Astra Taylor and Mark Greif MARK RUDD Sarah Leonard Dear OWSers page 7 Scenes from an Park to Park Occupation page 2 page 18 MIKE KONCZAL IED IED Beka Economopolous P LE, LE, Nikil Saval Parsing the Data and PP CCU O Ideology of the We Are F Occupy RABA Internal 99% Tumblr C O S page 23 page 28 page 35 philadelphia OLLY Memos M “Face Wall Street” OCCUPY! An OWS-Inspired Gazette Elizabeth Gumport Back at Zuccotti KI page 8 S Marina Sitrin OGOU Park R page 4 BY STANLEY S One No! PHOTO Many Yeses MARCO ROTH Letters of Resignation from the American Dream page 26 Onnesha Roychoudhuri Night Falls on Amy C. Offner Occupied New page 19 KI S York OGOU What Can R Jeremy Kessler The Police and You Do PHOTO BY STANLEY the 99 Percent When You page 25 Benjamin Kunkel Can t Shut Twilight of COMPLETE TABLE OF CONTENTS ’ page 5 the fossils: an INSIDE THE BACK COVER It Down? overview page 32 ON THE GROUND some provisions/supplies with the protest- which is something. And they really I made it to the General Assembly DAY 1 ers. About the same number in the square, appreciated the zucchini bread and the tonight. Weird for me, after so much bedding down for a second night, and the mango juice, so thanks for the donations. suspicion in universities and professional SEPTEMBER 17 scene was more raucous than yesterday, I’d love it if a fraction of my friends groups, all my life, of order and parlia- the occupiers more confident. “They read who have presented sensible intellectual mentary procedure and quick-running some books in college and now they think critiques of the action, or who have said, meetings, laughed away by saying, “Oh, they know how to fix the world,” one tired “They have a good message but they are since the Sixties we’ve forgotten all that cop told some tourists as I walked by. A the wrong people to spread it,” showed up stuff!” — to see an efficient assembly man- Astra Taylor and Mark Greif good many were assembling again as dusk to Wall Street, since the implication is you aged by kids, democratically, inclusively, fell, looking fervent, almost pious (“We want to see more people like yourselves and good-humoredly. I wish n+1 meetings need to talk about why we are here!”), down there. ran like this. The left knows more than we Scenes from an while others basically partied around think it does, as always. Noam Chomsky them. Sunday, September 25 had sent a personal message by email. It Occupation was predictably long-winded; I wished Wednesday, September 21 Mark: Nine days is nothing to sneeze people would make the “get to your point” Saturday, September 17 at. I know people keep complaining that sign. I was sitting close to the aisle of wait- Astra: All these people complaining the the occupiers don’t have a platform, but ing speakers and I was surprised to watch Astra: The first day I arrived and, occupiers don’t have a clear agenda, a crit- any real deliberative convention takes participants whom I assumed knew each surveying the scene, was totally dispirited: icism that goes back to the Seattle WTO time, and these folks were strangers nine other well — since they were working same old same old, and not very substan- protest (and maybe beyond). Economic days ago. The idea of the occupation, together smoothly — whisper to ask each tial. Because the authorities had locked justice is the point. Doesn’t their being on to me, is to remind everyone that Wall other’s names. They’re the most easygoing down the area in anticipation of the day’s Wall Street say that? There is plenty of Tax Street belongs to the City of New York, bunch I’ve seen at a protest, and the most events, demonstrators were dispersed the Rich and get corporate money out of the banks’ money belongs to the Ameri- calmly confident. Very gentle and not and outnumbered by police. But then I politics messaging going on. It’s annoying can citizens and people worldwide who rattled by disruptors. Presumably that’s the followed an impromptu procession into that one topless lady can distract so many have temporarily parked some of it with confidence of nine days. Also the multiple the park where they are now encamped. I reporters, and also that 400 other people them (hoping they’ll do some good with confrontations that they’ve won non- hooked up with a group of friends and we can’t or won’t just tell her to put a shirt on. it), and the rules they play by ultimately violently. The arrestees — including the had an “assembly” with a bunch of strang- come from us. I wish the NYPD didn’t feel man thrown to the ground and jailed for ers and talked economics for two