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Example of successfull social movements
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Occupy Wall Street has been called many things, including unfocused, ungrounded, and silly. However, others coin it as “America’s first internet-era movement” (Rushkoff). In essence, Occupy Wall Street is a series of protests and demonstrations that oppose the influence of corporate greed on American democracy. The protestors use marches and nonviolent demonstrations to express their dissatisfaction with the state of American politics and the economy. This relates to the political science concepts of power, performance democracy, and protective democracy. The Occupy Wall Street movement is a succession of protests that have no formal leader and no formal demands. The concept behind this form of movement is that each person is a leader, and everyone’s values and concerns deserve equal attention. The movement has found its roots and inspiration in the Arab Spring, a series of revolutionary movements and protests that have rocked the Arab world over the past months. On September 17, the wave of protests known as Occupy Wall Street began in New York with over one thousand protestors brandishing signs up and down Wall Street. Though the movement has no formal demands, one main goal asserted by the movement’s website is to establish “a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don’t need Wall Street and we don’t need politicians to build a better society” (Occupy Wall Street). This declaration is based on the belief that politicians and Wall Street executives have only the interests of the wealthy in mind. The single source of unity in the movement is the belief that the current political and economic system is broken and needs to be fixed.
Michael Moore’s film of Capitalism: A Love Story is an examination on how much of a financial impact that corporation has on the lives of Americans. Capitalism seems to emulate a love affair gone wrong, with lies, abuse and betrayal towards the American people. Moore moves the film from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan in order to answer the question of what price do Americans pay for the affection of capitalism. There is irony in the title of this film because there is certainly nothing to love about capitalism when families have to pay the price with losing their jobs, their homes and their savings as a result of the risky investments that the rich and powerful have at their disposal. With more than 14,000 jobs being lost, residents being evicted from their homes and banks stealing away families’ savings, one must wonder if there is an upside to capitalism at all. True democracy is the biggest threat to corporate America because of the one person one vote system. In order for this to take place, the growing number of people would have to come together and expose capitalism for what it truly is, a corrupt and greedy system for the wealthy.
...“Obama Stokes Deficit Fight.” The Wall Street Journal Politics. The Wall Street Journal, n.d. Web. 6 June 2011. .
Hewitt, Hugh. The Brief against Obama: The Rise, Fall & Epic Fail of the Hope &
Imagine being born in a place where people don't mix with one another and keep to their own kind. Imagine not being able to walk into a store because it is white owned. How would it feel if you were black, lived in a city that was run by a white government, where poverty, unemployment and lack of education were all problems of everyday life? If everyone were treated equally, then it would not be a problem. But for inner city African Americans that isn't the case. As humans, there is only so much we can take when it comes to segregation before we act out. There is only so much hate a person can take before letting it be known, once a person is pushed over that threshold there is no holding back. Overwhelming hate and anger with revenge takes hold and all thoughts of consequences rushes out of a person's body. The only thought remaining is violence, which is where rioting comes into play. All it takes are a few people to start protesting and yelling then the next thing you know you have a group of people then a mob. People are like sheep. When a person sees another person doing it, then they are more inclined to join in. Someone then throws a rock, then a bottle, and then all of a sudden here comes an array of Molctov Cocktails and guns. You then have a mob of people with built up tension and anger, ready to crush and destroy whatever stands in their way of their demonstration.
The 1960’s were a time of freedom, deliverance, developing and molding for African-American people all over the United States. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of black people in the south fighting for equal rights. Although, years earlier by law Africans were considered free from slavery but that wasn’t enough they wanted to be treated equal as well. Many black people were fed up with the segregation laws such as giving up their seats on a public bus to a white woman, man, or child. They didn’t want separate bathrooms and water fountains and they wanted to be able to eat in a restaurant and sit wherever they wanted to and be served just like any other person.
For many years after the Civil War many African-Americans did not truly enjoy the freedoms that were granted to them by the US constitution. This was especially true in the southern states, because segregation flourished in the south wwhere African-Americans were treated as second class citizens. This racial segregation was characterized by separation of different races in daily life, such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a rest room, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home. In addition, Blacks were not afforded justice and fair trials, such as the case of the murder of Emmet Till. This unjust treatment would not be tolerated in America any more, which spurred the civil rights movement.
The use of participatory techniques by Americans disempowered in the political and working system in the United States to make their voices hear and express their concerns. The language of the disempowered conceal institutional forms to make understood the discrimination and inequality that they are facing in the workplace by powerful companies or corporations and to stop the improper destruction of the environmental through unsuitable modernization projects where capitalists would be the survivors. The disempowered use elections and interest group lobbying in order to make their voices hear and bring about political change. Providing evidences from articles such as: “Protest and Disruption: The Political of Outsiders” by Greenberg, and “Detroit: I Do Mind Dying,” Chapters:1-2 by Dan Georgakas. We are going to explore the “outside the system” of the disempowered that those authors provide in the process to protect themselves and their interests.
