Who’s That ‘Guy’ At Occupy?

By Linda O’Keefe

Just as the Gadsden Flag has come to represent the Tea Party Movement, a mask has reached iconic status in the ‘Occupy’ movement.

Protesters in Occupy “utopias” across the country are donning a sinister looking mask. It is a mask that resembles the historical English figure, Guy Fawkes. In fact, the British celebrate what is known as Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night, which is coming up on November 5^th.

The story of Guy Fawkes dates back to 1605 when a group of unhappy Catholic Englishmen plotted to blow up the House of Parliament in retaliation for King James ordering all Catholic priests to leave the country. The plot was disrupted and Guy Fawkes, one of the Catholic conspirators, was caught in the Parliament cellar with 36 barrels of gun powder, tortured and executed (some say he committed suicide to avoid execution) .

In celebration of the thwarted attack, King James called for bonfires throughout the kingdom to burn Guy Fawkes effigies. Today, the Gunpowder plot is still celebrated with fireworks on the 5^th of November as Bonfire Night.

The popularity of Guy Fawkes today is mainly due to the 2006 film “V, for Vendetta” in which a lone wolf, inspired by Guy Fawkes, dons the sinister looking mask and successfully blows up Parliament in his quest of fighting the fictional totalitarian British government.

The mask has become a symbol of anti-establishment sentiment. In 2007, Ron Paul was able to seize on this growing discontent and raised $4 million on Bonfire Night in commemoration of Guy Fawkes.

So, what originated as a celebration of the arrest and execution of a domestic terrorist has morphed into a celebration of Guy Fawkes’ hatred of government tyranny.

But, there is more….

The Guy Fawkes mask has also come to symbolize a group of on-line hackers known as Anonymous. The city of Orlando was recently targeted by this loose group of left-leaning “hacktivists”. This past summer, when the head organizer of “Food not Bombs”, an activist organization that was feeding the homeless in public parks without permits, was arrested in Orlando, Anonymous, in retaliation, targeted high profile Orlando-linked websites including the Orlando Regional Chamber of Commerce and Universal Studio.

http://youtu.be/-ZD7kloPJ0E

Anonymous is also linked with the Occupy Movement in several ways. As far back as January 2011, Anonymous teamed up with journalist David DeGraw, who is credited with coining the phrase “the 99 percent” in his book The Economic Elite vs. The People of the United States, to provide internet security for his online movement. The “We are the 99%” internet meme evolved into a call for action in the form of collective civil disobedience on September 17^th on Wall Street.

In August 2011, the amorphous Anonymous released the following pro-occupy video that warned Wall Street “We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”

Perhaps, the most significant contribution of Anonymous to the Occupy Movement is the hype that it is able to generate. For instance, Anonymous created a buzz back in early October when it threatened to wipe the New York Stock Exchange website “off the internet.” While the attempt did fail, the Chicago Tribune reported that the site “was slow and then unavailable from about 3:35 p.m. to around 3:37 p.m., after which it returned to normal.”

To commemorate Guy Hawkes Day, on November 5^th the ‘collective’ Anonymous has promised to wreak online havoc. In anticipation, Occupy protestors have signs “Remember, Remember the 5^th of November”.

There is excitement in the “occupations” across the world because the hacktivists have vowed to “kill” Facebook for sharing personal information with the government and to attack the website of FOX News for speaking ill of the occupy folk. Here is the video that issued the threat:

Not only will November 5^th be a day dedicated to online hacking, it is also being designated as “Bank Transfer Day”; an occasion for bank customers to show their dissatisfaction with bank policies by transferring their accounts to credit unions.  In hopes of crashing the big banks, specifically Bank of America, this initiative is being pushed hard by those affiliated with the Occupy movement.

Just as the demands of Occupy are vague and scattered, the intent of Anonymous is very difficult to discern. Because of the structure-less, leader-less nature of Anonymous, rumors and hoaxes are typical and there is really no way to verify the credibility of its threats.

Even within the Anonymous community, it is said there is disunity. Some hacktivists pursue a political agenda, while others attack corruption and violations of personal privacy.

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