Occupy movement

In 2009 and 2010, students across the University of California occupied campus buildings in protest against budget cuts, tuition hikes, and staff cutbacks that had resulted from the Great Recession of 2008. According to Dissent Magazine, "It was in the context of the California student movement that the slogan 'Occupy Everything, Demand Nothing' first emerged." The Huffington Post noted that, "During one incident in March of 2010, 150 protesters were arrested for trying to occupy part of Interstate 80 in protest of the budget cuts and tuition hikes, displaying a banner that read 'Occupy everything,' while shutting down the roadway for an hour, and were crushed by the same kind of overwhelming police force that was later mobilized against Occupy encampments across the country." Adbusters editor Micah White, who designed the original Occupy Wall Street concept, traveled to California for the protests and took part in the occupation of Wheeler Hall. In an article for Adbusters, he wrote with enthusiasm about the "revolutionary potential of [the students'] struggle". The Spanish Indignados movement began in mid-May 2011, with camps at Madrid and elsewhere. According to sociologist Manuel Castells, by the end of the month there were already hundreds of camps around Spain and across the world. For some journalists and commentators the camping in Spain marked the start of the global occupy movement, though it is much more commonly said to have begun in New York during September. On 30 May 2011, a leader of the Indignados, inspired by the Arab Spring, 5.18 Movement of 1980, and June Democracy Movement of 1987 called for a worldwide protest on 15 October. In mid-2011, the Canadian-based group Adbusters Media Foundation, best known for its advertisement-free anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, proposed a peaceful occupation of Wall Street to protest corporate influence on democracy, address a growing disparity in wealth, and the absence of legal repercussions in the 2008 financial crisis. Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn registered the OccupyWallStreet.org web address on 9 June. According to Micah White, the senior editor of the magazine, "[we] basically floated the idea in mid-July into our [email list] and it was spontaneously taken up by all the people of the world, it just kind of snowballed from there." One of the inspirations for the movement was the Democracy Village set up in 2010, outside the British Parliament in London. The protest received additional attention when the internet hacker group Anonymous encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and Occupy Wall Street". They promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic Charging Bull. The first protest was held at Zuccotti Park in New York City on 17 September 2011, the tenth anniversary of the re-opening of Wall Street trading after the 11 September 2001 attacks. The protests were preceded by a similar Occupy Dataran movement in Kuala Lumpur in July, seven weeks before Occupy Wall Street. "We are the 99%" slogan |alt=A group of seven people holding hand-lettered cardboard signs along a city street. The largest says "We are the 99%". The phrase "The 99%" is a political slogan used by participants in the Occupy movement. It was originally launched as a Tumblr blog page in late August 2011. It refers to the concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99 percent; the top 1 percent of income earners nearly tripled their after-tax income over the last thirty years, according to a Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. The report was released just as concerns of the Occupy Wall Street movement were beginning to enter the national political debate. According to the CBO, between 1979 and 2007 the incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. From 1992 to 2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%. In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927. . In 2007, the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15% —an example of the Pareto principle. Financial inequality (total net worth minus the value of one's home) was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%. However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%. The Great Recession also caused a drop of 36.1% in median household wealth but a drop of only 11.1% for the top 1%, further widening the gap between the 1% and the 99%. During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007, the income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928. This is in stark contrast with surveys of U.S. populations that indicate an "ideal" distribution that is much more equal, and a widespread ignorance of the true income inequality and wealth inequality. ==Goals==

