Since its initial inception in June of 2011, Occupy Wall Street has grown from a relatively unknown online movement to a major national demonstration. The “Occupation” (the physical protest on Wall Street) began on September 17th with about 1,000 participating. Since then, it has swelled to over 15,000 participants, received coverage on nearly all major national news outlets and has notably acquired support from filmmaker Michael Moore.  Occupy Wall Street has spurred demonstrations in over 1,400 U.S. and worldwide cities in an all-encompassing movement called Occupy Together. As of October 2, this list of cities includes Columbus.
What is Occupy Together? The main theme of the protests is an attempt to combat economic inequality and corporate greed. According to the Occupy Together website, occupytogether.org: “We, the 99%, take action against the greed and corruption of the 1%.” Though the Occupy Movement has been criticized for being unfocused and for a lack of specific demands, Adbusters.org, the founders of the Occupy Wall Street movement, have stated a very specific goal: “We demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commision tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington.” Based on that principle, the movement has grown to cover a variety of issues, best summed up by the adage “People Before Profits.”
The Occupy Columbus movement has hosted three events so far: a Solidarity Walk from the Wexner Center on campus to the Columbus Convention Center and back on October 1, a protest outside the Statehouse on October 10, and most recently on October 15, deemed National Occupation Day, at 11:00 am in front of the Ohio Captiol Building.
To learn more about the Occupy Columbus movement, to view photos and videos of past events, or to get involved, visit the website http://www.occupycolumbus.org/ or visit the group’s facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/OccupyColumbus?sk=info.
Sources:
http://www.occupytogether.org/
http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html
http://www.thenation.com/article/163719/occupy-wall-street-faq
Photo Source: http://www.dispatch.com/content/graphics/2011/10/10/05_occupy_columbus_C…