1 - Repertoires of Contentious Language

Summary

September 17, 2011: a group of young people carrying tents, cooking equipment, and sleeping bags sets up camp in a privately owned but public square in downtown Manhattan, near the New York Stock Exchange. As they describe themselves, “Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan's Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally.” The protesters claim to be fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process and over the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement, they argue, is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia and aims to expose how the richest 1 percent of people are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future.

Media savvy and well connected nationally and internationally, the Wall Street protesters are soon joined by sympathizers from around the country and abroad. By late October, there are at least 250-odd occupy sites across the country in which some form of occupation is being mounted. Map 1.1 shows the occupy sites that were recorded over the first ten days of occupations alone.