During the early weeks, the movement was frequently criticized by the news media for having no clearly defined goals. Speaking on 7 October 2011, Kalle Lasn of Adbusters said that, in the early stages, the lack of demands was the "mysterious part" that allowed the movement to grow. Naomi Wolf argued that the impression created by much of the media that the protestors did not have clear demands was false. Wolf argued that they did have clear demands including a desire to end what they saw as the corrupting effect of money on politics. The New Yorker magazine stated that the claims of Kalle Lasn and Micah M. White were specific: tighten banking-industry regulations, ban high-frequency trading, arrest all 'financial fraudsters' responsible for the 2008 crash, and form a presidential commission to investigate and prosecute corruption in politics. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, protesters wanted more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics. The movement has also been described as broadly anticapitalist. Some commentators such as David Graeber and Judith Butler criticized the idea that the movement must have clearly defined demands; they argued that issuing demands is counterproductive for the Occupy movement, because doing so would legitimize the very power structures the movement seeks to challenge. In late November, the London contingent of the Occupy movement released their first statement on corporations, in which they called for measures to end tax evasion by wealthy firms. The reason for the delay in articulating a clear demand was given as the time it takes to reach a consensus with the sometimes slow processes of participatory democracy. In November "Occupy London Stock Exchange", an offshoot of Occupy London, said that they were working on a global collaboration of various occupations that reflected the voices of diverse movements worldwide. The global movement has been called the reinvention of politics, revolution, and utopia in the twenty-first century. ==Methods==

Activists have used web technologies and social media like IRC, Facebook, Twitter, and Meetup to coordinate events. The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund released a model community bill of rights, promoting laws that strip corporations of their personhood rights and elevating the rights of citizens, for occupy organizers to adopt locally. Frequent references were made to the writings of nonviolent theorist Dr. Gene Sharp whose work was reported to have influenced nonviolent struggle movements in Serbia and the Arab Spring. Study groups were organised across the US Occupy camps discussing Sharp's 198 methods of nonviolent action and his book From Dictatorship to Democracy. A subsequent film about his work How to Start a Revolution by Ruaridh Arrow which premiered in Boston on 18 September was screened in Occupy camps across the US and Europe. Sharp himself warned that many of the tactics the movement were employing were not effective. In an Al Jazeera interview, he said, "The [Occupy] protesters don't have a clear objective, something they can actually achieve. If they think they will change the economic system by simply staying in a particular location, then they are likely to be very disappointed. Protest alone accomplishes very little." In late May 2011, sociologist Manuel Castells congratulated Spanish occupiers for the fact that not a single violent incident had been reported after 11 days of camping all over Spain. Not all occupiers have upheld the commitment to nonviolence, with aggressive tactics being used in Spain from as early as 15 June, and with some journalists saying the New York branch of the movement did initially accept protestors who had not signed up to nonviolence. In early October, Naomi Klein congratulated New York occupiers for their commitment to nonviolence. Some believe, in order to have been more successful, the social media accounts should have been more heavily regulated and kept to a standard. In addition, a study was published that followed how Occupy user interests changed in time from 1 June 2011 to 31 August 2012. It showed 40% of users produced Occupy related content during peak activity of the movement. But it was not sustained over the following year, with the user ratio dropping to less than 5% in the last three months of the study period. Responses to the movement from celebrities were both in-person and online. Some find it controversial that rich celebrities made appearances at the Occupy Wall Street Movement, but Kanye West justified his appearance as helping give power back to the people. Many hold that the success of OWS has led to the success of Bernie Sanders and his political platform, disrupting the political conversation about environmental impact and economic equality. Some believe that there was social media blockage of Sanders' presidential campaign, in favor of more airtime for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. ==Chronology of events==

