth of issue organizations
- Legislative progress
- Politicians adopting Occupy messaging
In other sections of the site, we describe what it takes to win mass movements – including growing active support. Active supporters agree with a movement’s values and goals, and are participating in sustained action (repeatedly, over time) to advance the movement.
The following are examples of what is out there to reflect active support measurements for Occupy Wall Street, listed under typical categories that can be used to measure active support:
Estimated number of protests
There were 951 estimated Occupy sites around the world in 82 countries (source).
Number of arrests
The above graph made with Infograms (data source, with some changes made through media corroboration.) Below, you can see the relationship between spikes on the same graph of arrests and mentions of “Occupy Wall Street” on national television news as explored through the dataset available through GDELT’s Television Explorer:
A few interesting points from this comparison – not all huge arrest events produced a spike in discussion of Occupy Wall Street on national television news. For example, the unlabeled 1/8/2012 spike on the arrest graph was over 400+ arrested in Oakland as the Oakland OWS camp was shut down, yet national TV do not reflect that with a surge in mentions.
Also, surges in mentions of Occupy Wall Street are not necessarily on the same day as a major arrest event. For example, the first arrest spike was on 10/1/2011 and the first spike in news mentions was on 10/5/2011, a few days later.
Analyzing how media is covering protest events really falls more into the realm of measuring passive support but we included this example here for clarity.
Growth of issue organizations
Another measure of active support is whether new organizations in the “movement space” are being formed – energized by the new members flocking to the movement with a powerful message.
Here are some of the organizations that people often attribute, at least in part, to being inspired or reenergized by the Occupy wave:
Strike Debt & Rolling Jubilee & The Debt Collective
Fight for $15
Peoples’ Climate Arts
The Crown Heights Tenant Union
The Bernie Sanders campaign
Occupy Sandy
Movement NetLabs
And many more…
Legislative progress
In some ways, many funders, members of the public, and even organizers see legislative reform as the end goal of movement activity – which is why it’s so necessary to reframe success in terms of growing active and passive support, because legislative reform may not come until movements take control of the terms of debate.
However, it’s still possible to look at individual pieces of legislation in line with the message and mission of a movement as a sign of progress towards a culture shift that would allow massive reforms to take place.
"Occupy turned the political conversation on its head. Time was austerity and tax cuts were the only acceptable place to be. Now, income inequality and the 99 percent dominate practical politics. OWS paved the way; Cuomo and Brown seized the moment." - Richard Brodsky, a senior fellow at the Wagner School at NYU
Here are some examples of legislative activity that are seen as connected to Occupy Wall Street:
California Homeowners’ Bill of Rights was passed Jan. 1, 2013, which brought more fairness & transparency to foreclosure process (source,source)
Continuing growth of activity in states calling tooverturn Citizens United (2010), with acceleration in 2013 (source)
Minimum wage increases to $15, including in LA, Seattle, SF, NYC, DC, and more; other minimum wage increases in states including Republican-dominated AK, AL, NB, SD (source)
‘Millionaire’s taxes’ in New York passed in Dec. 2011, renewing tax increase on top earners that was supposed to expire (source)
California also passed a ‘millionaire’s tax’ (integrated into other proposal) in Nov. 2012 (source)
Politicians adopting Occupy messaging
Short version: major politicians who ran their campaigns off Occupy-style messaging include Bernie Sanders, Bill DeBlasio, Elizabeth Warren, and (now) the entire legacy of “Berniecrats.”
Longer version: Described above was how “income inequality” became more popular in news coverage after Occupy Wall Street. Many writers have also attributed Occupy for setting the stage for the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and a general focus on income inequality and the wealth gap during the 2016 election, including The Atlantic writer Michael Levitin:
“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 2016 presidential candidates must grapple with because they can no longer afford not to. And, in fact, it’s just one of a long list of legislative and political successes for which the Occupy movement can take credit.[...] Inequality and the wealth gap are now core tenets of the Democratic platform, providing a frame for other measurable gains spurred by Occupy.” (June 10, 2015)
Levitin also argues that Occupy messaging became the backbone of Elizabeth Warren’s career less than a year after the encampments:
“Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator-who-is-definitely-not-running-for-president and the party’s most dynamic leader, launched her political career in 2012 with the 99 percent movement’s message of Main Street versus Wall Street. Since entering the Senate, Warren has drafted numerous bills to address income inequality, including the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act that would separate investment banking from commercial banking and the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act that would allow students to refinance college loans at a lower federal rate. By fighting to strengthen financial regulations in Dodd-Frank, break up “too big to fail” banks, and impose stiff taxes on corporations and the wealthy, Warren is the closest thing to an Occupy candidate the movement ever got.”
Levitin on Bill DeBlasio:
“On a local level, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio swept into office last year on a 99-percent-style “tale of two cities” campaign to address income inequality. He has since expanded pre-K education for tens of thousands of students, created municipal ID cards for undocumented immigrants, increased affordable housing, and guaranteed sick days for workers in America’s largest city. De Blasio now leads a national task force of mayors who hope to aggressively tackle the wealth gap in their cities—something scarcely imaginable before Occupy reshuffled the political deck.”
Learn more about measures of passive support for Occupy Wall Street movement.