Roughly one thousand protestors marched through New York’s financial district Sept. 17, in a movement called “Occupy Wall Street”, starting what would become a worldwide revolt against corporate greed, the power of lobbyists, and empowering the voice of what protesters call “the 99%”. According to occupywallstreet.org, created on the ground by organizers in the movement, “#OCCUPYWALLSTREET is a people powered movement for democracy … we vow to end the monied corruption of our democracy, join us!”

A core group of demonstrators, some hundred-odd tent-dwellers, remain camped in Zucotti park in New York’s Financial District, which serves as the core base of the movement. Every night, organizers join in the park for a “New York City General Assembly”, where they find solutions to ideological or administrative issues on a consensus-vote process. Though exercising their constitutional right to organize, protesters have presented a number of sanitation and traffic issues for the NYPD.

The scope of the movement lies far beyond tents in Zuccoti park. Scituate students might directly experience Occupy Boston, which currently resides in Dewey Square. Internationally, commentators compare the movement to “Arab Spring” (the string of revolutions in North Africa/Middle East in Spring 2011). According to the BBC, on Saturday the 15th alone, tens of thousands rallied in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol Square, 20,000 marched in Lisbon, Portugal, and countless other thousands demonstrated in Athens, Toronto, Halifax, Peru, Chile, Tokyo, Sydney, and Hong Kong. That day in Rome, a group of hundreds of masked protesters (among tens of thousands of demonstrators), defaced much of the city, costing the city an estimated one million euro.

Protesters unite in battling corporate greed, and arguing for radical change within the economy. According to occupyboston.com, they call themselves the 99% because “the top 1% of Americans control between 40% and 50% of the nation’s wealth – and more importantly, often use that wealth to undermine the democratic process.” Social media, which is now synonymous with organized protest, plays a large role in Occupy Wall Street; citizens everywhere are encouraged to post their video, commentary, and news to websites like “wearethe99percent.tumblr.com”, “occupytogether.org”, “livestream.com/globalrevolution”, and countless others.

Occupy Wall Street’s sudden appearance on the political scene allowed for a national dialogue about the economy. But with no clear sign that protesters are leaving anytime soon, the movement is asking for something more than news coverage. Although the movement lacks any clear objectives or demand, it is obvious that the people involved want fundamental change in a broad range of issues.

The movement continues to evolve and grow, from the minds of activists in New York to the hearts and souls of a wide array of people across the world. This unprecedentedly large and accessible movement has the power to disable greed and corruption while empowering voices never heard before. As more backgrounds join the cause, it becomes clearer that the lack of one clear objective in “Occupy” protests only serves to make them stronger.