Occupy Wall Street protest

Resumen

Several weeks ago my three year-old granddaughter, Adelaide, announced 
to me on skype that she had learned two new words: “protest” and “jail”. Her 
acquisition of this vocabulary stemmed from her being taken by my son on a 
crisp fall afternoon to visit the throng of people camped out in Zuccotti Park, 
recently renamed Liberty Square, in Lower Manhattan. The inspiration of the 
Arab spring, Spain’s 15M and the wave of European outrage (indignation) -- 
from Athens to Brussels--against the banks, the corporations, the politicians and 
all those held responsible for the unrelenting economic downturn had fi nally tra
versed the Atlantic. Precedents also included the massive protests earlier in the 
year in Madison, Wisconsin against the right-wing anti-union governor there. On 
September 17, protesters headed fi rst to the stock exchange in lower Manhattan 
and then to Wall Street, the iconic centers of US fi nance capitalism. Soon, the 
swelling revolt and police overreaction and arrests, captured in Adelaide’s new 
words, “protest” and “jail”, provided the US version of Los indignados, Occupy 
Wall Street [OWS], with the publicity boost which was always a necessary part 
of its strategy.