Video- Egypt revolution inspires US Awakening

The Occupy Wall Street movement has officially celebrated its one-month anniversary which has spread to hundreds of communities across the US.

Occupy Wall Street-style protests have also spread to many other countries, attracting anti-corporatism protesters across the globe.

Press TV has interviewed with Norman Stockwell, Operations Coordinator at WORT-FM, to share his opinion on this issue.

Press TV: Tell us [about] this 31 days old, these Wall Street protest movements.Of course I know that in Wisconsin we saw what occurred a couple months back. But tell us first your initial impressions of what this has done, the impact it has made and of course the awareness obviously there and where you think it is going to go?

Stockwell: Well thank you very much for having me on and it is true things here in Wisconsin got started back in February and I have heard many people both in Wall Street in New York and in some of the other demonstrations talking about the inspirations of Wisconsin to this movements around the United States but we also have to look to the earlier occupation of Tahrir square in Egypt which really influenced both us here in Wisconsin and these movements around the globe.

We have seen as you noted in the lead up to this conversation, we have seen this is just growing tremendously, spreading to four continents and hundred cities here across the United States. It has really been quite amazing to see how quickly this movement is growing and I think that social media has been a huge factor in that all of these Facebook and Twitter feeds that have been going on that have gotten people to these different demonstrations. Here in Madison Wisconsin we have an occupation which is beginning in a place called Reynolds park on October 7 and they have moved it now and they actually just today were thinking they were going to be expelled by the police about half an hour ago and then they got a temporary reprieve from that because they have contacted the city parks’ department but actually getting a permit to be able to continue the occupation.

So these things are happening across the US and I think that it is hard to say when or if this movement will come to an end because right now it has so much kind of momentum to it and I think what we are going to see is quite a bit of growth in this movement across the United States and perhaps across the globe as well before we see and it slow down.

Press TV: When we look at that particular statistic that has come out it puts into question where the money went from these bailouts from 2007-2008 financial crisis because the people average American is not seeing any results. But is it just about that or are there other factors involved in this political movement in which people are complaining about inequality, they are complaining about the social justice, these are very broad terms.

Stockwell: I think that is exactly correct that lot of the media has been saying although there is no demands from these movements and I think that is wrong. I think that the whole slogan of the 99 percent is part of the demand but the movement has been in each different city in its own way, calling for a more fair distribution of economic resources and what has been interesting I think that we have seen over the last several weeks, is that these movements have combined with other issues. So for instance you saw in Washington DC about then days ago there was a march and rally that was originally going to be about the war in Afghanistan on its 10th anniversary and how the US was misspending funds in Afghanistan that could be used here at home, talking about health care, talking about social welfare programs and so on and then that became combined with the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street movement too of much broader set of issues.

Here at Madison Wisconsin we have the attack on union rights that has been undertaken by our governor and that has joined together with the spirit of Occupy Wall Street in this occupy Madison series of events that have been going on here. So what you see is in each city the local issues combining with the national issues of not just income inequality but unequal distribution of resources and money that everyone can clearly see is being misspent and that is what is fueling this movement.

Press TV: When I spoke to you on the first question you mentioned a comparison made with the Tahrir square, Liberation square there in Egypt that these are parallel, these Wall Street protest movements including the other protest movements. You know, those protest movements did not come just by the gatherings which they were in large numbers. They also had a large number of deaths, there was violence, there was of course the mass arrests made which that is the only part that is similar to of its a number of arrests.

I mean do you think that it is going to take something like that to have the officials in the United States from the Obama administration all the way down in order for them to get the depth and the intent and the seriousness that these protesters have? Of course we do not want to get to that point but in order for any changes to happen which is the bottom line here in order to get results, do you think it has to have something like that happen, cracked heads or massive arrests to get the attention of officials?

Stockwell: Well I think each situation in each country is always going to be different and it is based on you know the history and the dynamics in each place and in each movement in each time but we have seen President Obama in fact acknowledge the Occupy wall Street protesters and we heard in fact even the CEO of General Motors said that he understands why people are out in the streets. So we have seen those sorts of already acknowledgements long before you would have expected something like that in years past. I think the similarities between what happened in Tahrir square and what happened here at Madison Wisconsin and what is happening in these other cities across the country is the mixture of people, everyday people that have not necessarily been politically active in the past joining together with long time season activists in coordinated demonstrations whether it be these occupations, or whether it be some of the marches and protests we saw at the capital here in Wisconsin earlier this year.