United States of Occupation
Liberty Square is where it all began.
But far from Wall Street, in parks and
plazas and public spaces across the
nation, people outraged at financial
crimes and political skulduggery have
slept and eaten and talked and cared for
one another — a new American civic space
has been created. In every corner of the
country, the...
Poverty & Riches
Fifty million Americans live in poverty,
as do a quarter of this nation’s
children. The new poor are the former
middle class. Despite reams of indicting
evidence, the media arm of the 1%
attempts to spin statistics in a way
that diverts responsibility from Wall
Street elites and onto the negative
habits of poor people....
Breaking Through
When New York City’s mayor ordered an
assault this week on Liberty Square, the
story played like a script only the 1%
couldwrite: Michael Bloomberg, a Wall
Street media baron worth $18 billion,
who spent $50 million of his own money
and rewrote the law to win a third term
in office, sent in a...
All Day, All Week, All Century
A 1967 occupation of Wall Street. Photo:
Larry Fink For as long as Wall Street
has stood for greed and unearned profits
there have been those who have stood
against it. In 1890, the leader of the
Knights of Labor railed at “the control
of our financial affairs by the bulls
and bears of Wall...
We Are Free People
The 1% is just beginning to understand
that the reason Occupy Wall Street makes
no demands is because we aren’t talking
to them. The 99% are speaking and
listening to each other. 4,167 people
have been arrested since the occupations
began; millions more are reimagining the
world we want to live in. Police forces
have...
Common Threads: We Are Not Alone
We’re at a curious moment in this
remarkable movement. Has there ever been
one so widespread that has not yet made
demands? Yet at the same time, Occupy
Wall Street has accomplished something
that takes other movements years. It has
crystallized a sense of outrage — and
made clear that this outrage is shared
by tens of...
BREAKING: Occupy Oakland Raided
Around 2am word spread that riot police
were massing in around the area where
Occupy Oakland has been for more than
two weeks. Hundreds of people gathered
and began to make non-violent barricades
at all the entrances to the plaza. At
about 4:30am, riot police appeared on
all corners of the encampment. There
were roughly...
Enacting the impossible
On August 2, at the very first meeting
of what was to become Occupy Wall
Street, about a dozen people sat in a
circle in Bowling Green. The
self-appointed “process committee” for a
social movement we merely hoped would
someday exist, contemplated a momentous
decision. Our dream was to create a New
York General Assembly:...
So Real it Hurts: Building a New Republic
On a Thursday night when I showed up at
Occupy Wall Street from a community
meeting with some South Asian friends,
we were handed a sheet of paper with a
working draft of the Declaration of the
Occupation. The night before, I’d heard
the Declaration read aloud at the
General Assembly and turned to my...
Occupation is Participation
Among the remarkable developments at
Liberty Square have been the Working
Groups, created by occupiers to forward
the movement’s goals. In these groups
ideas are exchanged, strategies are
collectively shaped and the future of
the occupation is being written. Here
are dispatches from a few. Outreach
Since the best place to reach the 99%
is...
