Skip to main content

Occupy Wall Street, 2011

 File

Scope and Contents

3 miniDVs, 4 video files and 1 photograph file documenting the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. OWS started on September 17, 2011, when, responding to a call by Adbusters magazine, several hundred protesters occupied Zuccotti Park in the Financial District of Manhattan, protesting income inequality, corporate greed and corruption that Wall Street symbolized in their eyes. The occupation lasted two months, with recurring rallies and thousands of participants, and resulted in similar occupations worldwide, continuing until the New York Police Department forced the occupiers out of the park on the night of November 15. During the early weeks of OWS, all-city student rallies raised issues like high tuitions and the resulting soaring student debt, and more generally raising issues of transparency and criticizing higher education finances. An all-city student rally resulted in the occupation of The New School’s temporary student study space on the second floor of 90 Fifth Avenue. Members of the occupation put banners in the windows of the space in support of the Zuccotti Park Occupation and organized meetings and teach-ins. Due to internal conflicts and strong opposition from students who wanted their study space back, the New School occupation, which outlived the Zuccotti Park occupation, ended at the end of November.

Dates

  • 2011