Occupy Wall Street
Protesters occupied Zuccotti Park in New York, launching the Occupy movement against inequality
September 17, 2011
Taking Over the Financial District
On September 17, 2011, several hundred protesters descended on Zuccotti Park in the heart of New York City's financial district, just blocks from Wall Street, and set up an encampment they called Occupy Wall Street. The protest was sparked by growing anger over economic inequality, corporate greed, and the sense that the political system served the wealthy at the expense of ordinary people. The 2008 financial crisis had wiped out millions of jobs and homes, while the banks that caused it were bailed out by taxpayers and their executives collected huge bonuses. The protesters famously declared themselves "the 99 percent" — the vast majority of people left behind by a system rigged for the top 1 percent.
A Movement Without a Leader
Occupy Wall Street was deliberately leaderless. Its participants made decisions by consensus in daily general assemblies. They used hand signals to communicate approval or disagreement. Inspired by the Arab Spring protests and movements in Spain and Greece, they saw horizontal organization — without leaders or hierarchy — as both a practical and political statement. The camp attracted a mix of students, unemployed workers, veterans, artists, and longtime activists. It provided free food, a library, a medical station, and a newspaper. Within weeks, similar Occupy camps had sprung up in hundreds of cities around the world, from London to Sydney to Mexico City.
The Legacy of the 99 Percent
Occupy Wall Street was evicted by police in November 2011, just two months after it began. Without a clear set of demands or a political strategy, it failed to achieve direct policy changes. But its impact on public discourse was lasting. The language of the "99 percent" and the "1 percent" entered mainstream political conversation and remained there. Economic inequality rose to the top of the political agenda in ways it had not been for decades. Politicians like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who ran explicitly on economic justice platforms, emerged from the cultural soil that Occupy helped prepare. Use the date calculator to see how many years ago the movement began.