terrylee

Sparked by the successful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Occupy Wall Street is a  “people-powered movement… against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process.” It intends to use a similar non-violent Arab Spring method of protest and with the motto “We are the 99%“, it has gained massive momentum, spreading to over 1500 cities including Vancouver.

Although this movement has gained momentum and media attention, I am sceptical of its future success.  First of all, the movement has neither a clear goal nor a leader.  Its purpose is to stop large corporations from influencing the government, but how?  They don’t have clear evidences of corporate influences in the government or specific legislative bills that they want passed.  Furthermore, the conditions in America do not match the conditions of needed for a revolution.  Currently, Americans are not perceived to be oppressed, and are in fact in a recovery stage.  There would have to be greater unemployment and poorer average living conditions for people to start revolting.

However, should the European economy collapse and trigger another world recession, this could be the movement that people will turn to for radical change.