During the early and nonviolent phase of the 'Arab Spring' Gene Sharp of The Albert Einstein Institution was often referred to as having much influence of the tactics and strategies of the protestors. In particular attention was directed to two documents; the two page listing of 198 ways of nonviolent protest and the 100 page booklet entitled From Dictatorship to Democracy/A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, both are available free from the Institution website.
If you are confused about the Occupy Wall Street campaign, look at these two documents and you will understand what is occurring in terms of building this movement.
It is interesting that in the protests of the 60's, nonviolent protest (political defiance, not pacificism) was employed over and over. The system invariably responded with violence showered upon nonviolent demonstrators with the predictable response of rapidly growing the size of the demonstrations.
The photo of the small elderly lady in Seattle with the facial stigmata of the chemical attack she has been subjected to along with the spectacle of Mayor Bloomberg joining the ranks of destroyers of books (the removal and destruction of the Zuccotti Park library) would indicate that the system didn't learn from the 60's, is unfamiliar with Mr. Sharp's writings, and is scared to death of people willing to leave their cubicles and computers and do what Mario Savio (Berkeley Free Speech Movement) did when he called for citizens to throw their bodies on the gears of the system.
The system is not able to absorb the growing nonviolent demonstrations without a violent response.