The WikiLeaks endorsed news site WikiLeaks Central began promoting the idea of a "US Day of Rage," On 4 October, a group of protesters who were arrested on the bridge filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that officers had violated their constitutional rights by luring them into a trap and then arresting them. after reviewing it, Judge Jed S. Rakoff sided with plaintiffs, saying, "a reasonable officer in the noisy environment defendants occupied would have known that a single bull horn could not reasonably communicate a message to 700 demonstrators". 5 to 25 November On 5 November, protesters held "Bank Transfer Day", marching on banks and other financial institutions to urge Americans to move their money from big corporate banks to smaller community credit unions. It was reported that an estimated 600,000 people took their money out of major banks. In the U.S., Occupy Homes joined with other existing human rights activists groups and began to occupy foreclosed homes, disrupt bank auctions, and block evictions. The activists claimed the laws, which prohibit the use of "bedding, sleeping bags, or other sleeping matter," are immoral and that they're obligated to challenge them. The occupiers claim that sleep is human right and is essential for mental, physical and emotional health, citing that human beings need to spend nearly a third of their lives sleeping. Prohibiting sleep by making it illegal for people to protect themselves and their belongings from the elements causes sleep deprivation; it is inhumane, unconstitutional, and amounts to torture. The activists said the prayer vigil would continue until "bedding matter" was again legal. The vigil was staffed around the clock until 23 July 2013, when Mayor Charlie Hales ordered the removal of the vigil and associated encampments on the abutting sidewalks. The Occupy movement has "already transformed beyond recognition from its original state" and "campaigns have emerged outside the constraint of the trademark Occupy tactics." These campaigns include Occupy Sandy which has provided needed relief to the New York area since Hurricane Sandy hit, Occupy London's Occupy Economics group that hosted, and was praised by the Bank of England's Executive Director for Financial Stability, Occupy the SEC, which monitors US financial regulatory matters, The Rolling Jubilees program of Strike Debt, which is raising money to retire "zombie debt," debt, such as medical bills, that the individual cannot re-pay, Occupy University, which has developed and made accessible free educational materials, and the Debt Collective, a successor of Strike Debt, worked to get students of a fraudulent for-profit college absolved of their debt with some success. On 3 April 2016, hundreds of supporters of Bernie Sanders protested outside of CNN's Headquarters in Los Angeles. Sanders supporters were protesting CNN's coverage of the 2016 United States presidential elections, specifically in regard to the amount of airtime Sanders has received. Known as Occupy CNN, protestors are claiming that major media networks have intentionally blacked out Sanders' presidential campaign in favor of giving much more airtime to candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In Switzerland, the Occupy spirit lives on by annual online and offline celebrations each year on 17 September in the village of St. Imier where modern anarchism began with the International Congress of 1872. The Occupy Cafe along with the Decentrale Co-operative continues to assist those wishing to participate in the continuing "decentralisation of the power" of banks and corporate entities; and, to encourage global activism through developing trust and value networks. ==Present day activities==

After an approximate two-year hiatus in activism on location, the Occupy Movement organized the Occupy ICE phase in order to protest the actions of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement office regarding the detention of undocumented immigrants presenting themselves at the southern US border points to seek asylum. While small groups of protesters emerged across the country in protest against the separation of families who were detained during immigration processing, a group swarmed the ICE facility in SoHo, causing it to shut down temporarily. In Oregon, hundreds of Occupy ICE activists took over a portion of the grounds of the Portland ICE building. The blockade caused the building to shut down for several days, with ICE staff citing "safety concerns". On 25 June, Feds ordered the protesters to vacate government environs or face arrest. On 28 June 2018, Federal officers moved in the early morning to remove or arrest protesters blockading the building. Eight were arrested. On 19 August 2018, Occupy Kalamazoo began an encampment in Bronson Park to address homelessness. The group's efforts notably received support from local Commissioner Shannon Sykes, who criticized her colleagues in government for "failing to create more affordable housing." ==Protests by country==

