The Occupy movement

Tens of thousands march as part of the Occupy Wall Street protest (Eric Hart)

The Occupy movement has become the struggle of a generation--a lightning rod for the accumulated discontent in so many corners of U.S. society: about unemployment and poverty, about political complicity and corruption, about the vast and growing gap between the haves and have-nots. And it is tapping into the widespread sentiment that it's time to do something about it. Here, SocialistWorker.org has collected our featured coverage on the Occupy movement, plus articles that set out the background to the struggle.

The Occupy Movement

Editorials

Discussing the way forward

Debates over a general strike call for May Day and the tactics of a recent protest in Oakland highlight some key questions facing the movement today.

Editorials

We won't be silenced

Occupy protesters march toward Liberty Plaza after police evicted them in the early morning hours (Eduardo Munoz | Reuters)

The 1 percent is carrying out a carefully organized assault to destroy the Occupy movement--but our side is determined that the struggle will go on.

Editorials

A movement that's here to stay

With a November 17 day of action one week away, Occupy camps are under attack by police and the media--but the movement has changed U.S. politics for good.

Editorials

The promise of Occupy

A movement that began with several hundred in New York is transforming the political debate worldwide--and giving momentum to future struggles.

Movement Discussions

Comment

Confronting the debates

The sharpest debate in Occupy Oakland is about an ultra-left trend that relies on the idea of propaganda of the deed.

Comment

Tactics and the port shutdown

A discussion about tactics and strategy has emerged after the successes of the December 12 West Coast Port Shutdown.

Comment: Paul D'Amato

Do we need diversity of tactics?

The idea that activists should respect a "diversity of tactics" is really a way to short-circuit the discussion of our goals and how to achieve them.

Comment: Todd Chretien

Debating our tactics in Oakland

Two very different actions on November 2--a mass march and picket of the port and a defeated building occupation--are raising a discussion of tactics.

Comment: Amy Muldoon

Why the police aren't with us

Lower Manhattan has been besieged by protesters in recent weeks, and one common focus among others has emerged: the police.

Column: Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Building a multiracial Occupy

The Occupy movement has the potential to draw attention to how economic injustices overlap with racial injustices.

Comment: David Judd

Barrier to fighting oppression?

Discussions among activists about challenging different forms of oppression often focus on the concept of privilege.

Column: Paul D'Amato

The limits of consensus

For a movement or struggle, hoping for general agreement after a thorough discussion is very different from requiring it.

Comment: Danny Katch

Co-opt-upy Wall Street?

The Occupy Wall Street movement in New York met police repression's subtler cousin during the November 17 day of action.

Comment: Eric Ruder

We shouldn't #OccupyXmas

The call for Occupy activists to target holiday shopping doesn't advance the agenda of the movement because it focuses on the wrong target.

Voices of the occupation

Roundtable

What Occupy means to me

Participants in Occupy Wall Street talk about what's inspired them about the protests--and what they hope for the movement's future.

Comment

This movement gives me hope

Despite all I was taught about "hard work," I have nothing to show for 25 years of labor except my class anger and $82,391 of debt.

Highlights of the struggle

Analysis: Lee Sustar

Organizing for a port shutdown

A grassroots effort by both Occupy activists and rank-and-file workers is behind the effort to shut down West Coast ports December 12, despite claims to the contrary.

Report: Lee Sustar

Occupy resists the crackdown

Thousands flooded back to New York's Zuccotti Park following a police raid--while UC Berkeley students answered a police raid with a strike and protest.

Report

Students turn up the heat

The University of California Board of Regents had to cut short teleconference meetings after student protesters took over.

Report

A day of defiance in Oakland

The streets of Oakland echoed with the voices of protest as workers, students and activists responded to the Occupy movement's call for a general strike.

Comment: Jen Roesch

Our voices in Times Square

After successfully defending its encampment, Occupy Wall Street in New York City reached a new high point with a massive protest in Times Square.

Labor and Occupy

Editorials

Making common cause

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matmcdermott/6199934539/ (Mat McDermott)

Unions are weighing in on the side of the Occupy Wall Street protests--a burgeoning labor-left alliance that can take the struggle to a new stage.

Comment: Danny Katch

Labor's show of solidarity

Tens of thousands of protesters from all walks of life marched through Manhattan yesterday to proclaim, "We are the 99 percent!"

The haves and the have-nots

Analysis: Lance Selfa

How the 1 percent rules

We know the 1 percent runs Wall Street and Corporate America, but their control extends into the supposedly democratic political system as well.

Column: Lance Selfa

Getting money out of politics?

Can campaign finance reform laws transform U.S. politics, or are they doomed to be evaded by corporate interests?

Comment: Eric Ruder

The super-rich 1 percent

While many forms of discrimination have been put behind us, fear and anxiety still stalks one of America's last despised minorities--the top 1 percent.

Analysis: Gary Lapon

Drowning in student debt

An Obama administration plan focused on student debt won't do much to solve the long-run problems people face.

Analysis: Nicole Colson

The two Americas

With poverty on the rise and long-term unemployment at record levels, most families in the U.S. are scrambling to get by. But some are doing just fine.

Analysis: Alan Maass

The left-behind economy

The plague of unemployment that took hold during the Great Recession is still upending the lives of millions of U.S. workers--with no end in sight.

History of our struggle

Book excerpt: Sharon Smith

When workers occupied

Today's Occupy movement stands in a long tradition of struggles that have depended on the determination of activists that "we shall not be moved."

Economy in crisis

Speech: David McNally

Capitalism's mutating crisis

This is an economic crisis that keeps mutating, generating new kinds of illnesses in the system--so with every "cure" comes signs of damage elsewhere.

Comment: Lee Sustar