<img loading="lazy" src="http://media.voanews.com/images/480*320/ap_new_york_occupy_wall_street_protest_10Oct11-resizedpx480q100dpi96shp8.webp" width="350" 

align="left" hspace="15" vspace="5" alt="A protester affiliated with the "Occupy Wall Street" protests stands with a US dollar bill taped over 

his mouth in Zuccotti Park in New York, October 10, 2011." />
While social media has played a role in the spontaneous mobilization of both movements across many cities, Arab activists say the stakes in the 

Arab Spring are greater because they address the denial of fundamental civil and human rights. 


A protester affiliated with the "Occupy Wall Street" protests stands with a US dollar bill taped over his mouth in Zuccotti Park in New York, October 10, 2011. (Photo AP)


Occupy Wall Street did not begin as an organized movement. Rather, it grew out of a call by <a href="http://www.adbusters.org/" target="_blank" 

class="news_link" title="Adbusters">Adbusters</a>, a Vancouver-based activist network which boasts a <a 

href="http://www.adbusters.org/about/adbusters" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Adbuster mission">mission</a> to “topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we live.” Last July, citing Egypt’s Tahrir 

Square and the 15-M youth protests in Spain, Adbusters called for a protest against what it called the “Financial Gomorrah of America.” By this 

they meant the financial community of Wall Street and the unharnessed control, they say, it exercises over the lives of millions of ordinary 

people. 


Plan-as-you go movement


In response, Occupy Wall Street began to organize itself as a sort of plan-as-you go movement that gathered momentum and spread to cities across 

the United States. 


Ed Needham is a spokesman for Occupy Wall Street in New York. He says the Arab Spring reinforced the idea that sometimes it’s necessary for 

citizens to take to the streets in order to effect political change. 


“When your normal avenues of redress in whatever type of system you are a part of are no longer open to you or are not there to begin with, 

there’s a breaking point, a point where people stop and say - we’re just not going to accept the way that things are done anymore,” said 

Needham.


<img loading="lazy" src="http://media.voanews.com/images/230*230/ap_tunisia_burn_victim_230_4jan11.webp" align="right" hspace="15" vspace="5" alt="Mohamed Bouazizi, a young man who set himself on fire after police confiscated fruit and vegetables he sold without a permit at a market in Tunis, Tunisia (file photo)" />


He says that in the case of the Arab Spring, a certain catalyst - the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia- set off the imaginations 

of people across the region. “I think the metaphor is accurate in describing Occupy Wall Street in the way that this started as a spark and it 

kind of swept off across the country,” said Needham. 


Mohamed Bouazizi, a young man who set himself on fire after police confiscated fruit and vegetables he sold without a permit at a market in Tunis, Tunisia (file photo)


Others, however, argue against any comparison between the desperation that drove a hungry Tunisian to kill himself and the relatively minor 

discomforts of the average American during an economic downturn.


<a href="http://www.aicongress.org/about/leadership.html" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Nasser Weddady">Nasser Weddady<a>, blogger activist and Civil Rights Outreach Director at the <a href="http://www.aicongress.org/" 

target="_blank" class="news_link" title="American Islamic Congress">American Islamic Congress</a> says that while 

he is sympathetic to American protesters, he does not believe they have a clue about what really went on in the Middle East this year. 


“Occupy Wall Street planners only see the skeleton of the Arab spring movement,” he said. “They don’t know that it was an evolutionary process, 

the result of decades of work, trial and error, and eventual breakthroughs. These people went out in the streets out of shared desperation after 

all other means had been exhausted. And they knew full well that they could die for it.” 


The worst that happens in American streets, says Weddady, is that “protesters get pepper-sprayed.” 


Dr. Nervana Mahmoud, a UK physician and blogger, agrees. “With no disrespect to the sense of injustice perceived by many [Americans] against the 

financial institutions and their corruption,” she said, “comparing their struggle to the Arab Spring denigrates the Arab protesters.” 


Movement inspired by bad economy


The American protest movement, says Mahmoud, is inspired by a bad economy, not the kind of long-term abuses and economic hardships that 

triggered the Arab Spring. “I really don’t think the American demonstrators are willing to die for their cause,” she said. She does admit, 

however, to a few similarities between the movements: Both demonstrate “the savvy use of social media” and lack of “coherent plans or 

solutions.”


<img loading="lazy" src="http://media.voanews.com/images/230*230/laura_boustani_230_12Oct11.webp" hspace="15" vspace="5" align="right" alt="Blogger Laura Boustani" />


Blogger <a href="http://shyandreservedone.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Laura Boustani">Laura Boustani</a> is a bit more vocal in her indignation. “Shame on them!” she said. “These American protesters have no 

concept of the oppression Arab protesters have gone through - not that I want them to see or experience these things first-hand. Let’s just 

keep perspective here!”


Occupy Wall Street’s Needham does concede there is a big difference between the Arab and American movements. What they do share, he says, is a 

“meta-theme, the theme that, you know, everyone has certain unalienable rights and that, together, we can effect change to ensure those and 

provide safe-keeping for those.”


In September, <a href="http://october2011.org/" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="October 2011">October 2011</a> - a movement similar in purpose to Occupy Wall Street - issued a <a href="http://october2011.org/solidaritywithegypt" 

target="_blank" class="news_link" title="joint statement">joint statement</a> with ten Egyptian revolutionaries, 

among them, blogger and activist <a href="http://www.manalaa.net/" target="_blank" class="news_link" title="Alaa Abd el Fattah">Alaa Abd el Fattah</a>. He says that on the surface, the two movements are very different. “In the Arab world, protesters are 

fighting to achieve democracy. In America, people who live in democracy and enjoy a lot of rights fear that democracy may be failing them.” 


However, in the end, both movement stand for the same rights and freedoms. We might do better, Fattah says, to focus not so much on our 

differences, but on our shared commitment to social justice and equality.




Source: Voice of America

Arab Activists: Little in Common Between Occupy Wall Street, Arab Spring

Many Arab activists say comparing the Occupy Wall Street movement in America to the uprisings of the Arab Spring denigrates their cause.