THE #OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT
Occupy Wall Street and the larger #Occupy movement grew largely in response to deepening national and world-wide growth in income inequality. While the movement began in one sense in Zuccotti Park, New York City, USA, the roots and breadth of the movement stretch much further. It quickly spread to over 900 cities around the globe. While the movement no longer exists in its original form, the upheaval it created reverberates, reshaping the conversation about political economy in the U.S. around the world.
Occupy also produced a wide array of art as discussed in places like T.V. Reed's The Art of Protest.
"Our Lady of Liberty Square" by Mollly Crabapple "Octopi Wall Street" by Ray Troll, 2011.
While the heydey of the Occupy movement proper may have passed, it continues to be immensely influential in many areas. It spurred discussion around medical debt and student debt that have evolved into significant movements, it inspired numerous local struggles in the US, Quebec and elsewhere, and contributed energy, expertise and bodies to the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.
Some Key Links Directly from the Movement
- Occupy Everything News & reflections on the nature & development Occupy.
- Occupy Wall Street Site of the original NYC organizers. Nevertheless, an "unofficial de facto" set online resources that does not claim to speak for all.
- Occupy Together Site to track the hundreds of groups reflecting nation-wide spread of the movement.
- Tweeting #OWS Emory University archive of 10 million tweets from and around the #Occupy movement.
- We Are the 99% Influential Tumblr site that helped spread the movement.
Occupying the Arts
Arts & Democracy Archive of numerous OWS art in various media.
Arts & Labor Key organization growing out of the Occupy movement
"Does Occupy Signal the Death of Contemporary Art?" by Paul Mason on OWS starting a new phase of socially responsible art.
"How Art Propels Occupy Wall Street" by Michelle Elam on OWS art connecting to earlier movements. including Black Power and how central art was to the movement.
The Illuminator Giant bat signal projection artists fighting for the 99%.
Manifest AR Alternative reality art collective that including a stint supporting Occupy
Occupy Leonard Cohen Video on OWS to the tune of Cohen's "Democracy is Coming to the USA."
Occupy Posters: Occupy Print collection of OWS posters from around the globe and/or Zazzle OWS Posters.
Occupy This Album! Music that raised money for OWS and consciousness about economic inequality.
Pepper Spray Meme High (and some low) art against the macing of Occupy supporting students at UC Davis.
Selected Books and Articles on Occupy
- Byrne, Janet, ed. The Occupy Handbook. Boston: Back Bay Books, 2012. Reflections on the movement from a variety of left-liberal pundits like Paul Krugman, Amy Goodman, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Robert Reich.
- Chomsky, Noam, et al. Occupy. Mostly transcript excerpts drawn from Chomsky interviews on the movement.
- Dixon, Chris. Another Politics is Possible: Talking Across Today's Transformative Movements. Foreword by Angela Y. Davis. Berkeley: U of California Press, 2014. Excellent analysis of the political ideas -- the "anti-authoritarian, anti-capitallist, non-sectarian left" --and organizing practices of the movements that fed into and flow out of Occupy.
- Gerbaudo, Paulo. Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism. London: Pluto Press, 2012. Reflections on the use and misuse of new media in movements like OWS.
- Gitlin, Todd. Occupy Nation. NY: Harper Collins, 2012. Media critic and former SDS activist finds fascinating newness in OWS.
- Khatib, Kate et al., eds. We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation. Some excellent strategic thinking on the strengths, weaknesses, and future of OWS inspired movements.
- King, Stephen. "Tax Me for F@%&'s Sake." Amusing attack on his fellow rich for evading social responsibility for the mess OWS seeks to fix by the renowned terrorist (so to speak) author.
- Lang, Amy Shraeder, and Daniel Lang Levitsky, eds.Dreaming In Public: Building the Occupy Movement. Oxford: New Internationalist Publications, 2012. Evocative study rooted close to the movement.
- McKee, Yates. Strike Art: Contemporary Art and the Post-Occupy Condition. Verso, 2016. Theoretically rich and comprehensive study of the role of the arts in Occupy and the role of Occupy and its aftermath in changing the politics of art in the US.
- Mitchell, Greg. 40 Days that Shook the World: From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere. Sinclair Books, 2011. Rich, sympathetic account of the movement that grew out of Mitchell's blogs on the action as it evolved..
- Mitchell, W.J.T., Michael Taussig, and Bernard Harcourt. Occupy: Three Inquiries in Disobedience. U of Chicago P, 2013. Three brilliant essays from three very different writers present three equally rich angles of vision on the movement.
- Reed, T.V. "Occupy All the Arts" in The Art of Protest (Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 2019.
- Schneider, Nathan. Thank you, Anarchy: Notes from the Occupy Apocalypse. Foreword by Rebecca Solnit. Berkeley: U of California Press, 2014. Thoughtful insider's account of the Occupy movement that is especially good at giving the feel of the day to day, often quite unpredictable, evolution of OWS.
- Taylor, Astra et al. eds. Occupy! Scenes from Occupied America. London: Verso, 2011. From the front lines descriptive dispatches, analytical pieces and speeches most originally published in the Occupy! Gazette.n+1.webzine.
- van Gelder, Sarah. This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement.San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011. Early account of the emerging movement from YES! magazine writer.
- Welty, Emily, Matthew Bolton, Meghana Nayak and Christopher Malone, eds.Occupying Political Science: The Occupy Wall Street Movement from New York to the World. NY: Palgrave-McMillan, 2013. As title suggests, perspectives on the movement from a variety of academic political science approaches, both qualitative and quantitative.
- Writers for the 99%. Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America. OR Books, 2012. Collection of many of the best first-hand on the ground accounts of OWS and its affiliates.
- Occupy Wall Street Goodreads. More than 60 reader-rated books to choose from to explain the political-economic context of the Occupy movement.