The 99 Percent
In Jeremy Brecher’s article, “The 99 Percent Organize Themselves”, the author reports his experience with the current “99 percent movement”. He states that originally it started as the “Occupy Wall Street(OWS)” movement in Zucotti Park. However, as companion movements spread across the country started to collaborate, the OWS morphed into the 99 percent movement. He recalls one incident in which a woman (Rose Gudiel) refused to be evicted from her home in LA, California. The incident quickly escalated to thousands of people protesting in front of Los Angeles City Hall in a movement they called “Occupy LA”. This incident illustrates the expedient nature of information cascade and the positive (uncompensated) effects of Networks; as more people support the 99 percent the more the movement will benefit them.
Brecher points out that the most important aspect of the 99 percent movement is the message/information that it is spreading; it encourages people to collectively protect their interests and to self-organize. He continues to say that this movement is embedded within many “secondary instituitions”(e.g. communities, schools, workplace, subcultures). The government and corporations depend on the cooperation and acquiescence of these secondary institutions as “pilars of support”. Thus, if we organize effectively we can acquire the power to defend against corporate (1 percent) control over national politics. It is a matter of positive externalities; if 99 percent of people actually do join- or in someway support- the 99 percent movement, then the postive effects will not only be great, but the vast majority of people (99%) will benefit from the payoffs.
http://www.thenation.com/article/164403/99-percent-organize-themselves