f{"id":50395,"date":"2026-09-17T13:55:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=50395"},"modified":"2026-09-17T13:58:01","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:58:01","slug":"opinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/17\/opinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: 15 Years After Occupy, We Must Remember the Power of Collective Action"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/author\/maria-luisa-tucker\/\">By <strong>Maria Luisa Tucker<\/strong><\/a> 5 hours ago (<a href=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/\">citylimits.org<\/a>)<a href=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/opinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action\/#\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=Opinion%3A+15+Years+After+Occupy%2C+We+Must+Remember+the+Power+of+Collective+Action&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcitylimits.org%2Fopinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action%2F\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fcitylimits.org%2Fopinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action%2F\"><\/a><a href=\"mailto:mailforawais@gmail.com?subject=Opinion:%2015%20Years%20After%20Occupy,%20We%20Must%20Remember%20the%20Power%20of%20Collective%20Action&amp;body=https%3A%2F%2Fcitylimits.org%2Fopinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action%2F\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/opinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cA group of radical activists took over a tiny park near Wall Street and did the seemingly impossible: They got thousands of disaffected, cynical, frustrated people\u2014including me\u2014to believe that a better world was possible.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/shutterstock_169661894-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Occupy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4997070884592854;width:2560px;height:auto\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>A drum circle performs as Occupy Wall Street activists camped at Zuccotti Park in the fall of 2011. (Photo: Shutterstock.com\/a katz)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve spent the last year reporting on a movement that most people, if they even remember it, consider a failure: Occupy Wall Street. It was, as many occupiers I spoke to agreed, a hot mess. But it was also the most inspirational event in many of our lives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To tell the story of the Occupy movement, which began 15 years ago Thursday, we have to go back a little further. In 2008, Wall Street\u2019s short-sighted bets on <a href=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/when-the-roof-caves-in-foreclosures-and-the-city\/\">subprime mortgages<\/a> caused a global financial meltdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Democratic president who had promised hope and change handed out a $700 billion bailout to the banks that caused the crash. Those same institutions paid their top&nbsp;earners enormous bonuses while millions of ordinary people lost their jobs, homes, and retirement savings.&nbsp;My partner and I were both laid off. We put ourselves on an austerity budget to make unemployment checks stretch and asked our landlord to reduce the rent. He declined.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stay informed with the City Limits Weekly newsletter.EmailSign up<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thankfully, I found a (lower-paying) job within a few months, and my partner\u2019s involuntary transition into the gig economy worked out. We recovered financially, but I was left deeply cynical about the Democratic establishment. Prominent Democrats gave endless speeches about punishing Wall Street greed and helping working families, but seemed unable or unwilling to make structural changes to an economic system clearly stacked against most of us.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Right had its Tea Party movement, shaking up the Republican Party. The Left remained mostly quietly angry. Complacent. Until Occupy Wall Street.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2011, three years after the crash, a group of radical activists took over a tiny park near Wall Street and did the seemingly impossible: They got thousands of disaffected, cynical, frustrated people\u2014including me\u2014to believe that a better world was possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The activists arrived at Zuccotti Park on September 17 with sleeping bags and an attitude that felt revelatory: Don\u2019t ask permission. Take up space. Don\u2019t wait for someone to save us. Imagine the world we want and start building it ourselves.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They also brought a different way of organizing. There was no charismatic leader, just facilitators running twice-daily general assemblies where anyone could speak. Without permits for amplified sound, speakers used the \u201cpeople\u2019s mic,\u201d with the crowd repeating each sentence so everyone could hear. Decisions were made by consensus, using hand signals to indicate agreement or disagreement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Protesters marched through Manhattan chanting, \u201cBanks got bailed out, we got sold out!\u201d But it was what happened inside the park that inspired people to leave the comfort of home and sleep on concrete for weeks. There were small group discussions where people from different backgrounds commiserated over their struggles, discussed ideas, and brainstormed solutions. They were learning about mutual aid and putting it in action. Creating community and learning how to organize themselves. And all of it was happening in a little anti-capitalist village that occupiers were building themselves.