# Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street kicked off on September 17, 2011 when a few hundred protesters set up camp in lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park to rail against corporate greed and money in politics. The Adbusters-organized sit-in grew into a months-long occupation that turned '#OccupyWallStreet' and 'We are the 99%' into rallying cries across Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube. ## Origin On July 13, 2011, Adbusters published a call titled '#OCCUPYWALLSTREET,' asking 20,000 people to flood lower Manhattan on September 17 and stay until President Barack Obama convened a commission to strip money out of Washington politics[4]. Co-founder Kalle Lasn told CNN the plan borrowed directly from the Arab Spring, and in particular the Tahrir Square sit-in that helped topple Hosni Mubarak earlier that year[1]. The hashtag started trending on Twitter around July 26, 2011 after the newly launched @OccupyWallStNYC account began pushing logistics, with @USDayofRage joining the push[4]. On September 17, a few hundred marchers pushed past police barricades and settled into Zuccotti Park, which organizers rebranded 'Liberty Park' as a nod to Tahrir[3]. - **Platform:** Adbusters / Twitter (viral spread) - **Creator:** Adbusters (Kalle Lasn and staff) - **Date:** 2011 ## Overview The occupation ran on a leaderless, social-media-first model. Adbusters, the Vancouver-based anti-consumerist magazine, floated the idea in July 2011 and let the hashtag do most of the recruiting[1]. The hacktivist collective Anonymous picked up the call and urged supporters to bring tents to Wall Street[2], and by mid-September Zuccotti Park held a working camp with a kitchen, library and daily general assemblies. The visual language traveled fast. Livestreams of NYPD arrests, footage of the 'human microphone' in use, and homemade '99%' signs circulated on Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube, making the protest look bigger online than any single day of foot traffic in the park[3]. Copycat encampments opened in Boston, Oakland, London and dozens of other cities within weeks, all riding the same '#Occupy' naming convention[4]. ## How to Use The '#OccupyWallStreet' hashtag was used as an organizing tag before September 17, then as a live-reporting tag from the camp. The naming template '#Occupy[CityName]' was copied by activists worldwide to launch sister encampments, and the 'We are the 99%' slogan was often paired with personal-story image posts on Tumblr. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Occupy Wall Street? Occupy Wall Street was a hashtag-driven protest movement that started September 17, 2011 with an encampment in Zuccotti Park, near the New York Stock Exchange, aimed at corporate greed and money in politics[1]. ### Where did Occupy Wall Street come from? The Canadian magazine Adbusters published a July 13, 2011 blog post titled '#OCCUPYWALLSTREET' calling for a sit-in on September 17, and co-founder Kalle Lasn told CNN the plan drew on Arab Spring protests like Tahrir Square[1][4]. ### What does Occupy Wall Street mean? The phrase refers to literally taking over public space next to Wall Street to protest financial-sector power and demand political reform, and it became shorthand for the wider 'We are the 99%' movement[4]. ### How do you use Occupy Wall Street? Online, people used '#OccupyWallStreet' to organize and live-report from the camp, and copied the '#Occupy[City]' template to launch sister protests in Boston, Oakland, London and other cities[1]. ### Is Occupy Wall Street still popular? The Zuccotti Park camp was cleared by NYPD on November 15, 2011 and the on-the-ground movement wound down soon after, but the '99%' framing it popularized stuck in U.S. political language[4]. ## References 1. [https://www.cnn.com/2011/09/16/tech/social-media/twitter-occupy-wall-street/index.html]() 2. [https://x.com/i/status/105667927113596928]() 3. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSpM2kieMu8]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/occupy-wall-street]() 5. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rfuvDr2wJQ]() 6. [https://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/occupy-wall-street-shuts-down-fake-occupy-wall-str]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg6ayc-w3bE]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/occupy-wall-street Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library