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KEVIN GUTTING

Sandy Elia, right, of West Cummington holds a sign as Josefa Scherer, second from right, of Orange reads aloud an item of interest using those around her as a "human microphone" - a technique in which one person speaks and the crowd repeats it louder for all to hear - during an Occupy Northampton protest Oct. 6 in front of the Bank of America on Main Street.

Northampton peace activist Frances Crowe is a veteran of protest movements, so it says something when she calls Occupy Wall Street among the most successful protests she has ever witnessed.

"This is the most hopeful thing that's happened in my lifetime," said Crowe, who is in her 90s. "People are standing up and saying 'enough is enough.' We want to have a say in the democracy."

Crowe isn't alone. Occupy Wall Street is striking a nerve among many who worry about debt, are exasperated with economic inequities in American society and fear for the future. Protests have taken place in more than 100 cities since the movement began in New York City four weeks ago, including in Northampton and Amherst.

Yet for many, the protests have generated more questions than answers. The Gazette asked several professors of economics, history and politics and other movement watchers to weigh in.

What are Occupy Wall Street's objectives?

The lack of clarity has been a criticism of Occupy Wall Street, though some argue that this is precisely what makes the protests tick.

The movement's official website has posted a nine-point list of demands, though that list is fluid and has not been officially endorsed.

Participants are demanding higher taxes on the rich, tighter regulation of banks and other financial market institutions, and support for the victims of the crisis, including the unemployed and underemployed, and homeowners and students facing unmanageable debt.

"There's quite a huge list of concerns so to some extent it's hard to get your arms around that ..." said Brian Bethune, a visiting assistant professor of economics at Amherst College. "I don't know where this is going. It's hard for anybody to get a good line of sight."

Some argue that the movement doesn't need a policy or legislative agenda to send its message. Do you agree?

"I think that is demonstrably true," said Robert Pollin, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "The simple message of this is its strength, saying, 'We just don't like the way things are going.' Of course it's a slogan. Of course it's not exactly true ... but there's a whole lot of truth in it."

He adds, "I think the people involved in it recognize that the system has been rigged in favor of the very wealthy, especially on Wall Street, for basically a generation."

UMass Amherst economics professor Gerald Friedman largely agrees that a specific agenda is not needed. In an email from Paris, where he is lecturing about the Euro crisis and other topics, Friedman wrote, "At this stage, comparable to the campaigns for the unemployed in the early 1930s or for welfare rights in the late 1960s, the main thing is to show that there are numbers of committed people willing to sacrifice for the cause."

Policy specifics, he said, are to be worked out in the political realm with input from academics and people who can formulate legislation.

"The role of the protest movement is different: It is to show that there is popular support for aggressive action against the power of money and for popular democracy," he said.

How does the movement compare to past protests or social causes?

Ben Taylor, a 27-year old Easthampton resident and UMass student, was one of the 700 people arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. He calls Occupy Wall Street a new phenomenon that has drawn inspiration from the Arab Spring, the Wisconsin uprising and the Indignados Movement in Europe this summer.

"That is, it recognizes that one-day marches and protests are easily ignored both by the mainstream media and the policymakers at the local, state and federal level," he said.

The main target of the movement is Wall Street. What exactly did Wall Street do?

"Where to start?" Friedman said. "For 30 years the rich have been getting richer, with as much as 40 percent of the increase in income in the United States since 1979 going to the richest 1 percent, and only 10 percent going to the bottom 60 percent."

Since the Reagan administration began the process of financial market deregulation, Wall Street has used control over access to the financial markets to push bad and risky products on the public, Friedman said.

"In the run-up to the current crash, Wall Street firms created opaque financial products that no one could understand, and then misled the public about the value of these securities," he said.

Is Wall Street solely responsible?

While Wall Street "wrecked the whole economy," Pollin said, politicians also deserve blame, especially those from both parties that supported deregulation of the financial markets.

That's when the "overheated, over-leveraged, over-speculative" financial markets began.

