Elmont Online

NEW YORK -- To veterans of past social movements, the Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York and spread nationwide have been a welcome response to corporate greed and the enfeebled economy. But whether the energy of protesters can be tapped to transform the political climate remains to be seen.

"There's a difference between an emotional outcry and a movement," said Andrew Young, who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as a strategist during the civil rights movement and served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "This is an emotional outcry. The difference is organization and articulation."

The nearly 4-week-old protest that began in a lower Manhattan park has taken on a semblance of organization, and a coherent message has largely emerged: That "the 99 percent" who struggle daily as the economy shudders, employment stagnates and medical costs rise are suffering as those in the 1 percent who control the vast majority of the economy's wealth continue to prosper.

Labor unions and students joined the protest Wednesday, swelling the ranks for a day into the thousands and lending the occupation a surge of political clout and legitimacy. President Barack Obama said Thursday that the protesters were "giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works." Some Republicans have been seeking to cast Occupy Wall Street as class warfare.

The growing cohesiveness and profile of the protest have caught the attention of public intellectuals and veterans of past social movements. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said the protest was a growing success. "There is a legitimacy to their demands for economic reconstruction," he said.

He said the protest could become a powerful movement if "it remains disciplined, focused and nonviolent -- and turns some of their pain into voting power."

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the third-highest ranking Democrat in the House, is convinced the movement will bring about political change.

"I consider this movement really to be the most heartwarming thing I've seen since President Obama's election," he said Friday. "I hope nobody gets discouraged. I think the impact could be very significant on the psyche of the country as well as on the disposition of members of Congress."

History is littered with social movements that failed to emerge as political forces to create lasting change -- including mass labor protests to end unemployment and to call attention to job injustices, said Immanuel Ness, a professor of political science at Brooklyn College and the editor of the "Encyclopedia of American Social Movements."

He compared it to the tea party movement, saying both were raising concerns about general anxieties over the economic system.

"The messaging is directed at working people," he said. "Both the tea party and Occupy Wall Street are arguing that something needs to change. The question is, What is the source of the problem?"