On Saturday, October 1 a group of protesters arrived in DC as part of Occupy DC [1], a break off group from Occupy Wall Street. This Occupy break off group grew into something different than other Occupy protests around the country on Thursday, October 6 when it joined forced with an already planned rally to protest the 10th anniversary of the War in Afghanistan on October 7, 2011. The two protest planned to overlap not only near the anniversary of the Afghanistan war but near with the beginning of the 2012 Federal Austerity Budget negotiations, which people worry will cut funding for badly needed social programs while increasing military spending. The combined rally was called “Stop The Machine! Create A New World! [2] and was concentrated in Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square. Protestors slept in the two parks. Rally organizers had secured a permit for Freedom Plaza but not for McPherson Square. There is talk of moving the giant Occupy Wall Street rally in New York City to Washington, DC to protest in front of the white house. On Friday, October 7, Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain called for this move [3].
Types of Slacktivism
editOnline Slacktivism versus Offline Slacktivism
editOnline slacktivism is an action taken by an individual online in support of a cause while offline activism is an action taken my an individual
Charity Slacktivism
editCharity Slacktivism can be described as actions in support of a cause that take little effort on the part of the individual. Examples of online charity slacktivism include changing your Facebook status to support a cause, joining a charity organization's Facebook page or "liking" a cause on Facebook, tweeting or retweeting a charity organization's request for support, signing Internet petitions and posting and sharing YouTube videos about a cause.
Examples of offline charity slacktivism include awareness wristbands and paraphernalia in support of causes, such as the Livestrong wristband and the Product Red campaign products, as well as bumper stickers and mobile donating.
The term slacktivism was thrown around a lot after the world's reaction to the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The Red Cross managed to raise $5 million in 2 days via text message donations [4]. Social media outlets were used to spread the word about the earthquake. The day after the earthquake, CNN reported that four of Twitter's top topics were related to the Haitian earthquake [5].