Occupy Movement Death Reports Greatly Exaggerated
The Occupy Movement is Far from Dead
The Occupy Movement is obviously still growing even without the very visible permanent Occupy Camps that were present in most major cities. That fact says volumes since this is even after major crack downs on protests by many local, state and national governments. So contrary to some mainstream corporate news media claims that the Occupy Movement is over, just because they aren’t camping in city parks simply isn’t true. The Occupy Movement certainly doesn’t qualify yet as an out of sight out of mind idea of the public consciousness.
The Occupy Movement is less than 1 year old and is still growing!
A cursory sample from our previous top 50 facebook Occupy city groups reordered by percentage gains over the last eight month time period reveals that the Occupy Movement has not only changed the context of political debate in the US and in many parts of the world, but it is also still growing even without camping!
Occupy Phoenix may have summed it up well on their facebook About page. “We are not done. We did not quit occupying. We occupy everywhere!”
The larger percentage gains seem to be especially true in some of the medium and smaller sized cities making the Occupy Movement a very much alive and growing grass roots movement of positive change.
Also worth noting is that these gains are still happening even during the relentless pre-occupation of news coverage and an unprecedented candidate advertising bombardment relating to the US Presidental elections and most people just want to tune out and change the channel when it comes to anything political.
One thing to notice when looking at the data is that there are an additional 100,000+ Occupy supporters that have joined & liked the cause just in these particular selected cities or groups on facebook! To start seeing the even bigger picture you would have to search for Occupy group websites, fanpages, twitter.com and tumblr.com etc. and start watching RT news.
Occupy Movement facebook Likes (November 30, 2011) / [July 30, 2012]
1. Occupy Milwaukee (8,000) [12,200] +52%
2. Occupy Sacramento (7,000) [9,500] +35%
3. Occupy Oakland (17,000) [23,000] +35%
4. Occupy DC (9,000) [11,800] +31%
5. Occupy Berkeley (6,180) [7,800] +27%
6. Occupy Tokyo (5,461) [6,800] +25%
7. Occupy St. Louis (7,000) [8,800] +25%
8. Occupy Louisville (7,000) [8,800] +25%
9. Occupy Long Beach (6,198) [7,600] +24%
10. Occupy Los Angeles (43,000) [53,000] +23%
11. Occupy Hamburg (6,204) [7,600] +22%
12. Occupy Baltimore (9,000) [10,900] +21%
13. Occupy Riverside (5,729) [6,900] +21%
14. Occupy Minneapolis (5,673) [6,800] +21%
15. Occupy Chicago (39,000) [47,000] +20%
16. Occupy New Orleans (10,000) [11,900] +19%
17. Occupy Portland (22,000) [26.000] +18%
18. Occupy Frankfurt (16,000) [19,000] +18%
19. Occupy Brisbane (5,920) [6,800] +15%
20. Occupy Omaha (7,000) [8,000] +14%
21. Occupy Tallahassee (5,727) [6,500] +14%
22. Occupy Jacksonville (5,631) [6,400] +14%
23. Occupy Miami (15,000) [17,000] +13%
24. Occupy Houston (15,000) [17,000] +13%
25. Occupy Atlanta (15,000) [17,000] +13%
26. OccupyMN (10,631) [12,000] +13%
27. Occupy Wall St (345,000) [391,000] +13%
28. Occupy Nova Scotia (5,399) [6,000] +13%
29. Occupy Philadelphia (27,000) [30,000] +11%
30. Occupy San Jose (7,000) [7,800] +11%
31. Occupy Birmingham (6,941) [7,700] +11%
32. Occupy Raleigh (6,941) [7,700] +11%
33. Occupy Seattle (29,000) [32,000] +10%
34. Occupy Austin (19,000) [21,000] +10%
35. #OccupyPhoenix (10,000) [11,000] +10%
36. Occupy Columbus (10,000) [11,000] +10%
37. Occupy Tulsa (10,000) [11,000] +10%
38. Occupy Memphis (6,814) [7,500] +10%
39. Occupy San Francisco (21,000) [23,000] +9%
40. Occupy Madison (11,000) [12,000] +9%
41. Occupy Denver (25,000) [27,000] +8%
42. Occupy Orlando (12,000) [13,000] +8%
43. Occupy Nashville (12,000) [13,000] +8%
44. Occupy Grand Rapids (5,050) [5,400] +8%
45. Occupy Pittsburgh (12,000) [13,000] +8%
46. Occupy Tampa (14,000) [15,000] +7%
47. Occupy Melbourne (13,000) [14,000] +7%
48. Occupy Boston (41,000) [44,000] +7%
49. Occupy Richmond (9,000) [9,650] +7%
50. Occupy Indianapolis (11,000) [11,700] +6%
Occupy Wall Street Top Growth Honorable Mentions
• Occupy SLC (5,364) [5,600] +5%
Interest and growth in the Occupy Movement is still occurring in every city I checked, which is remarkable because there are plenty of cities such as Brisbane, Australia where police have blocked city park access from everyone just to keep Occupy protesters from congregating in fairly visible areas.
Disclaimer: Please understand that this list is by no mean all-inclusive and only includes the Occupy groups on facebook I randomly selected to track, there are 100′s more! Additions and corrections to this list should be made via the comment section below.
Green-Eco-EV News Reporting by Ken Burridge
CNN contributor, Green journalist, photographer, author and activist. Mr Burridge’s travels have taken him to over 30 countries and 300+ major cities. He is originally from the USA, but has been residing in Australia for the last six years. Connect to Ken Burridge via: Twitter, facebook, or website
How can the Occupy movement be dead when the issues still scream?