No One Famous Ever Came From Here: Joe Paterno in State College

November 8, 2011. I was shooting pool at State College’s best dive bar when the bouncer came running in, his face flushed with excitement. According to TV news, he told us, the Penn State Board of Trustees had just fired…

The Night in Which All Cows Are White

Philadelphia has a large population of black, disaffected youth. It also has a black mayor. But when some of these young people began to spontaneously protest the obscene level of urban segregation and systematic poverty of the city with “flash mobs,” it was Mayor…

Is the Party Over?

Petrograd soviet, 1917

The occupations movement is highly structured, and this structure is a focal point for political debates. Decisions are made by the general assembly (GA) through a process of democratic deliberation; it also serves as the basis for the delegation…

Occupy Philly is Dead! Long Live Occupy Philly!

The emergency session of the Occupy Philly General Assembly this past Thursday decided, at around 10PM, to immediately move from Dilworth Plaza, where Occupy Philly is currently grounded, to Thomas Paine Plaza. When the proposal passed, everyone…

Notes on Oakland 2011

We expect history to provide us with explanations — to place the immediacy of experience within a wider story whose terms will be progressively elaborated and illuminated. Political action, which aims at intervening into history and altering its movement, has an entirely different kind of…

Two, Three, Many Oaklands?

All eyes are on Oakland. And rightfully so. Oakland has shown the other occupations how the movement can be successfully escalated. By transforming the occupation of a park into a general strike, Oakland has indisputably emerged as the most militant section of the national…

All Power to the General Assemblies? Or, the Strange Case of Take Artists Space

After the raid on Zuccotti Park early this morning, what remains of Occupy Wall Street? The library was destroyed and thrown in the garbage; the kitchen and commune that fed and housed hundreds…

Phase Two: Occupy Wall Street on November 17

[caption id=”attachment_561" align=”alignleft” width=”470" caption=”(Reuters / Eduardo Munoz)”]

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Even if it were to disappear tomorrow, Occupy Wall Street would have already scored a massive…

Occupy Franklin and Never Give it Back

A week ago, mayors across the country, working with shadowy law enforcement organizations, coordinated a crackdown on the occupations in their respective cities. Washington DC’s own occupation was untouched. As cops cleared parks and trashed tents and familiar…