Last September 17, as part of a global wave of protest, people from across the country came together in the heart of New York City’s financial district to occupy Wall Street. With the backdrop of big bank foreclosures, rampant joblessness, massive cuts in social services and the spiraling gap between rich and poor, the 99 percent was born and the movement forced a shift in the national conversation to include discussions of class that had previously been consigned to the precincts of the left-wing media.
On September 15, the movement will reassemble where it was born—in NYC’s financial district—for three days of education, celebration and renewed resistance to economic injustice with permitted convergences and assemblies, concerts and civil disobedience.
Here is what’s planned so far. Check it out and then get creative and help organize the proceedings yourself.
Other OWS anniversary events worth adding to your calendar include the Occupy the Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives, which is aiming to bring together the most compelling and innovative films of the movement, from its roots in the Spanish Indignados, the Arab Spring and American factory floor occupations to the mini-societies that blossomed in public squares, to the post-encampment community organizing around home foreclosures, corporate regulation, immigrant struggles and student debt, and The Civilians’ “Occupy #S17: One Year Later,” a show focusing on how the ideas of OWS have evolved, taking place on September 17 at Joe’s Pub.
The weekend’s activities will take place far beyond NYC as well. If you can’t make it to NYC, OWS suggests picking viable local targets that embody corporate greed—occupy your state Capitol building like the people of Wisconsin, or a chamber of commerce conference as they did in DC. Take inspiration from revolutionary occupations worldwide, from the railroads of India to the rivers of the Amazon to the streets of Spain. Wall Street has, essentially, occupied our entire planet. It’s time for some reciprocity.