"It's up to policymakers to set the laws," Pollin said. "It was policymakers who failed by letting Wall Street do whatever they wanted to do."

Do we see the movement's anti-corporate message crop up elsewhere in the country's history?

"I think it really has an interesting parallel in the populist movement in 1890s," said David Glassberg, professor of history at UMass Amherst. "If you look at the populist platform for 1892, it's all about Wall Street and bankers. I could read you a few excerpts from it and you would think it was written yesterday."

How successful have American street movements been in achieving real change at the ballot box or in terms of legislation?

Glassberg said there were many protests in the 1930s, which led to many New Deal reforms.

"I don't think that would have come about if there hadn't been marches earlier, communists, socialists and others who made it clear to Roosevelt that there was a significant constituency to his left that he would have to pay attention to," Glassberg said.

He also notes that protests resulted in legislation during the Civil Rights movement and likely quickened the pace of America's exit from Vietnam.

What are the Dodd-Frank financial reforms?

Pollin says Dodd-Frank, approved last year, is the most ambitious effort at re-regulating the financial markets in years.

It includes requirements for more responsible capital management by banks, means for the orderly liquidation of "too-big-to-fail" banks rather than taxpayer bailouts, and restrictions on abusive practices by credit card issuers.

"The measure could, and should, be tougher but it is a serious response to the financial market crash and, if enforced, will provide meaningful protection to Americans," Friedman said.

The regulations also established a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has broad powers to regulate, enforce, and advocate for consumers.

Will Dodd-Frank work?

The jury is still out. Bethune said, "It's a little early to tell. A lot of the details of the legislation are still being worked out. We don't know until the next sort of crisis."

Pollin said the real problem is implementation. For example, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, which regulates the trading markets on agriculture, oil and other industries, has a much broader mandate under Dodd-Frank, but Congress is not providing the funding.

"If you don't have any staff, how are you actually going to conduct your job of policing the market?" he said.

Pollin believes that tighter rules on speculation are sorely needed, especially the bond, stock and derivative markets.

How do you measure the movement's success?

Some believe the movement is already a success.

"I am just greatly uplifted by the way this is spreading across the country, because people have felt powerless, but we're not powerless," Crowe said.

She says people are tired of a failed top-down system. "I think the strategy will only work when everybody has an input," she said. "It's a bottom-up way of making decisions. We're really trying to see if we can form a democracy in this country. It's hard, slow and painful to listen to everybody, but we need that kind of transparency to move ahead."

Where does Occupy Wall Street go from here?

"That's the big question," Taylor said. "Occupy Wall Street needs to ... recognize that fighting for something is the only way we will be able to draw in the broader layers of discontented people in this country."

Taylor believes that the movement will suffocate if it pitches its support behind the Democratic Party.

"Historically, movements which have allowed their grassroots activism be subordinated to electoral campaigns have either died or otherwise become mainstreamed and stripped of all of their meaningful radicalism."

What type of change do you think the movement is looking to bring about?

Taylor said there are a variety of ideas floating around in the encampments he has visited, but that one message sticks out: The political system is deeply flawed.

"Money has flowed into every crevice of our government, but every effort at campaign finance reform in the last 30 or so years has been undermined and rendered useless," he said.

Legislation or policy reform can provide immediate goals for the movement to fight for, but Taylor says many people within the movement have little faith that the political elite can act in the interests of the majority.

"Sitting at home and hoping, pulling that lever every two to four years, has been a failing strategy for the working people for the last 30 years," he said. "Any reforms must originate from the people, and reflect their interests and concerns, not those of a few men in a smoke-filled room."

What will taxing the 1 percent accomplish?

Bethune said such a tax change would not be that significant, but might create a symbolic benefit.

"If somehow people feel that the system is fair, then maybe they will feel better about it, but it's not going to solve the underlying fiscal problem that we've got."

Why is there an armed guard posted this week in front of the Bank of America branch on Main Street in Northampton?

Bank of America spokesman T.J. Crawford said: "We don't discuss security measures at any of our branches for obvious reasons."