OWS vibrates with activity. In every corner of Liberty Square people are organizing against corporate greed, refusing to be afraid, to be silenced. The local community center, the nearby atrium, the surrounding parks and cafes pulse with working groups planning actions, coordinating with community groups, engaging with the press, supporting each other, and strengthening solidarity within the movement. We are growing change in the shadow of the wealth, greed, and thievery that is Wall Street.

Highlights

Anniversary Night, OCT 17: The square was beautiful. It sparkled under the city lamp light. Occupiers flowed quietly through the clean passages, socializing in the new spaces designed by the town planning committee. We lit candles and sang "We Shall Not Be Moved." We shared our one month occupy cake. One month! A medical tent was raised, and when dozens of police lined up to take it down they were meet by hundreds of occupiers. Joined by the Reverend Jesse Jackson, arms linked, occupiers faced down the NYPD, and the medical tent remained in place. An amazing way to welcome the second month!

Good Neighbors: The community relations committee has been in hyperdrive. The General Assembly passed a Good Neighbor Policy 5 days ago and has been working nonstop to fully implement the agreement, distributing the policy via flyers, prominently displayed posters around the square, and by word of mouth. Drumming has been reduced drastically from the ten hours a day barrage a week earlier. We see drumming as a top priority and continue to work with the drummers, utilizing mediation, common sense, and mutual respect to implement the 2 hours a day policy.

No Hate: Many people from different places have been affected by the greed of the 1% and by the false solutions of corporate greed, union busting, and the slashing and privatization of social services. The 99% is varied and broad - but we have principles of solidarity, and we are working together to make a better world - a world of inclusion, dignity, love and respect. #OWS has no space for racism, sexism, transphobia, anti-immigrant hatred, xenophobia, and hatred in general.

Demands: A group claiming to be on the verge of issuing demands for #OWS has gotten the attention of a story hungry media. We are our demands. #OWS is conversation, organization, and action focused on ending the tyranny of the 1%. On Saturday we marched in solidarity against corrupt banking systems, against war, and against foreclosure. We discussed how to break up the "too big to fail" financial companies and end excessive wall street executive bonuses, we were arrested while trying to remove our money from the grasp of these dangerous institutions, we occupied the boardrooms of the 1% so they wouldn't feel so sad and alone, we occupied foreclosure court rooms where they use a broken system to legally steal the homes of the 99%, rallied in front of military recruitment centers demanding an end to US wars, and tens of thousands of us marched into the times square, the neon heart of consumerism, demanding economic justice.

Occupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #OWS is fighting back against the corrosive power major banks and unaccountable multinational corporations wield against democracy, and the role of Wall Street in creating the economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in nearly a century. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and around the world, and aims to expose how the richest 1% of people are writing the rules of a dangerous neoliberal economic agenda that is stealing our future.

Two weeks ago we conducted an anonymous poll on this website to learn more about our visitors. We asked Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán Ph.D, sociologist of the City University of New York to look at the data, which he analyzed to create an original academic paper titled "Mainstream Support for a Mainstream Movement".

His analysis shows that the Occupy Wall Street movement is heavily supported by a diverse group of individuals and that "the 99% movement comes from and looks like the 99%." Among the most telling of his findings is that 70.3% of respondents identified as politically independent.

Dr. Cordero-Guzmán's findings strongly reinforce what we've known all along: Occupy Wall Street is a post-political movement representing something far greater than failed party politics. We are a movement of people empowerment, a collective realization that we ourselves have the power to create change from the bottom-up, because we don't need Wall Street and we don't need politicians.

Since our humble beginning a few short weeks ago, we've helped inspire people around the world to organize democratic assemblies in their own communities to take back public spaces, meet basic needs, make their own demands, and begin building a better world today.

Below is Dr. Cordero-Guzmán's executive summary of his findings along with a link to his full academic paper.

The Occupy Wall Street movement has galvanized the attention of the world by organizing the largest demonstrations in this country as a response to the Great Recession caused by our financial and political leaders. Data from a survey of 1,619 respondents from a survey placed on occupywallst.org suggests that there is a huge undercurrent of mainstream dissatisfaction with traditional political party affiliations as well a huge amount of support for radical change in the United States of America.

• 92.5% of respondents either somewhat or strongly supported the protests with most respondents indicating strong support.

• 1/4th of the sample (or 24.2%) participated in the Occupy Wall Street protests as of October 5, 2011.

• 91.8% of the sample thinks that the Occupy Wall Street Protests will continue to grow.

In terms of demographic characteristics of the sample, we found that,

• 64.2% of respondents were younger than 34 years of age.

• While the sample is relatively young, one in three respondents is older than 35 and one in five respondents is 45 and older.

• 7.9% of respondents have a high school degree or less.

• 92.1% of the sample has some college, a college degree, or a graduate degree.

• 27.4% have some college (but no degree), 35% have a college degree, 8.2% have some graduate school (but no degree), and close to 21.5% have a graduate school degree.

• This is a highly educated sample.

• 26.7% of respondents were enrolled in school and 73.3% were not enrolled in school.

• 50.4% were employed full-time and an additional 20.4% were employed part-time.

• 13.1% of the sample are unemployed.

• 2.6% of respondents were retired, 1.3% disabled, 2.6% homemakers and 9.7% are full-time students.

• 47.5% of the sample earns less than $24,999 dollars a year and another quarter (24%) earn between $25,000 and $49,999 per year.

• 71.5% of the sample earns less than $50,000 per year.

• 15.4% of the sample earned between $50,000 and $74,999.

• The remainder 13% of the sample earn over $75,000 with close to 2% earning over $150,000 per year.

• 27.3% of respondents considered themselves Democrats, another 2.4% said they were Republican.

• Interestingly, a very large proportion of the sample, close to 70.3%, considered themselves Independents.

• 66.4% in the sample agree somewhat or strongly that they regularly use Facebook.

• 28.9% in the sample agree somewhat or strongly that they regularly use Twitter.

• 73.9% in the sample agree somewhat or strongly that they regularly use YouTube.

• Our data suggest that the 99% movement comes from and looks like the 99%.

Héctor R. Cordero-Guzmán, Ph.D.

Full Paper: Mainstream Support for a Mainstream Movement (PDF)