We are the 99% - one year on
Cynthia Weber
‘We are the 99%’ - a year ago this month, this expression changed the discourse of US politics. But did this call to action ‘for American Revolution’ issued by the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement change US politics itself?
This is one of the questions addressed by Cynthia Weber, Professor of International Relations at Sussex, in a series of films being launched by Open Democracy on the first anniversary of OWS (17 September).
The films explore how OWS and the 99% movements fought for American Revolution by mobilizing some of the foundational language and ideas of The American Revolution. How ‘We the People’ became ‘We are the 99%’; how power, and especially economic power, corrupts democracy; and how church and state should be related to one another – these all figure in OWS celebrations of ‘the 99%’.
The films record these celebrations, mindful of how OWS and the 99% movements might enhance competing liberal visions of equality and liberty.