Social movements have dramatically increased during last year. In light of the Arab Spring, people all over the world have come out on to the streets in protest against several issues. The Occupy movement, born in front of Wall Street and expanded across all the continents, is the best known example of this wave of social protests. The main causes which explain this phenomenon are increasing inequality, the financial crisis, political delegitimization and the Arab Spring.
First of all, growing inequality between social classes is the structural cause of Occupy and other movements of the same sort. According to the OECD, inequality in the developed world has increased around 10% in the last three decades (OECD 2011). This means that the difference in income between the 10% richest and the 10% poorest has multiplied in the OECD countries. For this reason, the slogan used by Occupy movement is “We are the 99%”. Protesters try to show the paradox of the modern economy: although GDP has spectacularly grown since the 1980s (World Bank 2012), wealth has not been fairly distributed.
Furthermore, the financial crisis and the consequent economic depression have contributed to exacerbating social tensions. It is no coincidence that the first occupiers began their protests in front of the world financial center. The banking system is perceived as evil by the activists due in part to convincing films like Inside Job – the Oscar winner –, which state that Wall Street brokers and financial entities are the main culprits of the current economic situation. Moreover, while the state injects money into the financial sector in order to rescue it, ordinary citizens suffer the rise of unemployment and the erosion of purchasing power. The sum of these factors has caused outrage among some people and resulted in Occupy and other movements of protest, whose aims are supported by a significant part of the population (CBS News 2011).
In addition, controversial management of the economic crisis, together with corruption scandals involving public officials have led to general disaffection with politics and political delegitimization. Especially in Southern Europe, big corruption schemes have come to light in recent years. The Spanish Indignados movement, the predecessor of Occupy, has as one of its main goals denouncing illicit monetary profiting of politicians. Similarly, massive demonstrations have taken place in Russia, where people protested against electoral fraud. In any case, where political delegitimization is bigger, protest movements are stronger.
Finally, the example given by successful uprisings in countries like Egypt or Tunisia paved the way towards the emergence of social movements all over the world. Arab Spring was the match that ignited the underlying conflicts above mentioned. Protesters in the developed world camped on the streets of their cities, just like Egyptians had done before in Tahrir Square.
In conclusion, movements like Occupy Wall Street were caused by both economic and political reasons. Increasing inequality along with the financial crisis and political delegitimization provoked discontent among the population. In addition, Arab Spring gave an example of way of protesting to activists of rich countries. The combination of all these factors led to arising of this new sort of social movements in the developed world.
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