Occupy Wall Street!

Occupy Wall Street was a protest movement against the power major banks and corporations where having over the democratic process of government in the United States. The movement had actually already started in other countries by the time it got to the U.S. The goal was to restore the people’s power over the government in the U.S. The protest focused on how the banking industry and corporations caused the major economic collapse in the 2007-2008-time period. Similar demonstrations in Egypt and Tunisia inspired the demonstrations in the U.S. The theory of the organization is that 1% of the richest people in the world are controlling the governments and economies of all other people.

The organization had little effect on the Democratic Party rolling over Bernie Sanders, a more socialist candidate for President. When Hillary Clinton, won the nomination, the Occupy Wall Street effort was pretty well ended. The organization’s attempt to get big money out of politics failed. With the win by Donald Trump, it was the final nail in the coffin of Occupy Wall Street.

Since the fall of Occupy Wall Street, Micah White, one of its co-creators has been trying to determine what went wrong. He believes that the organization definitely spurred the protests that have been taking place around the country since Donald Trump took office. However, he now believes that mass protests have a very low impact on changes in the country.

He asserts that the way to make major change in the political scene is to not only hold massive protests, but to have candidates that support the goals of the organizations, actually running for office. No longer do protests have the needed effect on who is elected, it must be citizens running campaigns and winning seats in elections, where real change can take place.

Micah claims that governments are tolerating the protests because they realize they are having minimal impact on the actual government. These protests are having no impact on returning sovereign power to the citizens of countries involved. He proports that protests can help in winning elections but, they alone are not enough. He compares the three years’ protesters spent on Black Lives Matter to the eighteen months it took Donald Trump to sweep the nation.

So, going forward, the movements and organizations that are working to return government control to the citizens of a country, need to use protests to support actual candidates and win elections, so they can have an actual impact on what happens in government. This will obviously involve raising money and fighting against extreme wealth from the richest people and organizations across the world.

Micah believes the best place to start this type of revolution is in areas where the competition is not as great, like in rural elections and less challenged areas. He recommends starting in areas that are not seen as having major power, and once gaining control in these areas, moving on to more powerful positions. He supports the combining of protests, social movements and the electoral process as the only way to success.