We are the 99 percent

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Protester with sign: “I am a student with $ 25,000 in student loan debt. I am the 99% ”.

"We are the 99 percent" ( English for "We are the 99 percent") is the motto of the Occupy Wall Street movement, which from September 17 to November 15, the 2011 Zuccotti Park in the financial district of Wall Street in New York City held occupied. As the movement spreads, the motto is also used in other parts of the world, partly translated into the respective national language.

Use of the slogan

The talk of the 99% compared to a top 1% relates to the distribution of wealth . The motto is directed against too strong an influence of the richest Americans (1%), who own at least 38% of the wealth, on politics and legislation, their "unrestrained greed" and a policy that is too banking and business-friendly that accommodates them. The motto was linked to the movement from the start and also appeared on the occupywallst.org website . With reference to Joseph E. Stiglitz , it was co-formulated by the American ethnologist and anarchist David Graeber , among others . It was also used in demonstrations of the international Occupy Wall Street movement that took place worldwide on October 15, 2011, including in Germany. This slogan was also used during the Blockupy action days from May 16 to 19, 2012 in Frankfurt.

At the same time, the motto is the name of a Tumblr site on which, from its launch on August 23, 2011, to mid-October, over 1200 posts were collected, each consisting of a photo of a sign or a piece of paper in which someone describes their situation, with a number of topics keep cropping up:

  • Loss of job and home,
  • lack of health insurance,
  • The lack of prospects for academically educated people who are also burdened with high training loans.

The motto appears at the end of the text.

Examples:

“I'm 53 years old and have been working since I was 13 (paying social and health insurance in the process). I lost two pension contracts and a pension. I lost my home to a mortgage loan fraud in 2007. I'm ONE month's salary away from being homeless. I pay more taxes than GE , Exxon, and Bank of America combined! My retirement plans are to WORK UNTIL I DIE! I AM THE 99% !! I CHOOSE!"

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“I am a 30 year old mother of one child and I am married. In 2006 we were fine, I became pregnant and had to lie in bed for 4 months because of preeclampsia . I was fired during that time. 2011: We sold all of our property to give our daughter what she needed. I can't find another job. Our house just fell under foreclosure. I'M AFRAID. WE ARE THE 99%. "

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reception

Motto in front of a Commerzbank building in Frankfurt am Main in October 2011

The reactions to the motto and the format of the amateur photos of self-painted signs as well as the hundreds of individual fates collected in this way on the tumblr website are wide-ranging.

In the renowned magazine The Atlantic , Daniel Indiviglio takes the motto at its word and doubts that it is 99%. He quotes the text that appears in the sidebar on the tumblr site:

“We are the 99 percent. We are thrown out of our apartment. We have to choose between groceries and rent. We don't get proper medical care. We suffer from pollution. We work overtime for little money and have no rights, if we have any work at all. We get nothing and 1 percent gets everything. We are the 99 percent. "

Then he checks whether literally 99% suffer from the mentioned conditions and comes to the conclusion that e.g. B. have lost a maximum of 10% of their home or only 15% live in poverty, so they are minorities and not majorities. In addition, the majority of the American population is still convinced of the capitalist system.

His colleague Megan McArdle, on the other hand, is touched by the individual fates on Tumblr and remembers that she was in a similar situation even at the end of her studies - in view of high debts and an uncertain future. But then she also remembers her experiences with protest movements at the time and that it was somehow fun, and transfers this to the demonstrators in Liberty Plaza:

“Their time doesn't cost them much, they are not in danger, and yes, I have to say that, demonstrating is fun. "

Ezra Klein, a columnist for the Washington Post , is quite different , and is concerned about the individual fates:

“This is not an empty boom against the system. These are not anarchist manifestos. These are not calls for revolution. These are little stories of people who obeyed the rules, did what they were told, and now have nothing to show. "

He also considers the actions in Liberty Plaza and elsewhere to be less significant compared to the message of these images.

