on november 15, cops surrounded zucotti park, and evicted the protestors that had camped arched here for two months. they didn't go calmly and they vowed to keep the movement alive. >> it's a continued stand. >> reporter: for a few months, they worked out of an office, ironically, right off wall street. >> when you walk in, you get a nametag like this. >> this is some of our working spaces. you can see lots of occupiers working here. >> reporter: hoping to reinvigorate the movement may 1st, a day of action around the globe. but it wasn't sustained. do you think it's relevant today? >> i think the message has got diluted. >> they seem to be a ragtag bunch of people. sdplz stronger, weaker? >> different. there are things that are stronger. i think our organized issues are definitely stronger. >> reporter: occupy says it has about $40,000 left in the bank and has ford groups on specific issues, like student debt and housing. there from the beginning, mark bray says give it time. >> if you look at history, whether it be the civil rights movement, the feminist movement, it takes a while b

what are people saying right now and what is the state of zucotti park itself? >> i have seen reports of about 200 people at zucotti as well. more arrests are happening in that area. i was marching with the protesters and they were chanting anti-capitalism all day all week, occupy wall street. they seemed really excited to be back in the street. this is the biggest reunion since the height of occupied last year. >> allison, speaking to us from the streets of new york near wall street. we are going to take a break and come back and have a discussion about what happened a year ago and were the occupy movements is. stay with us. [♪] >> michelle shocked - "99% song." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we are back in new york on this first anniversary of the occupy movements. joining us in the studio is frances fox piven, professor of sociology. she studied social movements and is the author most recently of "who is afraid of frances fox piven?" nathan schneider is with us, editor of the website waging nonviolence. he

it all started in new york's zucotti park, sparking a nationwide occupy movement. >> ilt's been a yearding some of the things we're trying to do, andit's always going to be a learning process, but i think for the first year, and now in this next year, it's more action. it's not necessarily just saying there is a problem, it's also making sure we're providing solutions. >> about an hour from now, we're live from zucotti park on where the movement is today. i'm fredricka whitfield. stay with cnn. "your money" starts right after this. see life in the best light. oun. transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. so you see everything the way it's meant to be seen. maybe even a little better. experience life well lit, ask for transitions adaptive lenses. receiving a transitions lenses certificate of authenticity is your only guarantee that you're getting the world's #1 recommended photochromic lens. ask for it and register your lenses online today.

today's protests were mild compared to the thousands of protestors who gathered in zucotti park a year ago in the heart of new york's financial district. so did the "occupy" movement make a difference? joining us to answer that... rob johnson, former chief economist for the u.s. senate banking committee, and now director at the institute for new economic thinking. rob, thanks for joining us. let me begin by asking you did the occupy movement make the difference? >> yes, i think if made a difference. it raised our awareness of inequality. and the deterioration of the middle class. the united states has seen rising inequality for almost 40 years and it's now a household concept and they did change the climb at with their prowess-- profests. >> susie: well, certainly it did raise awareness about the grievance of the american people but what did the movement really accomplish? >> well, i think it set in motion a change in the climate which has changed the dialogue in the presidential election, even when newt gingrich was fighting in south carolina with mitt romney over the role of bain cap

i live in new york city, so i can walk to zucotti park where this all began, and i went there many timesyou know, they made that decision. that created the opportunity for a 1% mayor, michael bloomberg in new york, to have a solution for this problem when the pressure from wall street got big enough which is clear them out. now, being a man of limited means, i'll leave it vague like that, they're not financial, obviously, but a man of limited other sorts of means, here's what he said. he was concerned, he said, about cleanliness in the park. [laughter] this is a man who presides over some of the filthiest subway tunnels on this planet. [laughter] filthy when he became mayor three terms ago and filthy today about which he has done nothing. and every new yorker knows. so when he stood there, i'm worried about cleanliness, the man was really -- revealed for what he was, and that cost him. his political career is now very wobbly in a way that it wasn't before. that's because of occupy wall street and the horrific, bad way he coped with it. but he did manage to shut it down. i think there are