AboutOccupy Wall Street is a people-powered movement that began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. #ows is fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations. The movement is inspired by popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, and aims to fight back against the richest 1% of people that are writing the rules of an unfair global economy that is foreclosing on our future. OccupyWallSt.org is the oldest and most trusted online resource for the Occupy Movement. We were founded on July 14th, 2011 when Justine Tunney organized a scrappy group of anarchists to take the initiative in organizing a call to action published by Micah White in Adbusters magazine. 1. Who created Occupy Wall Street?The original idea for Occupy Wall Street was created during a phone call between Kalle Lasn, the founder of Adbusters, and Micah White, an editor at the magazine. Kalle, Micah and the rest of the Adbusters team then designed a poster and wrote a tactical briefing that called for the protest, named the protest, picked the first day of the protest and identified the key tactic of the protest. Micah sent the first #OCCUPYWALLSTREET tweet and created the first Occupy Twitter account: @OccupyWallStNYC The idea for Occupy Wall Street was taken up by roughly 200 activists in New York City who then organized for the first day of the protest. 2. Who are the founders of Occupy Wall Street?There are roughly 200 people who responded to the call for Occupy Wall Street by holding organizing meetings at Tompkins Square Park in NYC prior to the launch date of September 17, 2011. These activists used the email list september17 on Google Groups to organize and this website (OccupyWallSt.org) which was created by Justine Tunney. It is possible to validate whether or not a individual was a founder of Occupy Wall Street by checking when they joined the september17 list. The founders of Occupy Wall Street transformed the concept put forward by Kalle Lasn and Micah White into the on-the-ground protest in New York City. 3. Histories of Occupy Wall Street• Pre-Occupied The origins and future of Occupy Wall Street • The End of Protest: A New Playbook for Revolution • Some assembly required Witnessing the birth of Occupy Wall Street • We Are Many: Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation 4. A word of caution about Occupy's social media accountsThe Occupy movement was crushed in 2012. After the collapse of the protest, various individuals continue to use the social media accounts. Not all of these social media accounts are being run by creators, or founders, of Occupy Wall Street. Furthermore, they are often pushing an agenda that is at odds with the spirit of Occupy. See, for example, the case of @OccupyWallStNYC, the account originally created by Micah White, that was the subject of a lawsuit. Here is a New York Times article about the situation. We do not recommend trusting social media accounts that continue to post as Occupy Wall Street. What does Occupy stand for?Here are some documents published in New York that have been well received by the movement:
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