or three Friday, September 23 obliged to pen the protesters in away from stopping to address a Chase Bank branch hours. It was kind of nice to be at a protest Wall Street, though, and I hope Burger about its foreclosure on his parents’ house and, instead of marching and shouting, to Astra: It’s a very youthful event, and King on the northwest corner continues to — came back and described the holding be talking about ideas. It felt like the script perhaps naive in a lot of ways, but I’m be generous with its bathroom. cells. had changed. As 7PM approached, my happy they’re doing it. That said, I’m friends and I left thinking the cops would always a bit irritated by the incessant clear everyone out in no time. When they emphasis on the youthfulness of the dem- made it through the night I began to give onstrators, which is a way of infantilizing them more credit. and dismissing them (silly kids, they’ll Mark: It was a nice day. I came to meet a grow up and get over this dumb protesting couple of friends, and we ran into people stuff!), and also lets older people off the we knew through n+1, met up with Astra hook. Shouldn’t we all be out there, rail- and her friends, and then ran into people ing against the vampire squid? The fact is from Dissent and from The New Inquiry. there are plenty of older people at “Liberty We joined up, sat down, and did what the Plaza,” a good number of retirees mingling organizers asked, which was to discuss with the recent graduates. Our society, which proposals or demands were most and the left especially, has this strange idea important to us, for this collective gather- that young people are the revolutionary ing. These would be put to the General vanguard (in his famous “Letter to the Assembly for public discussion, so this New Left” C. Wright Mills made the case large group of strangers could figure out that youth had replaced the working class what its purpose was. Our circle attracted as the “historic agency”; Theodore Roszak more visitors and strangers. After a series calls this shift the “adolescentization of of votes and debates, the desire that dissent”), but of course, being young, they brought most people in our group together don’t have all the answers (not that old was this: to restore government to citizen people do either, obviously). Related to control, regulate finance for the common this, I find the lack of historical knowl- good, and get banks out of the business edge (about past movements and effective of buying legislators or influencing law. strategies and tactics), and institutions We talked about debt and mortgage relief to pass such wisdom down so depressing and the destruction of Glass-Steagall and — each wave of kids reinvents the wheel, McCain-Feingold, and what it would take believes they’ve fashioned it for the first to save their purpose. We’d need the coun- time, and then there it goes, off the rails. try’s agreement that freedom of speech I hope a fraction of them go on to dig in belongs only to living citizens, not corpora- for the long haul and build some sort of tions — to overcome the Citizens United infrastructure so the next generation isn’t ruling — probably by a movement for a left repeating this pattern . constitutional amendment. That was our proposal! We shared email addresses and Saturday, September 24 resolved to learn how to start. It wasn’t till later that I realized it was Constitution Day, Astra: After dinner I meandered down the 224th anniversary of the signing, before to Wall Street. There were maybe 400 or it went to the States for ratification. 500 people occupying the park and tons of cops. Turns out that a good number of Sunday, September 18 demonstrators had been arrested ear- lier today when they marched to Union Astra: I had a Zipcar tonight and was Square. Even though they had lost eighty going into Manhattan, so I dropped off people to the arrests and the police were in full intimidation mode, the square felt 2 vital. They’ve managed to stay a week, MOLLY CRABAPPle. “FaceS OF OCCUPied Wall Street” spontaneous. Speakers took turns sharing their thoughts and sugges- tions: how we should be respectful to Eli Schmitt the police (“fuck the police, love the wanting police officer”), how croneyism was destroying our democracy. People something — some compelling, others less so — urged one another to storm Wall When I got off the train in the Finan- Street, shared information about cial District last Saturday, the first where to find food and blankets, and thing I did was accidentally walk into decried the Obama Administration.