The "American Autumn"?

After the “Arab Spring,” there emerges in New York a movement similar to the one that took over Spanish squares.

A New York version of the 15-M movement began on Sept. 17 with a call from Adbusters, the Canadian alternative culture magazine, to occupy Wall Street. The goal was to protest against the American financial power — the unmistakable symbol of an economic crisis that has especially affected the middle-class and the youth of this country. That same day, this country received data from the latest census: 46 million people (15 percent of the population) live below the poverty line. “We are the 99 percent, and we are against the remaining 1 percent who possess more than 40 percent of the planet’s wealth,” some 2,000 people clamored.

The call was expected to bring together many more people. However, after the demonstration, only 296 people slept in Zuccotti Park that first night (the police cordoned off the New York Stock Exchange and did not allow them to get close, so they decided to stay in that nearby green area). Even though they were few, they did not get discouraged. Little by little, they started to organize in daily assemblies in which everything is decided by consensus, and where they began to cook up their demands. These demands were released in the “Declaration of the Occupation of New York,” which urged the world to occupy public spaces against power and corruption.

However, it was thanks to the arrival of some stars on Wall Street that the New York protesters attracted more attention from their own country’s media. These protesters created in August an organization called NYC General Assembly, with the help of several Spaniards experienced in the 15-M movement. Not that the speeches of Noam Chomsky, Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, Russell Simmons or Cornel West were more interesting, elaborate or forthright than that of the 300 people making up the core of the Occupy Wall Street movement (although during the day they are joined by at least a thousand people).

In a country hooked on celebrities, only the public appearance of those stars managed to break the information barrier around them that only the international press (including El País) had managed to jump over. Moreover, after the spectacular arrest on Saturday of some 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge, it has become impossible to deny the obvious: The social discontent that overtook Spanish squares, Greek cities and Israeli streets has also reached the United States; and from New York it is extending across other cities in the country. “After the Arab Spring and the Spanish Revolution, maybe the time has come to introduce the American Autumn,” Gary Louisa, 21 years old and unemployed, stated a few days ago. He complained about not having access to education “because it requires us to borrow at unpayable interest rates” and having to choose “between eating and going to the dentist.” These were his reasons for camping on Wall Street.

The indignants in New York are much closer to the Spanish 15-M than the Egyptians who occupied Tahrir Square, but poor news coverage of the Spanish Revolution in the United States has made the press and the people more often associate [the New York protest] with the Arab Spring. The malaise in a society that demands astronomical prices for housing, health and education without giving anything in return — a society that bore witness to the bank bailouts in 2008 as thousands of people became victims of massive layoffs or had their wages frozen — is obvious among those under 26 years old who make up the majority of those living in Zuccotti Park (renamed Liberty Square). Nevertheless, in this space — similar to the one at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid, with a cafeteria, pharmacy, library and information booths — one can find professors, engineers and even former stockbrokers.

Hispanics and blacks were missing; the majority was made up of white and middle-class people. The problem was that their protest was invisible to the country, but this has changed in the last few days. Different communities are now seeking to become part of the movement, the strongest impulse coming from trade unions. Last week, employees of the post office (with more than 100,000 national members) and New York’s public transit system (with 38,000 members) gave their official support. The wick of the incensed in the United States is now lit. The only thing that remains to be seen is how far it will take them.