The inside story of the protest that has given birth to America’s most important progressive movement in a half century.
For two months this fall, Zuccotti Park was the site of an extraordinary political action. Home to the hundreds of anti-capitalist protestors, the park became a communion of sharing and consensus in the heart of a citadel defined by greed and oligarchy.
In the early hours of Tuesday November the 15th the occupiers’ camp was destroyed when police swept suddenly into the square, tearing down the tents, library, kitchen and medical center, and arresting hundreds. But if the occupation at Zuccotti was destroyed that night, the movement it spawned across America has only just begun. Issues of equality and democracy, absent from mainstream political discussion in the United States for decades, are today springing up everywhere.
Occupying Wall Street draws on extensive interviews with those who took part in the action to bring an authentic, inside-the-square history to life. In a vivid, fast-paced narrative, the key events of the occupation are described, and woven throughout are stories of daily life in the square focusing on how the kitchen, library, media center, clean-up, hospital, and decision-making at the General Assembly functioned, all in the words of the people who were there.
Writers for the 99% is a group of writers and researchers, active in supporting Occupy Wall Street, who came together to create this book.
What People Are Saying
“An essential and galvanizing on-the-ground account of how oxygen suddenly and miraculously flooded back into the American brain.” — Jonathan Lethem
"There are many books about #OWS but none has the pedigree of Occupying Wall Street. Created by more than 60 people from the movement, it runs through its beginnings, and provides a fascinating look at how Zucotti Park functioned, the disagreements and difficulties in running the community, and contains first-hand accounts of some of its most dramatic moments. Part souvenir, part how-to guide, this is a remarkable and unique book." — Huffington Post