You might prefer John Hood’s take on the topic — “a new name for an old, discredited brand of radical politics” — but TIME also scrutinizes the occupier movement.

Their anger is shared, but their policy focus is still subject to debate. It’s hashed out nightly in laborious group meetings that are run by consensus. While the Tea Party drew people from the base of the Republican Party, this movement is filled with young people who have little history in electoral politics, much less policymaking. On a typical day, about 1,000 people fill the park in the heart of New York’s financial district; their staying power is by no means guaranteed.

Like the Tea Party, however, their unifying idea is simple enough. The anger they express has a clear target: not the government but the wealthy. Talk has already turned to launching a consumer boycott of the big banks in favor of credit unions. On e-mail listservs and in person-to-person meetings, more weekend protests are being planned, and Nov. 17 has been chosen by a coalition of progressive groups for a major show of force in city squares around the country. “Politically it looks like we are heading into a very different reality,” says Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org which has been supporting the Occupy effort. “Inequality is suddenly a topic of conversation in politics.”