Description
Book SynopsisThis book is the first study of the processes and structures of the Occupy Wall Street movement, written from the perspective of a core organizer who was involved from the inception to the end. While much has been written on OWS, few books have focused on how the movement was organized. Marisa Holmes, an organizer of OWS in New York City, aims to fill this gap by deriving the theory from the practice and analyzing a broad range of original primary sources, from collective statements, structure documents, meeting minutes, and live tweets, to hundreds of hours of footage from the OWS Media Working Group archive. In doing so, she reveals how the movement was organized in practice, which experiments were most successful, and what future generations can learn.
Trade Review“Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a two-month occupation of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan in 2011. … Throughout the book one gets the sense that what occupiers most wanted from the experience was a sense of community. … I found a lot of new words and new ideas in this book. The ref‐ erences for each chapter are at the end of each chapter. At the end of the book is an index and a glossary.” (Jo Freeman, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, December, 2023)
Table of ContentsChapter 1- Intergenerational Dialogues.- Chapter 2- The Squares.- Chapter 3- The New York City General Assembly.- Chapter 4- Day One.- Chapter 5- Our Park.- Chapter 6- This Is What Democracy Looks Like.- Chapter 7- Direct Action.- Chapter 8- Media for the 99%.- Chapter 9- Allies.- Chapter 10- Race in OWS.- Chapter 11- Gender in OWS.- Chapter 12- Structure.- Chapter 13- The Eviction.- Chapter 14- Occupy Somewhere.- Chapter 15- Money in the Movement.- Chapter 16- All Our Grievances Are Connected.- Chapter 17- All Roads Lead to Wall Street.- Chapter 18- Occupy the World Social Forum.- Chapter 19- Informal Elites.- Chapter 20-The Founders.- Chapter 21- Power and Leadership.- Chapter 22- Co-option.- Chapter 23- Repression.- Chapter 24- Neo-fascism.- Chapter 25- Conclusion -Building the New Society.
