Activism
THE 99%By Heather Cleveland
The original movement was to take place near a sculpture of a charging bull, but police discovered there plan and fenced if off, so protesters quickly moved to the nearest park, Zuccotti Park, New York. Since Zuccotti Park was private property, police could not ask the protesters to leave without the landowner’s permission or request. protesters want better and more jobs, equal distribution of income, and bank reform. The protest has shown that there is a real upset among American citizens, because the 1% are becoming wealthier and the 99% are struggling more and more. There is huge diversity in the people that are protesting, from age, colour, and religion. It began with more "younger” people because of the influence of social media, but as it become popular an older group began to join in. “We are the 99%” has become the main slogan for the movement, and is said to be the most successful slogan since “Hell no, we won’t go” used during the Vietnam War. It comes from the fact that 1% of Americans income has increased by 275% in the past 30 years, where 60% of Americans have only has a 40% increase. A poll done in 2010 showed that people all over the political spectrum want more even income distribution. Overall it has been a peaceful protest, except a few incidents including drug use, sexual assault, and theft. But they did release statement and increased awareness to reducing crime in the peaceful protest. On the sixth month universe of the protest, an occupy leader released the statement saying “the first sixth months we’ve changed the national conversation, and in the next sixth months we will change the world.” Our Lady Peace’s song to support the movement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ld867O-57U Interview With Protester: http://perezhilton.com/2011-10-05-occupy-wall-street-interview-fox-news-wont-air-new-york-observe-found Occupy Wall Street Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/#!/OccupyWallSt Occupy Wall Street Twitter: (Hashtages are #occupy #occupywallstreet and #OWS) https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyWallSt Interview with Protester: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SKw2j3XOY0 Want More Info? Ceck Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_Wall_Street |
Activism In FranceBy Katie Horton
Most people know that France is full of activists. There are constantly protests about everything in France you can imagine. In fact, these protests happen so often that some people actually believe that the French government is afraid of the citizens of the country. Of course, everyone in the country has different things that they want or desire, so the protests would often conflict with one another. But with so many protests conflicting, is anything actually ever done? In fact, yes. The French actually can retire before their retirement ages because they do so well in the workforce. They have amazing benefits, their vacation time is also amazing, and their pay is definitely admirable. This just goes to show that protesting can be very beneficial in some cases.
Activism In RussiaBy Igor Samarin
During the corrupt time of present-day Russia, a form of activism is rising. Decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has fallen into something close to anarchy. The law is not holding together everywhere. For example, on the streets, mainly people who are rich, powerful or so called “VIP” park wherever they want, disobeying Russian parking laws. This causes a lot of problems, like disturbance of traffic flow, and parked cars getting wedged and unable to get out until others do. Nobody bothers to deal with this, police officers usually look the other way. A particular group of people has gotten sick of this. They founded an organization known as СтопХАМ (stopHAM), and wanted to stop corruption starting on the streets of Russia. Their strategies and actions have been simple: politely ask people who are parking illegally to move their car. If they obeyed and moved, then they would be left alone. But if they refused to move, a large sticker basically saying “I don’t care about anyone and park wherever I want” would be stuck on their windshield. While the main stopHAM people would do this, more than one cameraman would be filming it, and multiple bodyguards would be ready. Many people who would regularly disobey the law found this absolutely outrageous, and returned with violence (that's what the bodyguards are there for). They find it outrageous because they have gotten used to ignoring the law and doing what they want, and suddenly a young guy is asking them to obey it and move their car. It may seem like what they are doing is very miniscule, but for Russia, it’s a start.As much as this is a form of activism, it is very entertaining. The people who overreact and respond violently to stopHAM’s actions get recognized all over the world, in the form of a YouTube video. I doubt you’ll have much luck on a school network, but you can check out their website (http://stopham.su/) or youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/StopXAM/featured) (although chances are you’d probably want Google Chrome to translate for you). |