Wall Street protests gear up for winter of discontent

By Andy Goldberg Oct 21, 2011, 9:42 GMT

San Francisco - In a small city square in Frankfurt, Germany, about a dozen people camped out last weekend, along with thousands of people around the world people who marched in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement.

But those hardy Frankfurt folks, some of whom braved a frosty night without even the benefit of a tent, underscored one of the toughest challenges facing the nascent protest movement.

As the cold of winter enwraps the western hemisphere, many are asking whether the populist street movement will be able to maintain its momentum, withstanding not only the power of the political system, but also the ambivalence of mother nature herself, who will continue to send snow, ice and rain down on the protestors no matter how just their cause.

It's not only the challenges of the weather that could make life difficult for the protestors.

In the city of Oakland, California, which rivals its neighbours of San Francisco and Berkeley as a bastion of liberal values, officials say they may have to shut down the encampment due to a rat infestation. And down the coast in Los Angeles, city officials who initially were enthusiastic supporters of the protests are now distancing themselves from the impromptu tent city. The reason: Acceding to protestors' demands to sever ties with misbehaving financial institutions could cost the cash-strapped city 58 million dollars in higher interest payments and termination fees.

Yet the real challenge, activists and observers say, is channeling the pent up anger sparked by so-called corporate greed into a real political and economic platform. A chat with the small group of stalwarts who are braving the Washington DC weather to speak truth to power in the nation's capital confirms this test.

'We don't really want anything now, we just want people to know. We just want to raise awareness,' said Nate Given, a 19-year-old college student.

'Ninety-nine per cent of the people aren't really getting the things we need for the work we are doing,' he continued. 'Multitudes of people are here to support and find a way to get the power from the 1 per cent - the people who make the laws and the companies paying them.'

Adbusters, the counterculture magazine that launched the Occupy Wall Street movement in mid-September, is aware of the need to channel the anger into a pragmatic platform. It has announced a Robin Hood Global March for October 29, the eve of the Grounp of 20 Leaders Summit in France, when it hopes thousands will take to the streets to call for a 1 per cent Robin Hood tax on all financial transactions and currency trades.

'Let's send them a clear message,' Adbusters urged. 'We want you to slow down some of that 1.3-trillion dollars easy money that's sloshing around the global casino each day - enough cash to fund every social program and environmental initiative in the world.'

The success of such calls to action are vital if the movement is to have a real long term impact. 'In two, four, five weeks when it gets really cold, if they don't have a reason for being, even the most ardent people are going to go home,' Miro Copic, a professor with San Diego State University, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

But Sheri Paris, a historian of protest movements at the University of Santa Cruz, California, said the Occupy Wall Street movement has every chance of making a historic impact since it has already succeeded in reframing the debate over contemporary society and politics.

'It's a mass movement that has spread like wildfire around the globe because there are so many things wrong with our politics, our culture and our economy,' she told dpa. 'It's not easy to propose a solution, because the problems run so deep. But people have found their voice and they will no longer be silent.'