Top 5 Occupy Writings of the Year

On this, the first anniversary of the Occupy Movement, we thought we'd share five writings published over the course of the year that deftly tackle five of the most thorny theoretical and/or tactical sticking points facing the movement.

5. Should Occupy make demands? 

Samuel Farber examined the pros, the cons, and the possibilities in his piece for Jacobin entitled "The Art of Demanding." 

4. What role should traditional unions play in the Occupy Movement?

The IWW, what might be considered both a traditional and non-traditional union, explored the issue in "Solidarity Unionism, Occupy, and the moral right of the working class to control the workplace."


3. What can workers do to exert their power at "the point of wealth creation?"

If workers do indeed have "the moral right to control the workplace," Gregg Shotwell has an action plan for how that control might be seized and leveraged called "Occupy Your Workplaces."

2. If Occupy is fundamentally a mainstream movement, what's with all the fringe-ness?

Why should the 99% have to wear masks? What do Black Bloc tactics say about the legitimacy of our grievances? Doesn't establishing ourselves as a Pirate Party communicate that what we want—what we deserve—is not rightly ours to have? Chris Hedges discussed these conflicted, self-aware conceptualizations in his essay "The Cancer of Occupy."

1. Could Occupy's greatest accomplishment be fighting an abstract as an abstract?

Esteemed Marxist scholar Andy Merrifield provided the best analysis of Occupy's successes thus far and a framework for thinking about what future actions might look like in his "Enigma of Revolt."