<P> Then in an unrelated incident, a group called New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts (NYAB) was formed, which promoted a "sleep in" in lower Manhattan called "Bloombergville," in July 2011, preceding OWS, and provided a number of activists to begin organizing . Activist, anarchist and anthropologist David Graeber and several of his associates attended the NYAB general assembly but, disappointed that the event was intended to be a precursor to marching on Wall Street with predetermined demands, Graeber and his small group created their own general assembly, which eventually developed into the New York General Assembly . The group began holding weekly meetings to work out issues and the movement's direction, such as whether or not to have a set of demands, forming working groups and whether or not to have leaders . The Internet group Anonymous created a video encouraging its supporters to take part in the protests . The U.S. Day of Rage, a group that organized to protest "corporate influence (that) corrupts our political parties, our elections, and the institutions of government," also joined the movement . The protest itself began on September 17; a Facebook page for the demonstrations began two days later on September 19 featuring a YouTube video of earlier events . By mid-October, Facebook listed 125 Occupy - related pages . </P> <P> The original location for the protest was One Chase Manhattan Plaza, with Bowling Green Park (the site of the "Charging Bull") and Zuccotti Park as alternate choices . Police discovered this before the protest began and fenced off two locations; but they left Zuccotti Park, the group's third choice, open . Since the park was private property, police could not legally force protesters to leave without being requested to do so by the property owner . At a press conference held the same day the protests began, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg explained, "people have a right to protest, and if they want to protest, we'll be happy to make sure they have locations to do it ." </P> <P> Because of its connection to the financial system, lower Manhattan has seen many riots and protests since the 1800s, and OWS has been compared to other historical protests in the United States . Commentators have put OWS within the political tradition of other movements that made themselves known by occupation of public spaces, such as Coxey's Army in 1894, the Bonus Marchers in 1932, and the May Day protesters in 1971 . </P> <P> More recent prototypes for OWS include the British student protests of 2010, 2009 - 2010 Iranian election protests, the Arab Spring protests, and, more closely related, protests in Chile, Greece, Spain and India . These antecedents have in common with OWS a reliance on social media and electronic messaging, as well as the belief that financial institutions, corporations, and the political elite have been malfeasant in their behavior toward youth and the middle class . Occupy Wall Street, in turn, gave rise to the Occupy movement in the United States . David Graeber has argued that the Occupy movement, in its anti-hierarchical and anti-authoritarian consensus - based politics, its refusal to accept the legitimacy of the existing legal and political order, and its embrace of prefigurative politics, has roots in an anarchist political tradition . Sociologist Dana Williams has likewise argued that "the most immediate inspiration for Occupy is anarchism," and the LA Times has identified the "controversial, anarchist - inspired organizational style" as one of the hallmarks of OWS . </P>

What do the civil rights movement and the occupy wall street movement have in common