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Occupation Is All The Rage At The Zuccotti Park Carnival

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Occupation Is All The Rage At The Zuccotti Park Carnival

THE fashion world has fully embraced the Occupy movement. Walking through Zuccotti Park in Manhattan’s financial district – where it all kicked off nearly two months ago – it is not hard to see why. Here, anti-corporate activists engage in yoga workshops, drum circles, live blogging, composting and other activities du jour. Many protesters dress up in suits. This is ironic. And in New York, irony is hip.

There’s a carnival-like atmosphere in Zuccotti Park, a sense of community has developed, a sense that occupation is so “right-on”. It’s a hipster hangout – with some anarchic youth, homeless dudes, and ageing hippies thrown in.

Scattered around the park are placards declaring war on everything from banking to fracking. But all the sloganeering rarely translates into anything substantial, and when the protesters are asked to clarify what their demands are, they respond in the most vague and disparate ways. But that, apparently, is the beauty of this protest movement in which there are no leaders and no overarching agenda.

The shallowness of the protests could explain why the fashionistas are so into it.

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Posted: 14th, November 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment