Mapping Modernity

19a,b. Wall Street

2 November 2023

Occupy Wall Street

When the credit crunch causes house prices to plummet and forces millions of people default on their mortgages, Wall Street threatens to crash in the autumn of 2008. To prevent another – by now global -economic crisis, Bush and Obama organise a huge investment bank bailout. However, shifting the cost of the bank’s risky speculation to taxpayers, means ‘the political system’ is regarded as a network that favours the rich and powerful. Fear and anger at the bailout fuel US populism; the vindictive Tea Party and subsequent election of Trump on the right and the Occupy movement and Bernie Sanders’ candidacy on the left. A year after Occupy Wall Street starts in September 2011, this flyer calls for action. Linking social inequalities, the street pattern culminates in the Occupy slogan: “We Are The 99% That Will No Longer Tolerate The Greed And Corruption Of The 1%.”

Occupy Wall Street, Follow the Money ... and all Roads lead to Wall Street, New York 2012. Coll. S/T Y.6f.4, 11 x 14.5 cm.

Occupy Wall Street, All Roads lead to Wall Street, We are the 99%, New York 2012. Coll. S/T Y.6f.4, 14.5 x 11 cm.