Stern online makes the reference to a contribution by Joseph E. Stiglitz, who in the title of his article in Vanity Fair from May 2011 ( Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1% ) to the Gettysburg Address , a speech by Abraham Lincoln's , remembered. Stiglitz's article reads like a manifesto of the current protests. Stiglitz headed his article by stating that one percent of Americans received almost a quarter of the national income . This is an inequality that the rich would regret. The fate of the upper percent of the population is linked to the living conditions of the other 99 percent. The Badische Zeitung also sees the contribution of the Nobel Prize winner, whosupportsthe Occupy Wall Street movement , as a source of ideas for the motto.

Seyla Benhabib and Eliot Weinberger deal with the motto in the features of the time . Weinberger also states that one percent of Americans earn 24 percent of their total income, own 50 percent of securities and 40 percent of national assets, but have a tax advantage over the rest of the population. According to Weinberger, 99 percent of Americans are “unhappy in different ways”. In contrast, hedge fund manager John Paulson points out that “the top one percent of New Yorkers pay 40 percent of all income taxes, which in turn benefits the whole city”.

Spiegel Online takes up the use of the motto at a demonstration in Frankfurt am Main and relates it to opinion polls, the results of which show that the vast majority of the population is in favor of tax money not being used to save credit institutions. The low number of participants in the demonstrations in Germany, however, speaks against the use of the motto. Similar criticism comes from Thomas Straubhaar , who gives the motto and the Occupy Wall Street movement in Germany “no lasting opportunities”due to the better social conditions. However, given the poor economic conditions in the United States, the movement couldinfluence the 2012 presidential election there.

In the Z. Zeitschrift Marxistische Renewal , Ingar Solty points out that the slogan addresses growing social inequality , but is open to various interpretations of its causes. The share of the top 1% would be between 20 and 25% for both national income and total social wealth. The typical discrepancy effect between income and wealth statistics with regard to social inequality only emerges from the fifths (20%) or tenths (10%) that are otherwise usual in these statistics. The motto therefore also stands for the general openness of the movement with regard to the means to remedy inequality, i. H. the open question of their political demands. The Tumblr and the individual fates described there initially served as the "basis for an understanding of the social nature of one's own precariousness." In contrast to traditional demonstrations, the movement mobilizes "mass institutions for politics in public space that are not already ideologically oriented and organized according to conscious interests" . The public space functions "as a pre-political space for a spontaneous gathering of 'indignant' who are politically appropriated through learning processes about the collective-social nature of their own situation". Behind this is "the promise that the apparent heterogeneity of the movement in terms of political milieus, political and movement experience and political convictions in this melting pot will lead to interest-driven, coherent projects". "Because from the '99% 'against the' 1% '" a "new conscious, political collective subject with a common will and project - let's call it precariat - has yet to emerge."

Alex Feuerherdt speaks in Jungle World on December 1, 2011 in view of the 99% motto of a “longing for collectivity”. He also believes that there is consensus within the Occupy movement that the world is "ruled by a small minority" that belongs to "eliminated". This has features of conspiracy theory and also reminiscent of anti-Semitic theories.

The author collective Comité invisible writes:

“Like every advertising slogan, the slogan“ We are the 99% ”does not get its effectiveness from what it says, but from what it does not say. What she doesn't say is the identity of the 1% in power. What characterizes that 1% is not that they are rich - there are significantly more wealthy people in the United States than 1% - nor that they are famous - they are rather inconspicuous, and who you wouldn't want your quarter of an hour these days Indulge in fame? What sets these 1% apart is that they are organized. They even organize to organize other people's lives. The truth of this slogan is indeed cruel, and it is that the amount does not matter: you can be 99% and be perfectly controlled "

