Forum

Just for old time's sake I sat in on a GA today, the 25th of May, after delivering to OB some cookies in solidarity with the fundraiser for the Occupy Four.

There was a lot of interesting discussion which I mostly just observed, but what I found surprising was a certain lack of historical awareness about the early trajectory of Occupy and why and how it took the shape it did. I found this interesting. As a historian one of my first questions about Occupy was: What is this? Where did it come from? Who is behind it? Historical/background research was one of the first things I did when I heard about it.

In the spirit of raising awareness I would like to direct your attention to the following essay by anarchist and anthroplogist David Graeber. David Graeber was a very early participant in Occupy Wall Street (he was one of the first respondents to Kalle Lasne's, of Adbusters, call for a meeting to plan an occupation of Wall Street) and played a significant role, along with other "horizontalist" anarchists, in shaping the institutions and early political culture of OWS. In this essay he cheerleads for anarchism, but I share it anyways because of the inside perspective he has on the very early development of OWS.

Occupy Wall Street's Anarchist Roots: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/11/2011112872835904508.html

Also, for some more historical background on Occupy in relation to some of the stuff that was said at this GA, see:

The original Adbusters call for an occupation of Wall Street, complete with a suggested demand: https://www.adbusters.org/blogs/adbusters-blog/occupywallstreet.html

Some early press coverage discussing the relationship of Adbusters to OWS: http://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/1951

Some context about the relationship of Adbusters to the Situationist International: http://www.bopsecrets.org/recent/situationists-occupations.htm