Armenia , Armenia On 20 February 2012 95 arrests were made, and 43 reports of police violence were filed. Belgium In Brussels, a large Occupy demonstration took place on 15 October involving between 6,500 and 8,000 participants. The protest was largely peaceful, although seven people were arrested following vandalisation of the Dexia bank headquarters and financial tower. Canada Occupy protests have taken place in at least 20 Canadian cities since 15 October 2011. On that day, 5,000 people gathered in Vancouver to protest perceived social injustice, while 150 stayed the night in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery. and 1,000 gathered in Montreal to march down Ste-Catherine Street; 85 tents were set up in Victoria square. Events have been concentrated in provincial urban areas, and there have yet to be any demonstrations in the territories of Yukon, Northwest Territories, or Nunavut. Malaysia The Occupy Dataran movement first held their assembly at Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) seven weeks before Occupy Wall Street on 30 July 2011 to create an alternative to the current representative democracy In contrast, an anti-violence movement led by Javier Sicilia during the time that the Occupy protests occurred, drew thousands onto the streets of Mexico City. Rotterdam, New Zealand , Auckland, on 16 November 2011 In October 2011, Occupy protests began in six New Zealand cities (Auckland, New Plymouth, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Invercargill) with protests in Auckland drawing up to 3,000 supporters. In March 2017, thousands of urban poor from the Kadamay (Kadamay) led the occupation of vacant government shelters in Pandi, Bulacan, Philippines. though members of Kadamay reported that they continued to be harassed and red-tagged, and have been excluded in the process to legalize their ownership of the housing units. Spain A series of protests demands a radical change in Spanish politics, as protesters do not consider themselves to be represented by any traditional party nor favoured by the measures approved by politicians. against replacing Taksim Gezi Park with a reconstruction of the Ottoman Era Taksim Military Barracks (the scene of pro Sultan riots in 1909). The current protests developed into riots after the heavy handed police intervention which featured significant use of tear gas and water cannons. The oppressive reaction to the protests caused the protests to widen with many more people to become involved, people from many different walks of life including a wide range of political interest groups, secular and religious people, students, gays, feminists, football fans, women in head scarves, whole families, all finding reason to join the protests. What started as an environmentalist protest against plans to replace Taksim Gezi Park developed into wider anti-government demonstrations. Demands issued on 4 June included: • The end of police brutality, • The end of the sale of public facilities such as parks, forests and beaches to private investors, • The right of public expression, • Media responsibility in informing the public of events, and other demands. The protests (up to 500.000 in Istanbul and 30.000 people in Ankara) also spread to other cities in Turkey, and protests were seen in other countries with significant Turkish communities. United Kingdom England encampment in the City of London As part of the 15 October 2011 global protests, protesters gathered in London, Bristol, and Birmingham in England, together with Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland (See Scotland heading below). Newcastle upon Tyne, Plymouth, Exeter, Norwich, including the closure of shops in the town and the Dreamland Margate amusement park, a lack of employment opportunities on Armistice Day after apparent threats to the St Paul's camp were posted on Facebook. 176 were released without charge and 3 were bailed "pending further inquiries". On 15 November, an Occupy camp was established in the centre of Leicester near the Highcross shopping centre. The camp lasted two days until police swept in, giving protestors 30 minutes to leave or face arrest. Any items that could be used for sleeping have been deemed illegal under the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011, created after the original occupation. The eviction was live streamed, showing police dragging protesters away. Police said there was one arrest. Fifty to a hundred protesters remained in the park overnight. On their website, the group said their goal is "to direct the energy from current single issue struggles into a critical mass that can radically challenge the corrupt and unrepresentative system". Northern Ireland In Northern Ireland, Occupy Belfast initiated its protest outside the offices of Invest NI on 21 October 2011. Occupy Belfast took residence at Writer's