Occupy Wall Street got off the ground 12 years ago today.

The initial idea was pretty silly—to occupy Zuccotti Park and reach consensus on a single demand, with the also naïve idea that President Barack Obama would somehow be forced to grant it.

Instead, owing to the financial crisis, as soon as a puncture opened in business as usual, tens of thousands of people poured into it, bringing a wide range of different concerns and tactics. The most combative Occupy encampments set the baseline for the protests against murderous police that broke out in 2014, setting precedents for the uprising of 2020.

You can read about some of the tensions that unfolded within the Occupy movement here:

https://crimethinc.com/2016/04/14/occupy-democracy-versus-autonomy

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