The 99%: Why Occupy matters to us all

Neil Kingsnorth

17 November 2011

Sometimes it's the small things we do to take a stand that connect us most deeply with the causes we believe in.

This week many Friends of the Earth staff stood outside our head office in a simple act of support for Occupy. Watch the clip here.

The growing movement of ordinary people aims to highlight the brutal unfairness of a global economic system that seems to favour the few over the many.

The American people who triggered it all - by venturing into the cold some weeks back to pitch their tents on Wall Street - weren't simply setting out to go camping in New York. They were hoping to add fuel to the debate about how the economic system affects our lives and wellbeing.

They wanted to show that ordinary people - the 99% - have a voice and that fixing a broken and unfair economic system shouldn't rest with behind-the-scenes deals cut by the same 1% who are causing the problem.

The Occupy movement has played a huge part in making sure this debate is now alive and kicking. Occupations have swept the world in the past month, including cities across the UK. And now many more of us 99% are standing together to add our voice.

This week the US authorities forcibly cleared the Wall Street occupation and others. There are moves to evict those in London too, as in other places around the world. But, for all the talk of health and safety this is the voice of a struggling and frustrated majority who know that, to use one of my favourite phrases, another world is possible.

And as the people at Occupy Wall Street put it, you can't evict an idea whose time has come.

Neil Kingsnorth, Head of Activism