Occupy in Amsterdam

This is an essay I had to write for English. I'm not saying that I completely agree with the Occupy Movement, but I don't wholly disagree either.
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The Occupy Movement has been all over the news lately. However, what is the Occupy Movement exactly? The Occupy Movement is a protest group. At the moment, they look for big, business-related places where they can protest. It originated because many people sympathized with Occupy Wall Street, and decided to Occupy something like it in their own city. Therefore, there are now 2684 communities worldwide. In most places, the Occupiers camp out in tents. Here in Amsterdam, we have Occupy Beursplein. There has been talk of removing them, but many people say to let them be. After all, there’s nothing wrong in protesting.

All they do is show, in a peaceful way, that they want to change the current financial situation and how. There are more groups like this, but most of them aren’t as peaceful. The Occupy Movement, on the other hand, stayed relatively peaceful, in most places, if the police came to break up the camp. It’s not only peaceful, but also worldwide. If you look at the map with Occupy Communities, you’ll see that there are few big stretches of land without their own Community. Because of this, the communities can lend strength to one another and that way make their voice even louder.

The system they use is a very democratic one; their General Assemblies go on until everyone agrees, instead of most. They don’t use a normal microphone either. They use a ‘people’s mic’, where everyone repeats what the speaker says, which is also an effective way of making sure that you can’t speak for a very long time, since you have to cut your sentences into multiple short parts. To show what you think about a certain point, they use gestures, instead of shouting to and over one another. Waving your hands, for instance, shows that you agree with the point just made.

Of course, there are also some points against the Occupy Movement. It’s impractical for those who go to the stock exchange, since most Occupy Communities are right in front of a stock exchange building, like Occupy Wall Street or Occupy Beursplein. And their list of demands is somewhat unreasonable, since they want, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, more and better jobs, more equal distribution of income, bank reform, and a reduction of the influence of corporations on politics. Thirdly, they can’t stay out there in their tents forever. When the winter comes, they’ll have to find either a warmer way to camp, or break up until spring.

So, are there more pros than cons? Yes, there are. Some might argue that the cons are very strong. However, they aren’t as strong as they seem. They want to make the ones that go to the stock exchange stop and think. They will return. The Occupy Movement is a bit like the “Arab Spring”, unstoppable once it has started.  The people that are participating have had enough. They want a change. And even though their list is, as a whole, unreasonable, their protests might just help with some of the points listed. After all, someone’s got to take the first step. And why not “the 99%”?