It's been almost two months since the Occupy Wall Street protest began in New York. The movement spread to cities across the country, with many having different issues and challenges.
Many Occupy protesters generally assert, among other things, that the nation's wealthiest 1% holds inordinate sway over the remaining 99% of the population. CNN Radio reported from a few different states to get a pulse on the movement.
Click the audio player to hear the report:
IN NEW YORK
The Occupy Wall Street encampment in New York’s Zuccotti Park has taken on an air of permanency since a storm pelted protesters with sleet, snow and rain a few days ago. Tents are not only tolerated by police now, they cover the public plaza from one end to the other. Protesters say they are there for the long haul.
“Our goal at this point is just to stay here. And as long as we continue to exist ... we continue to be a movement rather than just a flash in the pan,” Jeffrey Brewer said as he took part in a discussion about diversity at an area of the park demonstrators call the Think Tank.
While the park is the public face of Occupy Wall Street, problem-solving is largely taking place off-site. Working groups tackling various issues meet in nearby public atriums and restaurants daily.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Rick DeVoe, who has been staying at the park for more than a month.
“What most people are not aware of, is all the work that’s being done constantly,” DeVoe said. “I’m a resident occupier, been here since Day 9, and work 10-, 12-, 16-hour days. And I don’t think that people realize that, that we have dozens of working groups.”
While some are discussing ways to reform the system from within, others, including DeVoe, want alternatives to a system that they see corrupted by big business.
To people outside the movement who assert that Occupy protesters haven't put forward specific goals, protester Tim Weldon said: “What kind of social change ever happened in 48 days? I mean just think about it. Just read history.”
No confrontations between police and protesters have taken place in New York in recent days. Both sides seem to be tolerating each other for the time being.
IN CALIFORNIA
A few hundred Occupy protesters in Oakland, California, took over a vacant building on Wednesday night. Police ordered them to vacate, and demonstrators set fires and hurled bricks, bottles and firecrackers at the officers.
One hundred were arrested. The violence followed a day in which an estimated 7,000 protesters peacefully participated in a general strike.
In Los Angeles, Occupy committees are defining a list of national demands. Two of the demands being considered are breaking up banks in the manner that Congress broke up AT&T in 1984.
A second demand is balancing representation in Congress. One of the committee's complaints is that only the rich get elected, and that members of Congress represent only the nation's wealthiest 1%.
IN GEORGIA
Dozens of protesters marched to a Wells Fargo bank building in Atlanta this week, protesting now-familiar tropes like income inequality, bank bailouts and CEO bonuses. But another issue looms large in the city.
"As far as I'm concerned, the homeless are welcome here," said Latron Price. "They are the people who have really gotten the brunt of an unfair system."
Homeless people have joined the ranks of the Occupy protesters in cities around the country. In Atlanta, the movement itself is somewhat homeless after police cleared protesters' downtown base camp, Woodruff Park.
Protesters have temporarily moved into a homeless shelter. The protesters vowed to "retake" Woodruff Park this weekend
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