The Real Revolution: Bernie Sanders Owes His Success to Occupy Wall Street

On September 17, 2011, a group of activists descended on a New York City park to declare war on corruption in the US political system. Today, 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is closing the gap with rival Hillary Clinton, once thought a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination, and he largely has Occupy Wall Street to thank for it.

They came from all races, creeds, religions, ethnicities, classes and political backgrounds with a unified message: that the unfair distribution of wealth, along with the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that saw corporations as people who can donate unlimited riches of campaign cash, together as the most corrupting force jeopardizing America’s political system and the security of US citizens.

Over the FOLLOWing days and weeks, heeding the calls of decentralized Anonymous activists organizing online, they came to Zuccotti Park in New York City's Financial District and pitched tents. They helped 2000 other Occupy encampments to organize in the town squares of other cities in other states, which then spread to countries on all seven continents, often as movements continuing the social upheaval that the Arab Spring and Indignados protests brought across Europe. They had a common unifying message, bringing together income inequality and capitalist exploitation, environmental degradation and the human toll of America’s worldwide military adventurism. The people, it turned out, were sick and tired of bailouts to banks backing the military-industrial-prison complex rather than ordinary people. The movement, and the year itself, was radically transformative for the world round.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president has become the end result of those thousands of man-years of activism from Occupy Wall Street. Sanders listened to what started as a genuine grassroots movement of citizens’ demands to transform their country, and the radical idea that a politician should listen to the people’s call for change seems to be paying off for him, as he now leads Clinton in several key polls. His success, along with Donald Trump’s for the GOP, is driving a schism deep into the foundation of the old guards of US political parties.

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