The 99% Will March On
You Can’t Evict an Idea Whose Time Has Come
In a surprise raid early this morning, the New York Police Department forcibly removed the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan.
(For complete coverage, visit ThinkProgress’ special section on the 99 Percent Movement and watch the ThinkProgress twitter feed for live updates.)
But make no mistake, this isn’t the end of the 99 Percent Movement or the fight for an economy that works for everyone.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka sums it up pretty well:
But the 99% is undaunted. Occupy Wall Street’s message already has created a new day. This movement has created a seismic shift in our national debate—from austerity and cuts to jobs, inequality and our broken economic system.
None of these facts changed overnight and the 99 Percent Movement will continue to demand an economy that works for everyone:
- The top 1 percet of Americans still own 40 percent of our country’s wealth while the bottom 80 percent owns only 7 percent.
- The richest 1 percent earned one out of every four dollars in 2007. Thirty years earlier, the richest only made one out of every 11 dollars.
- One in four millionaires pays a lower tax rate than 10 million middle-income Americans.
- Fourteen million Americans are unemployed.
- Corporations are sitting on $2 trillion in cash – more cash than at any time in nearly a half century – instead of hiring more employees.
What’s next?
An international day of action for the 99 Percent is planned for this Thursday, Nov. 17.
