On September 17, 2011, a small group of activists rolled out their sleeping bags in Zuccotti Park, a small patch of concrete in the middle of Manhattan’s Financial District. Monday marks the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street’s beginning; since that day one year ago, other occupations have flourished across America and the world, though most of them have since been disbanded in the face of inclement weather and unfriendly—often even violent—police crackdowns.
“Occupy was successful in changing the conversation,” said Melissa Harris-Perry on Sunday’s edition of her show. “Bringing attention to the 99 percent. But they fielded no candidates, advanced no single unified agenda. … One year later, where’s Occupy?”
According to Harrison Schultz, a member of the Occupy movement, things are still moving forward. “There’s so much I could possibly talk about,” he told Harris-Perry. “I can only really speak for myself. You get ten different occupiers in a room, you get ten different opinions. But what I’ve been working on, specifically, is presenting an actual plan to the Occupy movement to actually rapidly end the economic crisis and permanently alter capitalism.”
Citizen Radio‘s Allison Kilkenny defended the hesitation of many movement activists to get involved in electoral politics. “I’m an ally of Occupy, so I actually dig the way they do things,” she said. “You know, remaining outsiders from the political system. A lot of people are like, ‘Why haven’t they run a candidate yet?’ And the problem is, that system of our governance is broken. That’s the whole idea of Occupy. That’s why Occupy exists at all.” In the weekend leading up to Occupy’s first birthday, organizers have been staging various events and activities around New York City. This will all lead up to an all-day series of actions on Monday.
Ned Resnikoff is an urban policy analyst, researcher, writer, and editor. His byline has appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Dissent, and The Nation. He writes the newsletter Public Comment, which can be found at publiccomment.blog. Recommended