Square, in the Cathedral Quarter. The group protested the demolition of the historic student-teacher shared space, due for refurbishment as a senior management corporate dining room. Scotland Occupy camps were established in the financial district of St. Andrew Square, Edinburgh on 15 October 2011. St. Andrews Square is the home of the Royal Bank of Scotland headquarters in the Dundas House mansion. Edinburgh City Council subsequently officially backed Occupy Edinburgh and the Occupy movement worldwide. Protesters from Occupy Glasgow set up in the civic George Square on 15 October but after the council obtained a court order moved to Kelvingrove Park, where the council agreed to provide running water, toilets and safety fences. Wales In Wales, Occupy Cardiff originally set its campsite outside Cardiff Castle but it was disbanded by police, and some protesters were arrested. Charges were later dropped following calls from trade unionists, lawyers and politicians including Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood, Labour Party politician Tony Benn and demonstrations outside Cardiff magistrate's court. Occupy Cardiff set up a new camp in the city, outside the offices of Welsh Labour and a number of trade unions at the Transport House, Cathedral Road. United States on 2 November 2011 The Occupy Wall Street protests began in New York City on 17 September 2011. By 9 October, similar demonstrations were either ongoing or had been held in 70 major cities and over 600 communities across the U.S. The movement rejects existing political institutions and attempts to create alternative ones through direct action and direct democracy. Occupy protesters' slogan, "We are the 99%", asserts that the "99%" pay for the mistakes of the "1%". The original location of choice by the protesters was 1 Chase Plaza, the site of the "Charging Bull" statue, but when police discovered the planned site, it was fenced off and nearby Zuccotti Park was chosen. There was scant media coverage till 24 September when a large march forcing the closure of several streets resulted in 80 arrests. Police used a technique called "netting", the use of orange plastic nets to corral protesters, and the march received extensive media coverage when a video of several "netted" young women being pepper sprayed was widely circulated. Media coverage was again sparked on 1 October, when New York City protesters attempted to march across the Brooklyn Bridge and more than 700 arrests were made. Some said the police had tricked protesters, allowing them onto the bridge and even escorting them partway across before they began to make mass arrests. On 25 October, police officers cleared two Occupy Oakland protest camp sites. Protest organizers said that many of the troublemakers were not part of the Occupy movement. The raid was described as "violent and chaotic at times" and resulted in over 102 arrests. Scott Olsen, a former Marine and Iraq War veteran, suffered a skull fracture caused by a projectile which witnesses claimed was a tear gas or smoke canister fired by the police. On 2 November, protesters in Oakland, California, shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth busiest port in the nation. Police estimated that about 3,000 demonstrators were gathered at the port and 4,500 had marched across the city. At about 1:00 a.m. on 15 November, police cleared the Zuccotti Park encampment. Many journalists complained that the police had made a deliberate decision to keep journalists away from the park during the raid. New York City journalists responded to what they perceived as "alarming suppression, abuse and arrests of reporters" by forming "The Coalition for the First Amendment" to "monitor police-press relations as a way of spotlighting police activities that threaten constitutional protections". Executive Director Alison Bethel McKenzie of the International Press Institute commented: "It is completely unacceptable to hinder reporting on a subject that is undoubtedly of public interest. Such reporting is vital to democracy, and authorities at every level of government – federal, state and local – must honour their constitutional obligation not to infringe upon the freedom of the press." On 6 December, Occupy Homes, an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, embarked on a "national day of action" to protest the mistreatment of homeowners by big banks, who they say made billions of dollars off the housing bubble by offering predatory loans and indulging in practices that allegedly took advantage of consumers. In more than two dozen cities across the nation the movement took on the housing crisis by re-occupying foreclosed homes, disrupting bank auctions and blocking evictions. On 17 September 2012, protesters returned to Zuccotti Park to mark the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the occupation. ==Reactions==