Lott Jr., John R.. At the Brink: Will Obama Push Us Over The Edge?. Washington DC: Regnery
This is a movement like no other Occupy Wall Street has no known leader, they have no official set of demands of what they want. They are not sure what outcomes they want to have there is no one person who is the leader and talks for the group. Occupy Wall Street movement has been quoted saying “We are all the leader” (Gautney) Unlike the FSM movement where there were key leaders in the movement, the Occupy Wall Street movement is one that is run by the people that show up there and show their support to the movement. Another thing that separates the Occupy Wall Street movement is that each local organization that is officiated with them establishes their own goals, and practices that will work for them and the thing that they are trying to set forth in there movement. (Gautney)
(Turner and Killian 1987) cited in (Diani 1992, p. 4) define social movements as a “collectivity acting with some continuity to promote or resist a change in the society or organisation of which it is part. As a collectivity a movement is a group with indefinite and shifting membership and with leadership whose position is determined more by informal response of adherents than by formal procedures for legitimizing authority”. Turner and Killian regard a social movement as a peculiar kind of collective behavior that is contrasted to regularity and institutional behavior. Additionally, Turner believes that social movements do not necessarily coincide with movement organisations, although these organisations can carry out a large part of the movement tasks and it is often help to control and speak for movements (Diani 1992).
The tea party has been a hot topic in the United States ever since the movement began in 2008, yet many people do not understand what exactly it is. Contrary to what some people may think, the tea party is not a true political party. It can broadly be defined as a gathering of libertarians, conservatives, and other people who want to change Washington. The common ideals of the tea party movement are cutting government spending, limiting taxes, and stopping excessive federal regulations. The most important thing one needs to know about the movement though, is that there is not a single tea party- the movement consists of hundreds of different autonomous groups, each widely varying in priorities and size.
These protests haven’t been centralized to a single country or region but rather have appeared throughout the globe. Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria emerged in the form of the Arab Spring protests that swept across the Middle East in 2011. Labour movements in North America, economic austerity resistance in Spain, injustice protests in Greece and Israil, and the ‘YoSoy123’ movement in Mexico all sprouted around the same time(Basok, 2014). Then in late 2011 these movements seemed to have blended together and culminated in the Occupy Wall Street movement. Each of these movements share a common goal in the form of increasing the bleak economic situation that plagues the globe. Basok notes that it was the dichotomy between economic classes that motivated the movement and sparked the notorious ‘1% versus 99%’ motto. Causes for such global disparity can be traced to decisions made decades prior. Levine Marc noted in 1996 that since the early 1970’s “there has been an unprecedented surge in income inequality and a polarization of earnings in the United States”. The western middle class had been shrinking for almost four decades but at a rate that, while not
Paul Hawken, in the chapter “Blessed Unrest,” records the people of a new social movement, as well as their ideals, goals, and principles. He writes how they are connected, along with the diversity and differences they bring to make the social movement unique. Hawken communicates to the readers the various social, environmental, and political problems they will encounter in today’s world as well as similar problems of the past. Problems that these groups of organizations are planning to undertake with the perseverance of humanity.
Historically, the Civil Rights Movement was a time during the 1950’s and 60’s to eliminate segregation and gain equal rights. Looking back on all the events, and dynamic figures it produced, this description is very vague. In order to fully understand the Civil Rights Movement, you have to go back to its origin. Most people believe that Rosa Parks began the whole civil rights movement. She did in fact propel the Civil Rights Movement to unprecedented heights but, its origin began in 1954 with Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka. Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was the cornerstone for change in American History as a whole. Even before our nation birthed the controversial ruling on May 17, 1954 that stated separate educational facilities were inherently unequal, there was Plessy vs. Ferguson in 1896 that argued by declaring that state laws establish separate public schools for black and white students denied black children equal educational opportunities. Some may argue that Plessy vs. Ferguson is in fact backdrop for the Civil Rights Movement, but I disagree. Plessy vs. Ferguson was ahead of it’s time so to speak. “Separate but equal” thinking remained the body of teachings in America until it was later reputed by Brown vs. Board of Education. In 1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat, and prompted The Montgomery Bus Boycott led by one of the most pivotal leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. After the gruesome death of Emmett Till in 1955 in which the main suspects were acquitted of beating, shooting, and throwing the fourteen year old African American boy in the Tallahatchie River, for “whistling at a white woman”, this country was well overdo for change.
Researchers classify social movements according to the type of change they seek (Aberle, 1966, Cameron, 1966, Blumer, 1969, as cited in Macionis, 2007). According to John Macionis, a social movement is when people commonly band together to create an organized activity that encourages or discourages social change (Macionis, 2008). In the case of this radical society, Hippies were typically ...