The Occupy movement hand signals are a group of

hand signals Hand signals are agreed gestures that people make with their hands or body to communicate in a non-verbal way. When used in traffic, hand signals are often used to convey driver's intention of their next movement. In some countries, hand signals ...

used by

Occupy movement The Occupy movement was an international populist Social movement, socio-political movement that expressed opposition to Social equality, social and economic inequality and to the perceived lack of real democracy around the world. It aimed primar ...

protesters to negotiate a consensus. Hand signals are used instead of conventional audible signals, like applause, shouts, or booing, because they do not interrupt the speaker using the

human microphone A human microphone, also known as the people's microphone, is a means for delivering a speech to a large group of people, wherein persons gathered around the speaker repeat the speaker's words, thus "amplifying" the voice of the speaker without t ...

, a system where the front of the crowd repeats the speaker so that the content can be heard at the back of the crowd. The signals have been compared to other hand languages used by soldiers, cliques and Wall Street traders. Between sharing of information on Facebook, Twitter, and other news reports, the hand signals have become common at other Occupy movement protest locations. Some protesters go to neighboring groups to assist in teaching the hand signals along with other general cooperation. There are YouTube videos showing the hand signals, though the signals are not universal at all locations.

Example signals

Feeling

Twinkles and down twinkles are referred to as a "temperature check". They indicate if a group is getting close to consensus. Twinkles are also known as "sparkle" or "jazz hands" or spirit fingers.

Speaking

Origins

In addition to commonalities with various

sign language Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with #Non-manual elements, no ...

s, and cultural gestures, these or similar hand signals have been used by other groups and events prior to the Occupy Wall Street protests. These include: *

Camp for Climate Action The Camps for Climate Action are Political campaign, campaign gatherings (similar to peace camps) that take place to draw attention to, and act as a base for direct action against, major Global warming#Causes, carbon emitters, as well as to deve ...

* The Woodcraft Folk * Direct Action Network * The 15-M Movement beginning in Spain 2011 *

UK Uncut UK Uncut was a network of United Kingdom-based Protest, protest groups established in October 2010 to protest against cuts to public services and tax avoidance in the UK. Various sources have described the group as Left-wing politics, left-win ...

* Civil rights movement *

Global Justice Movement The global justice movement is a network of globalization, globalized social movements demanding global justice by opposing what is often known as the “Economic globalization, corporate globalization” and promoting equal distribution of econo ...

Influence

ClimateStrike-Lausanne-August9th2019-078

Some followers of

agile software development Agile software development is an umbrella term for approaches to software development, developing software that reflect the values and principles agreed upon by ''The Agile Alliance'', a group of 17 software practitioners, in 2001. As documented ...

processes have drawn on the Occupy movement's hand signs in an attempt to improve communication during meetings, notably the UK's

Government Digital Service The Government Digital Service is a unit of the Government of the United Kingdom's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, tasked with transforming the provision of online public services. It was formed in April 2011 by David Camero ...

. After the Occupy movements, these hand signals were used by other social movements such as the

School strike for the climate Fridays for Future (FFF), also known as the School Strike for Climate ( ), is an international movement of school students who skip Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand climate change mitigation, action from political le ...

, Ende Gelände and

Extinction Rebellion Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a UK-founded global environmental movement, with the stated aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and ...

.NVDA Handouts
Rising Up! (page visited on 4 October 2019).

References