- from: To our friends

Web links

Commons : We are the 99%  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Spiegel Online on November 15, 2011: Evacuated Occupy activists. Despite headless. Retrieved June 13, 2012 .
  2. ^ Charles Hurst: Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and Consequences , 2007, p. 34.
  3. ↑ occupywallst.org
  4. ^ A b Joseph E. Stiglitz in Vanity Fair in May 2011: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%. Retrieved October 7, 2011 . German translation: Carla Blumenkranz u. a. (Ed.): Occupy! The first weeks in New York. A documentation. Pp. 44-50 . Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-06221-0 .
  5. ↑ “Yes, I was involved, but it was a joint effort. I suggested the '99% 'part, a Spanish couple suggested the' We the ', and a Korean woman added the' are '. They say that things written by a committee don't work very well, but in this case it did. ” N-tv on June 1st, 2012: Interview with David Graeber. Retrieved June 13, 2012 .
  6. ^ David Graeber : Inside Occupy, pp. 35-38 . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-593-39719-1 .
  7. ^ Die Presse on October 15th, 2011: Global Protest Day: Demos in 952 cities. Retrieved October 16, 2011 .
  8. ^ FAZ on October 15, 2011: We are now your crisis. The New York slogan “We are the 99 percent” is also catching on in Germany. More than 5000 protesters came to Frankfurt. Retrieved October 16, 2011 .
  9. ^ Spiegel Online on May 19, 2012: "Blockupy" protests. Rave against the system. Retrieved May 21, 2012 .
  10. ↑ About.com Webtrends on October 17, 2011: Occupy Wall Street Tumblr Blog Lets People Share Their Stories. Retrieved October 17, 2011 .
  11. ↑ Harry Bradford: 'We Are The 99 Percent': Stories Of The Great Recession's Victims. In: The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 4, 2011 .
  12. ^ I-am-the-99-i-am-53-years-old-and-have-worked
  13. ↑ i-am-a-30-year-old-married-mother-of-one-2006-we
  14. ↑ Original text: “We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent. "Retrieved October 7, 2011.
  15. ↑ Daniel Indiviglio: Most Americans Are not Occupy Wall Street's '99 Percent '. In: "The Atlantic" on October 5, 2011. Retrieved October 7, 2011 .
  16. ↑ Megan McArdle: The 99%. In: "The Atlantic" on October 5, 2011. Retrieved October 7, 2011 . : "They have a low cost of time, they're in no danger, and yes, I have to say it, demonstrating is fun."
  17. ↑ Ezra Klein: Who are the 99 percent? In: Washington Post Online October 4, 2011. Retrieved October 7, 2011 . : "These are not rants against the system. They're not anarchist manifestos. They're not calls for a revolution. They're small stories of people who played by the rules, did what they were told, and now have nothing to show for it. "
  18. ↑ Quote Lincoln: "[...] government of the people, by the people, for the people [...]" (Boritt, Gabor. The Gettysburg Gospel: The Lincoln Speech That Nobody Knows. , Appendix B p. 290: "This is the only copy that […] Lincoln dignified with a title: 'Address delivered at the dedication of the cemetery at Gettysburg.', a rare full signature, and the date: 'November 19, 1863.' ..This final draft, generally considered the standard text, remained in the Bliss family until 1949. ")
  19. ↑ Stern online on October 7, 2011: A question of justice. Retrieved October 7, 2011 .
  20. ↑ Badische Zeitung on October 8, 2011: Unheard of from Wall Street. From New York, the center of the world financial markets, a new social protest movement is also forming in the United States. Retrieved October 8, 2011 .
  21. ↑ Die Zeit No. 42/2011 of October 13, 2011, p. 47.
  22. ↑ FAZ on October 15, 2011: “How much money do you need, Mr. Murdoch?” Retrieved on October 16, 2011 .
  23. ^ Spiegel Online on October 15, 2011: Global protests against banks. 99 percent stayed at home. Retrieved October 16, 2011 .
  24. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt on October 18, 2011: Thomas Straubhaar - German Occupy Protest is not a mass movement. Retrieved October 19, 2011 .
  25. ^ Ingar Solty - The Occupy Movement in the USA. Retrieved January 17, 2012 .
  26. ↑ Alex Feuerherdt: "The people against one percent" In: Jungle World No. 48, December 1, 2011, ( online , accessed October 10, 2012)