[Music] back in 2011 it seemed like occupy wall street would change america the movement that started in new york city's financial district took over the nation in a matter of weeks there was occupy portland there was occupy los angeles it was occupy you name it it was a circus it was a festival it was a party protesters wanted to dismantle a system that they saw as only benefiting the rich and at least for a moment it seemed like they could [Music] but their fight against inequality was a messy one and the movement broke up almost as quickly as it had started it was so dedicated not to having a hierarchy and not to having a strategy that it inevitably was doomed today it's business as usual in new york's financial district so what happened to occupy wall street and did it make a difference at all on september the 17th of 2011 protesters descended on wall street where the new york stock exchange is located a symbolic site for a fight against inequality there was a lot of social fervent in the air and there were also the anti-austerity protests that were really gaining traction and heating up across europe in spain in greece this was also the time the arab spring was sweeping through the middle east aaron gupta and michael leverton were both involved in the protests in new york they also set up the occupied wall street journal but we'll come back to that later between 1979 and 2007 the household after-tax income of the top one percent of earners in the u.s had increased nearly four times or 275 percent those at the lower end of the scale had seen only an 18 rise the fact that we had just gone through the greatest recession since the great depression sort of forced the subject into public conversation protests in new york had in fact started in june 2011 when dozens sat outside new york city hall for weeks to protest against proposed budget cuts to education and other public services meanwhile left-wing activists met in new york to plan a larger protest around wall street in lower manhattan the rallying point was the iconic wall street bull statue it was the anti-capitalist magazine ad busters that seized the moment with a call to action under the new occupy wall street hashtag not only was the location symbolic so too was the date september the 17th the same date the u.s constitution was signed but police barricaded the area forcing protesters to spread across the financial district they ended up a few blocks away at zuccotti park zuccotti park has some unique things as far as parks go not only its status is privately owned public space but power outlets like every 10 15 20 feet people could charge their phones they could run extension cables being a privately owned public space meant that police officers could not force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the owner brookfield office properties within weeks protest marches starting from zuccotti park were drawing in thousands of people you could tell instantly that this was really something that hadn't been experienced in modern america certainly the encampment grew into a city of its own it was just this dynamic village in the middle of this concrete canyon dozens of tents were set up food donations from places like ben and jerry's flooded in you had a kitchen you had this huge library you had education you had a tech hub and the city even had its own newspaper the occupied wall street journal so we started production about 8 p.m on a thursday night within 36 hours we had 50 000 copies of the newspaper in zuccotti park meanwhile organizers held public forums that anyone could participate in it was this great democratic theater but it also proved to be a real flaw you'd have hundreds of people debating for four hours do we put the compost bin here or do we put the compost bin here and while protesters said they represented 99 of the population the reality at the start was that it was mostly white college-educated young adults and for those watching at home it was unclear what exactly the occupiers wanted but then the tone changed clashes with police intensified and occupy began to make headlines for entirely different reasons clashes were especially prone to happen when there was marches when there was obstruction of traffic which was very frequently occupied tension reached ahead on september the 24th when hundreds of protesters marched north from zuccotti park to union square around 80 people were arrested and about five were pepper sprayed this blew up and what happened was the occupation completely changed there was just a huge amount of support then on october the first more than 700 protesters were arrested during a march across the brooklyn bridge what these arrests did was add more fuel to the fire by october the 5th moore had joined the protests including labour unions we were told you work hard you go to college you get a job you work hard you go to college now there's no jobs because the folks up there that you say are staring down on us make sure that all the work is going overseas by the next day the movement has spread across the country from los angeles i want to take you back downtown to that occupy la protest which may be getting out of hand to dc and boston it was violent confrontations with police rather than protesters demands that kept the movement in the news occupy was spreading worldwide but by mid-november the owners of zuccotti park had lost patience they said the park had become dangerous and unhealthy there were also reports that the encampment attracted homeless people and drug users and that women had to reportedly set up a female-only sleeping area after sexual assault accusations surfaced adbusters encouraged protesters to claim victory and head home but that didn't happen so early in the morning of november the 15th police officers handed out eviction notices to protesters at the park those who resisted were met with batons and pepper spray and nearly 200 were arrested they threw away everyone's everything tents just garbage computers books they trash the library where's our tents where's our pets where's our clothes where's our bins where's our books where's my library and despite efforts to regroup occupy wouldn't be the same again the protester was named time magazine's 2011 person of the year but what had the months of protest achieved very little in terms of tangible policy change and the gap between rich and poor in the states is today higher than ever former labor secretary robert reich visited the occupy wall street camp a number of times this country is beginning to discuss an issue and a set of issues it has avoided discussing for years he says it failed because of lack of strategy it was a successful movement in the sense that it brought to the public's attention the inequality of income wealth and political power in this country but you can't have a movement unless you combine activists who are getting and receiving attention with activists who behind the scenes are working to mobilize and organize people in a very specific political direction without both you really end up just as the occupied movement did without very much to show for it but the movement itself became a blueprint for protests around the world and brought the issue of inequality into mainstream politics it was always going to fail but it really set the stage for the next decade from the black lives matter movement to the climate justice movement to low wage workers movement we wouldn't have had for example bernie sanders and even elizabeth warren were it not for a lot of the ground work done by the occupy movement ten years on occupy wall street continues to resonate there will always be an occupy movement occupy was not the first it will not be the last demonstrations are ways of attracting attention but they are just the start the critical element that was missing 10 years ago that if there is going to be a successful anti-corporate populist movement in the future must incorporate is a leadership that focuses on political strategy keep moving guys you might get arrested for standing in your own country [Music] got sold out let's go