There are parallels to what caused a crowd of protestors to form in Manchester, England's St. Peter's Square in 1819 and the Occupy Movement of today.
Almost 200 years ago in August, 1819, about 7 months before the death of King George III, a large crowd of protestors, in the tens of thousands, gathered in a public area in Manchester, England to protest income inequality, unemployment and to urge governmental reform.
The poet Percy Shelley commemorated the 1819 event in his poem "Masque of Anarchy"
The protestors in what was then known as St. Peter's Field had experienced prolonged hunger, the result of recent crop failures; high unemployment from lack of available jobs following the Napoleonic wars; and, the inability to participate in the government since only adult male property owners could vote.
Local politicians responded to the protestors by having cavalry disperse the crowd which resulted in 15 deaths and left hundreds injured.
Unfortunately, in modern times the use of force and violence is not always avoided in dealing with crowds of protestors as we saw by a police supervisor, pepper spraying 4 women in an Occupy Wall Street crowd, which catapulted the Occupy Movement onto the front pages of newspapers and became the catalyst for Occupy demonstrations in cities around the world.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Word of the massacre in St. Peter's Square reached Shelley while he was in Rome. His response was to pen "Masque of Anarchy".
The poem not only described the events as only a poet could do in rhyming 'aabb' and 'aabbb' stanzas, but was also a call for non-violent resistance.
The "adoring multitude" (the people) through "Hope" (the aspirations of the people) can prevail against "the tyrants" (the oppressors) by being "calm and resolute", standing firm with “folded arms and steady eyes”.
The poem was not made available in print until 1832, ten years after Shelley's death which coincided with the Reform Act of 1832, the first in many decades long series of sufferage acts giving increasing voting rights to the citizenry of Britain.
"Ye are many - they are few"
~Gandhi quoting Shelley in "Satyagraha"