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was a kitchen serving free meals, a library that amassed 5,000 books, a <a href=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/occupy-wall-streets-medical-center-preps-for-cold-weather\/\">medical tent<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/citylimits.org\/occupy-wall-streets-sanitation-committee-saves-the-day\/\">sanitation and security crews<\/a>, and a free store where people could get sleeping bags or clothes. Volunteers ran everything, with supplies paid for by individual donations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For many of us who grew up with the bootstrap individualism of white America, this was the first time we had participated in a collective. And it was inspiring. I pedaled the stationary bike that powered their generator and brought food to the kitchen. The vibrant, sometimes goofy atmosphere in Zuccotti Park felt like a reprieve from the punitive world outside of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Quickly, Occupy Wall Street became a worldwide movement. Copycat occupations sprang up across the country and around the world. At first, many Democratic politicians seemed mystified. There were jokes about Occupy having no demands and no leaders. Hecklers yelled, \u201cGet a job!\u201d and pundits questioned what occupiers were hoping to accomplish by living in a park.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Occupy did accomplish something extraordinary: It changed how Americans talked about capitalism and class. \u201cThe 99 percent versus the 1 percent\u201d transformed the usual left-versus-right political frame into one focused on economic power. Occupy exposed structural inequality and punctured the myth that financial security is simply the result of individual choices\u2014that wealth is always the reward for hard work and poverty a personal failure.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There were, of course, problems. Radical inclusivity also meant infiltrators were welcomed in. Meetings could be unwieldy and endless. There was infighting over tactics. Things sometimes turned violent, mostly at the hands of police but also between occupiers.&nbsp;After 59 days, police forcefully cleared the park in the middle of the night, arresting 200 people in the process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The conventional wisdom is that Occupy failed. It did not dismantle capitalism or produce a lasting political organization. But it prompted a political shift that would have been difficult to imagine before the movement. Politicians who challenged corporate power, such as Bernie&nbsp;Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, moved into the mainstream. Ideas once considered marginal, including student debt relief, became national talking points. Support for unions started to grow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although it didn\u2019t change much structurally, Occupy made dissent more common and motivated thousands of people into action\u2014which is why I think it\u2019s important to remember Occupy on its 15th anniversary. We desperately need a reminder of what hope feels like\u2014and a reminder that we, as a collective, don\u2019t have to wait for our leaders to solve the nation\u2019s problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, economic inequality is even more pronounced. At the same time, President Donald Trump and his administration are attacking democratic institutions and making America feel unsafe for many people because of where they were born, the color of their skin, or their gender.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The response from many universities, media companies, and corporations has been acquiescence: Make deals, self-censor, quietly discontinue programs that might upset those in power. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party continues to stumble and get stuck in internal debates.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s unclear what, if anything, will stop the trajectory we\u2019re on. Maybe the Democrats, despite being disorganized and outspent, will sweep the midterms and finally have enough muscle to block some of Trump\u2019s most inhumane policies. Maybe the MAGA movement will collapse in on itself.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, I don\u2019t think we can count on the electoral process or traditional protest, like the No Kings marches, to turn the tide. We need something that, like Occupy, will awaken a cynical and disengaged populace, bring us together in a way that feels powerful, and force the world to pay attention. We\u2019ve seen that Occupy spirit in Minneapolis\u2019s response to ICE; we need to expand that level of fierce, creative, decentralized dissent into something national.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We need something that brings thousands of ordinary people together to imagine a different future. Something that moves people from helplessness to action, from isolation to community, from cynicism to hope.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Occupy proved that it can happen. And if it happened once, it can happen again.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Maria Luisa Tucker is an award-winning investigative journalist and producer of the podcast series<\/em> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.futurehindsight.com\/occupy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Occupy! An Unfinished Uprising<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Contributed by Greg Jan)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maria Luisa Tucker 5 hours ago (citylimits.org) \u201cA group of radical activists took over a tiny park near Wall Street and did the seemingly impossible: They got thousands of disaffected, cynical, frustrated people\u2014including me\u2014to believe that a better world was possible.\u201d I\u2019ve spent the last year reporting on a&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/09\/17\/opinion-15-years-after-occupy-we-must-remember-the-power-of-collective-action\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2401],"tags":[2514],"class_list":["post-50395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-occupy","tag-occupy-15th-annivesary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}