The Occupiers: The Making of the 99 Percent Movement
Michael A. Gould-Wartofsky
McKenzie Hall 221
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
6:00 p.m.
Event is free and open to the public
Occupy Wall Street burst onto the stage of history in the fall of 2011. First by the tens, and then by the tens of thousands, protestors filled the streets and laid claim to the squares of nearly 1,500 towns and cities, until, one by one, the occupations were forcibly evicted. In The Occupiers, Michael Gould-Wartofsky examines the challenges the occupiers faced, the paradoxes of direct democracy, the dynamics of police action, and the ways in which occupied squares became focal points for an emerging opposition to the politics of austerity, restricted democracy, and the power of corporate America. This panel, focused on both the national and local levels, explores the movement, its aftermath, and its possible futures.
Event Panelists:
- Michael Gould-Wartofsky (New York University) was one of the first social scientists on the ground at Occupy Wall Street on Sept 17, 2011, beginning his inquiry then and continuing uninterrupted ever since. He has written for The Nation, Monthly Review, Salon, and Mother Jones.
- Arun Gupta, founder of The Occupied Wall Street Journal, was the only reporter to cover the Occupy Wall Street Movement across the United States. Gupta visited 41 Occupations in 27 states, contributing to Salon, The Guardian, The Nation, In These Times, and The Progressive.
- Jennefer Harper M.Ed. is a social justice educator, human rights activist, writer, parent, existentialist, and all around anarcho-dissident based in Eugene, Oregon.
- Jana Thrift is co-founder of the Occupy Eugene Media Group. She has worked for the last four years coordinating videographers to document important activist efforts in Eugene. She has produced over 200 videos related to social justice since the fall of 2011
- Karl Eysenbach is longtime political activist based in Eugene. With Occupy he has concentrated on coalition-building for a variety of issues, including decriminalization of homelessness.
