We are the 99%

"We are the 99 percent" ( English for " We are the 99 percent " ) is the motto of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which the Zuccotti Park in the financial district of Wall Street from September 17 to November 15, 2011 New York City had occupied. In the wake of the spread of the movement, the motto is also used in other parts of the world, partly translated into the local language.

Use of the slogan

The speech of the 99 % who face a Top 1 % refers to the distribution of assets. The theme directed against a strong influence of the richest Americans (1%) who own at least 38 % of the assets, on policy and legislation, the " unrestrained greed" and to banking and business policies that accommodates this. The motto was linked from the beginning with the movement and also appeared on the website occupywallst.org. It was referring to Joseph E. Stiglitz, among others by the American ethnologist and anarchist David Graeber mitformuliert. Even with demonstrations of the international Occupy Wall Street movement, the world, including in Germany, took place on 15th October 2011, it was used. Also as part of the Blockupy Action Days from 16 to 19, 2012 in Frankfurt this slogan was used.

At the same time is the motto of the name of a Tumblr site on which were collected from its launch on 23 August 2011 until mid-October 1200 posts, each consisting of a photo of a plate or a piece of paper in which someone describes his situation, where a number of themes come up again and again:

• Loss of employment and housing,
• Lack of health insurance,
• Prospects academically educated that are simultaneously loaded with high student loans.

At the end of each text the motto appears.

Examples:

"I am 53 years old and have worked since I was 13 ( and paid while social and health insurance ). I have lost two annuity contracts and a pension. I lost my home in 2007 by a mortgage scam. I'm away A monthly salary of homelessness. I pay more in taxes than GE, Exxon and Bank of America together! My retirement plans are to WORK UNTIL I DIE! I AM THE 99 %! I CHOOSE! "

" I am a 30 year old mother of a child and married. 2006 we were fine, I was pregnant, because of pre-eclampsia had four months lying in bed. During the time I was fired. 2011: We have sold all our property to give our daughter what she needs. I can not find another job. Our house is just fallen in foreclosure. I HAVE FEAR. WE ARE THE 99 %. "

Reception

The responses to the theme and format of the amateur photos of yourself painted signs as well as the hundreds of on the tumblr site collected individual fates as shown are diversified.

The renowned magazine The Atlantic, Daniel Indiviglio takes the motto of the word and doubts that it had 99%. He quotes appearing on the tumblr site in the sidebar text:

"We are the 99 percent. We are thrown out of our apartment. We have to choose between food and rent. We do not get proper medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We work overtime for little money and stay no rights, if we ever have a job. We get nothing and 1 percent gets everything. We are the 99 percent. "

It then checks to see if literally 99% under these conditions suffer, and comes to the conclusion that, for example, more than 10% have lost their homes or only 15 % live in poverty, it therefore minorities and majorities are not. In addition, the majority of the American population was still convinced of the capitalist system.

His colleague Megan McArdle shows, however, affected by the individual stories on Tumblr, and remembers that they themselves at the end of their studies - in the face of high debt and an uncertain future - put in a similar situation. But then she also remembers their previous experiences in protest movements and the fact that it was fun anyway, and transmits to the protesters of Liberty Plaza:

" Your time it does not cost much, they are not in danger, and yes, I have to say this, demonstrating fun. "

Quite different Ezra Klein, columnist for the Washington Post, the affected shows from the individual fates:

"This is not an empty roar against the system. They're not anarchist manifestos. These are no calls for revolution. These are small stories of people who have followed the rules, did what they were told, and now have nothing to show. "

He also holds compared to the message of these images, the actions on the Liberty Plaza, and elsewhere for significantly less.

Star Online is the reference to an article by Joseph E. Stiglitz ago, the title of his article at Vanity Fair from May 2011 ( Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% ) to the Gettysburg Address, a speech Abraham Lincoln recalled. The article by Stiglitz read like a manifesto of the current protests. Stiglitz wrote about his article by noting that one percent of Americans relate almost a quarter of the national income. This is a disparity that would regret the rich still. The fate of the upper Percentage of the population is linked to the living conditions of the other 99 percent. The Badische Zeitung sees the contribution of the Nobel laureate, who supports the Occupy Wall Street movement, as an inspiration for the slogan.

Seyla Benhabib and Eliot Weinberger deal with the motto in the feature pages of time. Also Weinberger stated that one percent of Americans earn 24 percent of total income, own 50 percent of the securities and 40 percent of the nation's wealth, but this tax against the rest of the population have an advantage. 99 percent of Americans are so Weinberger, " unhappy in different ways ." The hedge fund manager John Paulson is in contrast remarks, " that the top one percent of New York's 40 percent of all income taxes pay, which in turn get around the city benefit ".

Spiegel Online relies on the use of the motto during a demonstration in Frankfurt am Main and puts it in reference to opinion polls, whose results suggest that the vast majority of the population so decides that tax dollars should not be used to bail out banks. However, the low number of participants of the demonstrations in Germany speak rather against the use of the motto. Similarly mounted criticism comes from Thomas Straubhaar, the motto and the Occupy Wall Street Movement in Germany " no permanent opportunities," admits due to better social conditions. However, under the worse economic conditions of the United States, the movement could influence the local 2012 presidential election.

In Z. magazine Marxist renewal Ingar Solty points out that the slogan thematize the growing social inequality, but be open to different interpretations of their causes. The share of the top 1% would be both national income and the total social assets 20-25 %. The typical Diskrepanzeffekt between income and wealth statistics related to social inequality is apparent only from the statistics in these otherwise normal -fifths ( 20%) or tenths (10 %). Therefore, the motto stand for the general openness of the movement in relation to the means to remedy the inequality, ie the open question about their political demands. The Tumblr and the individual fates described therein served first as a " basis for a common understanding of the social nature of their own insecurity. " In contrast to classic demonstrations mobilizing the movement " not been ideologically oriented and organized by conscious interests mass institutions for policy in public places". The public space functioned " as a pre-political space spontanter meeting of ' indignados ', the appropriated politically through learning about the collective and social nature of one's own situation " will. Behind it lay hidden " the promise that the apparent heterogeneity of the movement in terms of political milieus, political and movement experience and political beliefs in this melting pot to interest-driven coherent projects " would lead. " For out of the '99 % ' against the '1 %' " would have a "new conscious, political collective subject with a common will and project - let's call it Prekariat -. Continue emerging "

Alex Feuerherdt speaks in the Jungle World on December 1, 2011 in light of the 99% motto of a " longing for collectivity ". He further alleged that on the view that the world is " dominated by a small minority ," the " removed " belongs, prevails within the Occupy movement consensus. This would contribute conspiratorial and also reminiscent of anti-Semitic theories trains.