OccupyUSA movement beginning to make real changes

In a recent article on TomDispatch.com, Andy Kroll documents some real changes that have resulted from the OccupyUSA movement. To begin with, the Occupy movement has changed the political discourse. Research by Politico shows that “Mentions of the phrase ‘income inequality’ in print publications, web stories, and broadcast transcripts spiked from 91 times a week in early September to nearly 500 in late October.”

But the effects have not been limited to discourse. As Kroll argues, based on his own journalistic research in Ohio, the OWS movement was instrumental in generating support for the referendum that voted down governor John Kasich’s anti-union law, which would have severely limited the collective bargaining rights of 350,000 public workers.

The anti-union bill had been reframed in terms of the language of the 99%. According to many organizers Kroll spoke with, the heightened sensitivity to income inequality and the energy of the Occupy movement were critical for building support to defeat the bill. Read Kroll’s article here.