Political • Brazil: President Dilma Rousseff said, "We agree with some of the expressions that some movements have used around the world [in] demonstrations like the ones we see in the US and other countries." to ensure the safety of protesters occupying the upper section of the New Haven Green. A 2017 book released by Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard V. Reeves called Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It, presented data which showed that, "...more than a third of the demonstrators on the May Day 'Occupy' march in 2011 had annual earnings of more than $100,000. But, rather than looking up in envy and resentment, the upper middle class would do well to look at their own position compared to those falling further and further behind." • Venezuela: President Hugo Chávez condemned the "horrible repression" of the activists and expressed solidarity with the movement. On 15 December 2011, Jesse Jackson said that Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. were all occupiers, and that: "Occupy is a global spirit, which is now sweeping the nation and the world, fighting for justice for all of God's children". A global survey of 23 countries published by Ipsos on 20 January 2012 found that around 40% of the world's citizens are familiar with the movement. Over twice as many reported a favourable response to the movement compared to those who dislike it. Support for the movement varied markedly among countries, with South Korea (67%), Indonesia (65%), and India (64%) reporting the highest sympathy – and Australia (41%), Japan (41%), and Poland (37%) reporting the lowest. ==Impact==

Some known impacts to date include the following: Social impact In the United States, the protests have helped shift the focus of national dialogue from the federal budget deficit to economic problems many ordinary Americans face, such as unemployment, As of September 2014, Rolling Jubilee claims to have cancelled more than $15 million in medical debt and $4 million in private student loan debt. Noam Chomsky argues that the movement "spontaneously created something that doesn't really exist in the country: communities of mutual support, cooperation, open spaces for discussion . . . just people doing things and helping each other". As of April 2015, Rolling Jubilee reports it has cleared nearly $32 million in debt. On 10 November 2011, The Daily Telegraph reported that the word "occupy" had been the "most commonly used English word on the internet and in print" over the past 12 months according to a top ten list published by media analysis company Global Language Monitor. ==National monitoring and crackdown==

Government documents released in December 2012 pursuant to Freedom of Information Act requests by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund reveal FBI monitoring of what became known as the Occupy movement since at least August 2011, a month before the protests began. The FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, local police, regional law enforcement "counterterrorism" fusion centers, and private security forces of major banks formed the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC) to collect and share information about, and to share plans to target and to arrest Occupy protesters. Banks met with the FBI to pool information about participants of the Occupy movement collected by corporate security, and the FBI offered to bank officials its plans to prevent Occupy events that were scheduled for a month later. FBI officials met with New York Stock Exchange representatives on 19 August 2011, notifying them of planned peaceful protests. FBI officials later met with representatives of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and Zions Bank about planned protests. Surveillance of protestors was also carried out by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. DSAC also coordinated with security firms hired by banks to target OWS leaders. ==Lawsuits==

Following actions by police and municipal officials to use force in closing various Occupy tent camps in public spaces, lawsuits have been filed, while others are being planned. The FBI withheld documents requested under the FOIA citing the reason that the withholding was "in the interest of national defense or foreign policy". ==Criticism==

There have been criticisms of the Occupy movement. One such critique concerns itself with the way in which the Occupy movement has focused its demands around a narrowly modern understanding of freedom that differs little from the claims of mainstream liberal pluralism: International activists involved in the Occupy movement have seen it stall due to a lack of synergy to work with other alternative movements calling for change. The biggest criticism is that the movement is without depth, without a lasting vision of an alternative future. In her critique of the Occupy movement, American political philosopher Jodi Dean argues that the focus on autonomy, leaderlessness and horizontality paved the way for conflicts and disillusionment within the movement: Remarks from Occupy Wall Street participant Justine Tunney, a Google software engineer, who called on President Obama to appoint Eric Schmidt "CEO of America", have also sparked criticism, including from the vast majority of other Occupy participants, many of whom have observed that her politics are inconsistent with horizontalism. Many Occupy Wall Street protests have included antisemitic slogans and signage such as "Jews control Wall Street" or "Zionist Jews who are running the big banks and the Federal Reserve". As a result, the Occupy Wall Street Movement has been consistently confronted with accusations of antisemitism. However, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League stated that "it's not surprising that in a movement that deals with economic issues you're going to get bigots that believe in this stereotype...[however,] they are not expressing or representing a larger view." A 2017 book released by Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard V. Reeves called Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It, presented data which showed that:...more than a third of the demonstrators on the May Day 'Occupy' march in 2011 had annual earnings of more than $100,000. Reeves commented on this fact saying, "...rather than looking up in envy and resentment, the upper middle class would do well to look at their own position compared to those falling further and further behind." ==See also==