After One Year: Future of "Occupy"

The New York Times is reporting: "Dozens of arrests were reported on Monday, the first anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, as protesters converged near the New York Stock Exchange and tried to block access to the exchange."

LAURA GOTTESDIENER, [email]

Gottesdiener is an organizer with Occupy Wall Street and author the forthcoming book "A Dream Foreclosed: The Great Eviction and the Fight to Live in America." She said today: "After one year, Occupy has become a movement that exists both as a protest in the symbolic centers of neoliberal capitalism, and as a direct action network doing organizing where Wall Street's injustice affects communities: in schools and in homes across the country. As more and more people realize that this economic system is based on displacement -- both literally from homes and symbolically from the very dreams of American society -- everyday people are turning to direct actions like eviction blockades and the power of refusal through debt strikes. These actions are building on the work of organizing that has been happening for years, but is now connected by this systemic analysis that understands that all our grievances are connected."

NATHAN SCHNEIDER, [email]

Schneider is an editor of the website Waging Non-Violence and has been extensively covering Occupy Wall Street from its beginning. He said today from a protest near Wall Street: "The organizing I saw today was impressive. Hundreds gathered in a spokes council, grouped in affinity groups, ready for a diversity of actions. There's a lot less interest in just battling cops and more interest in being organized and disciplined. The Strike Debt campaign, meanwhile, is building huge momentum. Occupy is smaller, and who knows how long that name will last. But it is still bringing out a lot of talented people who, as a group, are definitely deepening and maturing in their resistance. The future of 'Occupy' as such is still an open question, but I'm convinced after today that it's a question still worth asking." Schneider just wrote the piece "Occupy, After Occupy."