Generation Occupy
Reawakening American Democracy
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The fight for a $15 minimum wage. Nationwide teacher strikes. Bernie Sanders’s political revolution and the rise of AOC. Black Lives Matter. #MeToo. Read how the Occupy movement helped reshape American politics, culture and the groundbreaking movements to follow.
On the ten-year anniversary of the Occupy movement, Generation Occupy sets the historical record straight about the movement’s lasting impacts. Far from a passing phenomenon, Occupy Wall Street marked a new era of social and political transformation, reigniting the labor movement, remaking the Democratic Party and reviving a culture of protest that has put the fight for social, economic, environmental and racial justice at the forefront of a generation.
The movement changed the way Americans see themselves and their role in the economy through the language of the 99 versus the 1 percent. But beyond that, in its demands for fairness and equality, Occupy reinvigorated grassroots activism, inaugurating a decade of youth-led resistance movements that have altered the social fabric, from Black Lives Matter and Standing Rock to March for Our Lives, the Global Climate Strikes and #MeToo. Bookended by the 2008 financial crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, Generation Occupy attempts to help us understand how we got to where we are today and how to draw on lessons from Occupy in the future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist and novelist Levitin (Disposable Man) examines in this abundant yet inconclusive study the influence of the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests on subsequent social uprisings and progressive causes. A cofounding editor of the Occupied Wall Street Journal, Levitin contends that the movement galvanized a generation of activists and upended top-down models of civil disobedience. He situates the occupation of Manhattan's Zuccotti Park within the context of the contemporaneous Arab Spring uprisings, documents Occupiers' harnessing of social media to spread their message through "meme-ready slogans and sound bites," and talks with participants about their reasons for joining the protests. Some of the activists and journalists Levitin interviews suggest that Occupy's "polarizing tone" and leaderless structure contributed to its collapse, while others see the movement as a successful precursor to Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and the rise of Bernie Sanders. Levitin includes colorful vignettes of his time at the protests, and offers fresh insights on union workers' participation and the Rolling Jubilee campaign to abolish student debt. But many of Occupy's biggest contradictions, including the question of whether its lack of organization was an essential ingredient or a handicap, are left unresolved. Still, this is a noteworthy contribution to the discussion over why Occupy Wall Street happened, and what it meant.
