occupy wall street

Times Are Tight for Occupy Wall Street

Demonstrators from the Occupy Wall Street movement lift a police barricade at Zucotti park in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011. New York police stood prepared for tens of thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators to descend on the Financial District, and ringed the area with metal barricades to deter crowds from reaching their goal of surrounding the New York Stock Exchange. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The good old days. Photo: Bloomberg/2011 Bloomberg

When Zuccotti Park was occupied, the protest movement’s war chest felt huge, with donations totaling some $700,000. Those funds have since dropped to around $300,000, with some reports putting the figure as low as $170,000, what with the $100,000 bail fund, plus money for food, supplies, and the $20,000 the group sent out to Oakland. Post-eviction, the cash isn’t exactly rolling in: Donations are under $30,000 so far this month, while back in the first half of October, they were around $330,000. As a result, the group has instituted a partial spending freeze to save up for a planned resurgence in the warmer months. That 56-acre plot upstate that the group dropped $3,000 on when things were rosy, for instance, will have to wait. Country homes are so one percent anyway.

Times Are Tight for Occupy Wall Street