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| U.S. Occupy movement plans campaign revival protests |
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 The U.S. 99 percent movement plans to hold resurgent rallies during the upcoming Democratic National Convention in North Carolina as President Barack Obama prepares for his second presidential nomination.
The group, also referred to as the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, plans to hold protest rallies outside the convention hall in the city of Charlotte in a bid to revive its campaign against the U.S. government’s collusion with major corporations, referred to as the one percenters.
The OWS movement, joined by over 90 local and national groups, organized its first protest march in Charlotte on Sunday as hundreds of people demonstrated through the streets of the city’s financial district to protest the U.S. government’s pro-corporate policies.
The Occupy movement also held protest rallies in Tampa, Florida, during the Republican National Convention last week.
OWS organizers hope to build national anticipation for major protest marches planned for the September 17 anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, which began in New York City’s famous financial district and inspired the formation of Occupy groups across America.
Last fall, thousands of protesters swarmed Zucotti Park in lower Manhattan's financial zone and camped there for two months.
“We're definitely in a process of taking our organizing around September 17 and using it as a launch pad for what the organizing body will be,” said Occupy Wall Street spokeswoman Dana Balicki. “We don't know what it is yet.”
The political attacks constantly exchanged between the two dominant Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns over economic inequality, corporate excess and wealthy Americans paying their “fair share” of taxes are owed largely to the Occupy movement, which tapped a reservoir of public anger at America's financial and political systems in the slow economic recovery.
Last September, America's political conversation had been dominated by federal spending cuts and deficit reduction. The Occupy movement, however, succeeded in bringing to front stage the discussion about corporate excesses and income inequality.
One report found last year that news media references to “income inequality,” a phrase seldom mentioned in the press, “had exploded by nearly 500 percent”.
OWS organizers say the movement has recently made important progress in planning. It has replaced its general assembly with an affinity spokes council, made of working groups on a variety of issues.
“One of the attempts is to create more accountability for how we create a collective movement,” Balicki said.
Additionally, the movement has identified four primary issues to target: debt, including student loans as a subtopic; housing; the environment; and removing money from political campaigns (primarily the unlimited spending by superPACs).
(Source: Agencies)
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