In September 2011 protesters occupied Zuccotti Park in New York's financial district under the banner Occupy Wall Street, denouncing economic inequality and the power of finance with the slogan 'we are the 99 percent'. Within weeks similar encampments appeared in hundreds of cities worldwide, claiming squares and parks as long-term protest camps. Authorities cleared most encampments within months. The movement left a lasting vocabulary around inequality and the public ownership of urban space.
It revived debate over who controls and may occupy public space in the city, linking financial inequality to the contested use of squares, parks and privately owned public spaces.
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