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 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

Coming out of the Occupy movement, we initiated a dialogue with anarchists who had participated in similar assembly-based movements in Spain, Greece, Bosnia, Slovenia, Brazil, and elsewhere.

Our goal was to identify the ways that the decision-making processes we employed had facilitated or impeded social change, and to formulate an anarchist analysis of democratic discourse and models.

The result was our book, From Democracy to Freedom.

You can download the book here for free, or order a print copy:

https://crimethinc.com/democracy

Solidarity among the Displaced: How Russian anarchists in exile supported Armenian refugee squatters

https://crimethinc.com/Armenia2023

Throughout the world, mass displacement is accelerating as climate catastrophe, economic crisis, and war drive millions into exile, both within their own countries and across borders. These mass migrations are exacerbating gentrification, driving up housing costs just as real estate speculation is rendering more and more people homeless. How can displaced people continue to take political action in their new homes, establishing solidarity across ethnic lines in unfamiliar settings?

In Armenia, Russian anarchists living in exile set one example, supporting Armenian refugees who had squatted the abandoned Ministry of Defense.

For background on anarchist activity in Armenia over the past decade, you could start with this text.

https://crimethinc.com/2017/02/12/high-voltage-lessons-from-four-summers-of-protests-in-armenia

Here's a selection of CrimethInc. posters in Armenian.

This week, a new round of violence broke out over the contested zone of Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan.

As economic and ecological crises intensify, governments are seeking to distract attention from their domestic problems by escalating ethnic strife and military conflict.

To illuminate the situation, we present an excerpt from an anti-war statement from Azerbaijan and two texts from anarchists in Armenia.

https://crimethinc.com/Artsakh

Wspomnienia z Saint-Imier, od 1872 po 2023

Relacja z ogólnoświatowego anarchistycznego zjazdu

https://crimethinc.com/2023/08/22/wspomnienia-z-saint-imier-od-1872-po-2023-relacja-z-ogolnoswiatowego-anarchistycznego-zjazdu

Pełnoprawna relacja z międzynarodowego anarchistycznego zjazdu w Saint-Imier spisana dzięki uczestnikom z całego świata.

#Polski