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Protesters return to Aotea Square - Source: ONE News -
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Despite showing great determination with their inner city camp
protests, the Occupy protest movement has, in New Zealand at least,
largely failed to capture the wider public's imagination or
attention.
The numbers at the camping protests have in most cases been pretty
small and limited to a dedicated group of political activists.
In fact three months on many Kiwis just seem confused and
annoyed by the protesters.
"Why haven't these people got a job?" is the most common refrain we
seemed to get from viewers on Breakfast.
So what's going on?
Political Scientist Dr Bryce Edwards seems to sum it up best in
this
NBR article.
In it he suggests a lack of organisation meant the movement wasn't able to clearly articulate its goals to New Zealand.
And he has a point.
Just take the ONE News story on Tuesday night concerning the police
eviction of Occupy movement protesters in Aotea Square.
Demands from protesters that night ranged from a lack of housing for the homeless to the controversial new food bill.
But does an apparent lack of public support and a failure to
communicate mean the movement was a failure here?
Well, sure, if you were a protester hoping for some kind of
overthrow of the free market capitalist system then, yes, of course
it was a failure.
But could it yet have some impact on the political process
here.
Protest organiser John Minto argued on Breakfast this week that in
the US at least - thanks to the Occupy movement - there has been a
massive increase in the awareness of the growing inequality gap
that exists in their economy.
As it stands
the top 1% now earn 25% of the entire nation's
income.
Crucially it would seem that growing discontent about this is now not being lost on politicians in election year.
President Obama's State of the Union speech this week was laced with populist references to greater fairness, playing by the rules and higher taxes for the rich.
Even Republican candidate Newt Gingrich also got in on the act this week by attacking rival Mitt Romney for making his millions as a corporate raider.
Pretty strange to see a US Republican candidate attacking
another for making money.
Anyway, John Minto clearly hopes a similar chain reaction will
happen here in New Zealand politics.
It's possible, although much I suspect will depend on New Zealand's economic fortunes over the next year or so.
We are still growing (albeit just) and we have not yet been
affected as badly by the GFC as the likes of the Euro Zone, UK and
US.
Unemployment has not got away into double figures, while interest
rates are to remain lower for longer.
So whilst the middle class might be battling, they still have their
heads above water and for that reason are probably less inclined to
want to protest the wealth divide that also exists in New
Zealand.
However if economic conditions turn bad here - say due to a
meltdown in money markets in the Euro Zone - then that could change
fast.
And so while the symbolic tent protests around New Zealand may be drawing to a close, I think it would be premature to think we have seen the last of the Occupy movement here.
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